Donald Glover says he cried over backlash to “Atlanta” season 3

Donald Glover says he cried over backlash to “Atlanta” season 3.

He continued: “I knew season three wasn’t easy. We all knew it wasn’t easy. We knew opening the season without [any of the cast] was going to make people fucking mad and be like, ‘What the fuck?’ It felt like…you’re climbing and you’re climbing to get to the top where the light is. And when you get there, you can do whatever dance you want. And that’s what everybody’s fighting for.”

From there, Glover compared himself to Wes Anderson, who he says “never makes money,” but still receives funding for unusual projects. “Like with Wes Anderson, there’s different rules. This n***a never makes money. It’s not about the money. It’s because a certain group of people are like, ‘This is important.’ And I was like, ‘Are Black people at a point now where they can do that on their own?’”

He elaborated by referencing Prince’s Sign o’ the Times: “It made me very sad. I cried. I did. Not like, ‘You guys, this is really good.’ [Laughs.] It’s like what Prince said when U2 won best album. He was like, If y’all wanted me to make that album, I could have. U2 couldn’t make Sign o’ the Times. But I know the character I am in culture and in Black culture—and that it doesn’t feel good coming from me. And also like, I don’t feel good saying shit like that. I’d much rather lay on the empathy.”

“Like with Wes Anderson, there’s different rules. This ni**a never makes money. It’s not about the money. It’s because a certain group of people are like, ‘This is important.’ And I was like, ‘Are Black people at a point now where they can do that on their own?’ It made me very sad, I cried. I did. Not like, ‘You guys, this is really good.’ [Laughs.] It’s like what Prince said when U2 won best album. He was like, ‘If y’all wanted me to make that album, I could have.’ U2 couldn’t make Sign o’ the Times. But I know the character I am in culture and in Black culture—and that it doesn’t feel good coming from me. And also like, I don’t feel good saying sh*t like that. I’d much rather lay on the empathy.”

Fam Udeorji, Glover’s longtime collaborator and Gilga creative partner, added that the team wants to support Malia in whatever she wants to do for a career. “Understanding somebody like Malia’s cachet means something,” he said. “But we really wanted to make sure she could make what she wanted — even if it was a slow process.”

Also during the interview, Glover revealed that he was upset over the backlash he received for his hit TV series Atlanta’s third season. He notes that if he gave fans Season 4 of the program instead of Season 3 then he would’ve been “letting them down.”