On The Scene: FX Hosts ‘Atlanta’ Cast Panel at The Paley Center

 

I just knew it already and it just felt like a good place to examine America. There are a lot of specific things that are interesting. It’s 60% black, one man for every four women, second largest gay population. here’s so many things that I was like oh this is actually a fertile place to talk about America.

 

 

I feel like people say that a lot. I never tried really to make it like my life and Earn is not quite like me. It has to do with music so people feel like that, but I wouldn’t say it’s autobiographical. 

 

Zazie: Yes, what we talked about a lot is that they just really like each other and that in a way –I’m one of the very few people that actually understands Earn and he actually understands me. Even though what he feels is an interest or priority doesn’t line up necessarily with what I think, we keep finding each other and grounding each other again.   

 

Donald: As the season goes on, you start to realize why we like each other a lot more. I think in the first few episodes it’s kind of hard, you don’t understand, but yeah they’re connected. We start to see oh they like each other and they can’t find a lot of people like each other, at least they feel that way. It’s a complicated relationship, but I think in episode 6 & 8

 

Zazie: 8 definitely, which was a big change because it was added

 

Donald: Yeah we changed the end and kept rewriting it, and kept going over it and Stephanie had written the first half and we were tryna figure out – the ending of it just needed something and I was like, and I think you (Zazie) brought it up, oh she chooses love over that and I was like that’s perfect.

 

Zazie: Oh yeah. Earn is a bad person, but he’s a good person. There’s a reason we ended up together. Maybe that got a little bit lost

 

Donald: We never really got a chance to date, because of the baby.

Zazie:We talked about that, we had like met sort of quickly and then life just sort of happened and we weren’t able to actually figure out what our kinks and personalities were.

 

Donald: In the third episode you kind of see, they talk about just happiness and I think that’s a dynamic we see a lot, with men and women where it’s like this is my process for happiness and well this is my process for happiness and I want to this until I feel comfortable with this and I think that causes a lot of, especially for us, a lot of problems. Like processing how a person finds their own happiness, you sometimes go different ways, but when you have a child involved it becomes a little more complicated.

 

Zazie: And then also within our relationship like, in episode 6 I talk about my value and that sort of becomes a theme and for some women what that means and for others what that means.

 

Brian:Well I’m gonna start with the last one first, never work with your family. I guess with finding managers- don’t managers kind of find you? You gotta try and find that fit of someone who knows what you like, who you are, and see the potential in you and that’s the thing that I find great about Earn and Alfred, is that we grew up together. We’re cousins, who knows me better than he does?

 

Brian:He did not and isn’t that what family does? And it’s like you want to be there to lift them up and there’a something great when someone sees potential in you that you didn’t see in yourself. When they really go that mile to be like you should have this, but I think that that is kind of a dynamic that Earn and Alfred have. It’s just that he sees something in me that I didn’t really see in myself, but at the same time I’m gonna keep his ass in check. I think that’s a good dichotomy.

 

Brian: But let’s think about hip hop thought, how often do they change what they’re doin? I think hip hop is one of the greatest art forms because they never have to change the way they are. You can be from anywhere and look how you want to and it’s like do you have, a story that you’re telling, something that’s going to speak to the people. I love that he doesn’t want to change that. I’m sure as the season progresses you start to see how starts to feel himself a little bit. I think it’s good to have Earn around because he’s constantly reminding me, ay don’t forget to pay for, ay don’t forget what we’re doing and what’s important and I think that’s why it’s good that he’s family as well.

 

Donald: Not anymore, I feel like yeah in 1998 or 2000 they’d be like yeah I’ll pay for Bobby Shmurda to be out, but now that’s too expensive. Rap isn’t making enough money for us to bail all of you out. Like that’s really how it is.

Brian: It’s what social media does for them. Like if you didn’t know, social media makes it so accessible to know every moment and every minute of people’s lives. I was like there’s so many beefs in one month that I can’t- who’s Drake beefin with now. It’s amazing how accessible it is to see someone’s life 

 

Donald: Yeah I think people live like that- it feels like it happens in real time. We’re finding out about Kodak Black in real time which is very strange to be like Oh he’s getting out, oh wait he’s not, but that’s the state of hip hop.

