As Atlanta's third season debuts with two Hiro Murai-directed premiere episodes, star and creator Donald Glover stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! To give fans a glimpse into how his creative process has evolved. Glover was also asked about Will Smith's Oscars slap as well as a possible new album from Childish Gambino.
Around the 1:49 mark, Glover explained that he was at the Vanity Fair party to watch this year's Oscars ceremony.
“Everybody was kinda just, kinda chatting,” Glover said. “I think it felt like you were in someone’s living room. And it just kinda happened. To me, I don’t even really wanna get into it. It’s like, whatever. People are already tired of it. People are like, ‘Dang, I gotta read another article. It’s been eight articles already.’ And also, like, I’ve had a lot of stuff happen to me while I was telling jokes on stage, that kind of thing.”
When Glover was asked to elaborate, he recalled what he joked was an "emotional attack" that occurred when he took a date to an improv show years ago.
“I was dating someone and I had brought them to an improv show. … We didn’t know each other that well,” Glover told Kimmel. “Maybe I had dated her for, like, two weeks at most. This was maybe a third date or whatever, maybe second. And we’re [performing improv] and she’s drunk and she’s like, ‘What’s going on? Who are those people?’ She’s super loud and people are like, ‘Who is she?’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’”
Glover's fellow performers eventually told the woman to leave the performance, and at that point, he continued to act as though he didn't know who she was. Later, Kimmel told Glover he was “like Will Smith and Chris Rock combined” due to his status as a preeminent multihyphenate.
“Yeah, I can’t choose sides,” Glover said. “I love ‘em both. I love both of those guys.”
The host also praised Glover for the first episode of Atlanta's new season, which-as fans are already aware-doesn't feature any familiar characters until the episode's final minutes. Glover explained how the anticipation of people waiting for the show's return had an impact on the first episodes of the show's return.
Per Glover, such a return “should be something harrowing and cinematic,” with Kimmel noting that this approach extends to the actors' delivery of lines as well. “I feel like if you keep everything at a 2, when you do a 10 it feels like a 100,” Glover responded.
On the music front, Kimmel asked Glover around the 9:27 mark if another Gambino album was in the works. Glover stressed the sheer volume of music he has made rather than getting too specific, which provided some insight into how he has been working lately. “It used to just flow but now I have kids so nothing flows anymore. … Nothing’s as easy as it used to be so I do block off time now,” Glover said.
See more from Donald Glover and Jimmy Kimmel up top.