Donald Glover; Phoebe Waller-Bridge.Photo:Karwai Tang/WireImage; Mike Marsland/WireImage
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Mike Marsland/WireImage
Donald Gloverand Maya Erskine portray a married couple in the new Amazon Prime espionage television thrillerMr. & Mrs. Smith— but that wasn’t always the case!
Before thePEN15creator, 36, was cast as Glover’s leading lady,Phoebe Waller-Bridgewas cast in the part.
Maya Erskine and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.Karwai Tang/WireImage; Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/WireImage
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/WireImage
In an interview withThe Hollywood Reporterpublished Wednesday, Glover, 40, explained why theFleabagstar was replaced.
When asked why he felt that he and Waller-Bridge, 38, wouldn’t seamlessly fit together as co-creators and co-stars of the show, he cited their very good friendship.
“I think because we were friends and I really liked Phoebe,” Glover said.
“It’s a divorce in a weird way," he continued. “You’re like, ‘Oh s—, this should have worked.’ And this is just me, being honest, but I think a good relationship is one where you don’t waver from the extremely uncomfortable. And I don’t know if we were ever going to get to a place where we could be completely brutal to each other.”
Donald Glover.ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty
The formerCommunitystar compared working onMr. & Mrs. Smithwith Waller-Bridge to working with other creators on his FX comedy-drama seriesAtlanta.
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Glover felt he could never see himself being brutally honest with Waller-Bridge in a way that he had been with others.
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine — ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’.David Lee/Prime Video
David Lee/Prime Video
Earlier in the interview, he and Erskine agreed that she was never asked to write for the series when she signed on for the project, only act.
For her, the lesser load was fine because “I had just gotten off years of that [withPEN15].”
Glover did note that his split with Waller-Bridge was tough because “we both put a lot of work into it.”
“We both were working really hard. So, who gets to keep the cat?” he quipped, before saying he would have let her have the project if she genuinely loved it more than he did.
Amazon Prime Video’sMr. & Mrs. Smithis based on the 2005 film of the same name, which starredBrad PittandAngelina Jolieas the leads. In the new series, Glover and Erskine play married assassins working for a mysterious spy agency.
source: people.com
