Donald Glover and Atlanta writers say they were racially harassed in London while filming season three
A group of writers for the FX series were confronted by a drunk group outside a bar
While filming the third season of the Emmy-winning FX series Atlanta, Donald Glover and other writers for the series revealed they were racially harassed in London on their first night in the city.
Filming for Atlanta went abroad for the third season as it follows the cast of characters played by Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz as they embark on a music tour through Europe. At the series’ TCA press conference, writer and executive producer Stephen Glover (and brother of Donald Glover), explains they were confronted by a group of three people outside a bar one night after shooting.
“This group of people walks up. And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognizes him,” Stephen said at the press conference. “And she stops, and they start asking if they know anywhere around here to get something to drink. I think we were talking to them for a second. It’s this girl and two or three guys.”
As the conversation continued, one of the men then told the group they could most likely break into the bar because “you all carry hammers”—the slang word for a gun.
“Mind you, all of the writers on Atlanta are Black. So, he’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored,” Stephen continues. “It was so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand. He got to a point of like if the insinuation was lost on us, he got specific and he was like, ‘You guys are Black, you’ve gone to jail and you do things like that.’ Like he kept doubling down on it.”
The situation reached its disgusting peak when one of the men picked up the woman while yelling, “Run. They are going to rape you, like, rape you.”
“The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away,” Stephen says. “So, it was pretty bad.”
Donald Glover adds, “We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’”
The third season of Atlanta premieres on FX on March 24. The fourth and final season of the series is set to air later this year.