Following the streaming success of Donald Glover’s incendiary Swarm series on Amazon, the Atlanta creator sat down for a GQ profile that won’t stop. Within the piece, he reflected upon how being rejected by both SNL and Parks and Rec may have actually been the best thing to happen to his career.
Glover also looked back on how getting booed during early Childish Gambino days didn’t hurt his performance, and now, he’s shining light on how his 30 Rock stint involved him being a “diversity” hire, something that Tina Fey freely admitted to him. This involved an actual “diversity incentive” from NBC, which was very budget friendly to those shows that hired a Black writer. As Glover put it, this also (unbeknownst to him at the time) led to friction between him and Black-ish creator Kenya Barris:
“There is no animosity between us or anything like that, but [Tina Fey] said it herself…. It was a diversity thing,” says Glover. “The last two people who were fighting for the job were me and Kenya Barris.” He laughs. “I didn’t know it was between me and him until later. He hit me one day and he was like, ‘I hated you for years!’”
Well, it sure sounds like misses on both Glover and Barris’ parts turned out for the best. Both of them can essentially get projects greenlit by their mere attachment to a project, and now, Glover can also air all of this backstory.
(Via GQ)