Donald Glover and several of the FX series Atlanta writers experienced race-based harassment while shooting season three of the show in London. During a TCA press conference, Stefani Robinson and Stephen Glover (Donald’s brother), spoke about the incident and how they began to process what happened.
“It was the first night there,” Stephen said via Insider. “This group of people walks up. And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognizes him. 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 other guys.”
Stephen continued, “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 said.
The writer also mentioned that the man who initially harassed them and stated they could all break into the bar they were shooting in front of because “You guys all carry hammers,” as in guns.
Robinson added how he felt about the situation by saying the situation was “so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand.” Unfortunately, things didn’t stop there.
Once that situation was resolved, the Atlanta set experienced another incident of harassment as another man made a racially-charged comment as the group conversed with a woman.
“She’s talking to us. And then, after a minute, the guy just runs back down the street and grabs her and throws her over his shoulder, and he’s like, ‘Run. They are going to rape you, like, rape you,’” Stephen said. “The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away. So, it was pretty bad.”
The group was shocked. “We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’” Donald said.
Season 3 of FX’s Atlanta premieres with a two-parter on March 24. The new episodes come four years after season 2 aired in 2018.