Donald: Me and Steven wanted to base him off of what Atlanta “hood like” icons were to us when we were growing up. People who were cool, but also looked like Gucci when he first came out. I just liked that polo fresh look, where he feels like he’s the freshest n*gga in the country. I felt like I wanted him to be a dude with a dope polo and hopefully as the season goes on his fashion taste changes the more he gets around. Yeah, I wanted it to be like Young Jeezy in the early days.

So any special guest appearances being that it’s Atlanta?

Donald: Yeah, you get some. But, I didn’t want to bring in a bunch of people we know because I feel like it would be entourage in a bad way. I didn’t want it to feel like too much. But we definitely have some people there. Migos are in like the third episode.

Now would you bring Van around Paperboy and to the concerts? Is that something that she needs to be around and see?

Brian: Nah they don’t fuck with each other.

Zazie: We don’t have one single shot.

Brian: Yeah the one time we’re together we’re on the phone which is crazy because the first time we met each other we fell in love. Then they told us we don’t fuck with each other and I was like, “Ah damn!”

Zazie: I feel like they’re also Earn’s two worlds and they would collide if they were together.

Donald: They both feel like the other one ruined Earn’s life. Both of them see each other as, “you could just grow up if it weren’t for the other person”

Let’s talk about the use of the n-word by white people because that’s definitely an issue in the show

Donald: The funny thing is the first time we shot that pilot, Standards and Practices were like, “you gotta bleep all the n-words except for the one the white guy says because it’s part of the story”. That’s so hilarious that we have to do it. We’ve always talked about wanting to make a show that was “punk”. I didn’t want to make something that felt like okay to see. I wanted something where it almost felt like you weren’t allowed to see it. When I was a kid and was watching the Chapelle show I felt like, “oh I’m not supposed to be watching this”. So if we’re really going to do that and tell real stories it’s got to feel real. They tell me they don’t like to blur things but I’m like, “no the blurs are what make it feel real and that I’m not supposed to see this.” We’re just competing with the internet because you can see f*cked up stuff so easily. You can see 30 second fights, I watch that all the time, you can see people get shot five times a day everyday. So if you’re on TV being like “no n-words” I’m like where is this place? What universe is that? It feels fake to me. I never felt like I had to defend it.

Has a white person ever used the n-word in front of any of you? 

All Three: Uh, Yeah!

Do you check them?

Donald: Well that’s the interesting thing about the show, depending on where you are and who they are…

Brian: I’m more insulted when you fist bump me without asking, like why is that the first thing?

Donald: I think in that first episode, we always joked who is going to like the show or watch it in general. So I was like, well lets read what people are saying about me. I remember reading “Donald Glover seems like the type of black dude that lets white dudes say n*gga in front of him” I was like, let’s do that shit. Because there are black people like that. Let’s not pretend there are a million types of black people out there. I know there are black people in here that have had to swallow it at a certain point like “uhh this is bad for my career.” Other people, like Alfred, I don’t think are too worried about their career if they knock me out. So as much as we’ve come along, white people have come along, and they’re like oh I can say this comfortably around these people. What’s happening is that everything is changing and I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I don’t think there’s a straight line of these people can say it and these people can’t. I think it’s just an interesting thing thats happening, and there’s no n-word police that are keeping the peace unfortunately. But I’m sure people who’ve said it around me don’t say it around gucci mane, and I think they know why, so I wanted to explore that

---

Arthur Banach:

When I think of Atlanta, and how it’s represented by the media, I can’t help but focus on what Brig Krit often talks about, where we see people only wanting to pick up on the stereotypes you see in Atlanta and Earn really plays the antithesis to those stereotypes, so I’m wondering if any of that was in your mind while writing these characters?

Donald: Well I want to hear Zazie answer that, because she’s not from Atlanta and that was one of her first times coming down there. So what types of people did you see?