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Donald Glover Reveals Why Phoebe Waller-Bridge Dropped Out Of The 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' TV Series
Donald Glover is speaking out about Phoebe Waller-Bridge's early exit from the Mr. & Mrs. Smith TV series.
In a Hollywood Reporter interview published on Wednesday, Glover revealed her departure felt like a "divorce."
The Amazon Prime series based on the 2005 movie starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt was set to feature Waller-Bridge as Jolie's character, Mrs. Smith. After working alongside the Fleabag creator in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Glover approached her about starring in and writing on the series.
And she agreed.
But after roughly half a year writing for the show, Waller-Bridge split due to creative differences.
When asked by THR why things didn't work out, Glover shared:
"It’s a divorce in a weird way."
"You’re like, 'Oh sh*t, 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."
He continued:
"It might’ve just been cultural. You’ve got to think, 'Fleabag' was written entirely by her, they don’t really do writers rooms in the U.K."
"And I look back at 'Atlanta,' and we built a culture where we could say mean things to each other or be like, 'That idea is kind of [crap],' and then we’d laugh."
"You weren’t afraid to say something — but we also had the right to roast you. It’s just how we got the laughs. "
"I don’t think we ever felt comfortable enough with each other. And that’s OK. That’s what happens when you’re two captains."
Glover finished by saying the two just had different "styles," but had Waller-Bridge really loved the project, he would have given it to her instead.
"I mean, she rewrote the pilot, and I saw her script and I was like, 'It’s definitely not my style,' but if she’d done it with her in it, we’d all be like, 'This is a great f**king show.'"
"It’s like a real divorce where the hardest part is knowing when to say it’s over. Like, when do you quit?"
"Because you want to be cool, like, 'Oh it’s over, that’s fine.' But we both put a lot of work into it. We both were working really hard. So, who gets to keep the cat?"
“But I’d brought Fran [Sloane] in, and also, I feel like Phoebe wasn’t fully in love with the thing."
“But I feel really good about the fact that if the thing was feeling more like hers and she was like, ‘I just love this,’ I would have been like, ‘You should have it.'"
Waller-Bridge was later replaced with Maya Erskine as Glover's costar.
Given Glover's explanation, people on social media could understand why the two would part ways on the project.
Many also expressed their love of Erskine as Glover's counterpart and think the switch worked out.
Others, however, do wonder what the show would have been like had Waller-Bridge with her insane talent seen the show through.
Last year, Waller-Bridge opened up about her exit from the show, also comparing it to a marriage, but, as she noted, "Sometimes marriages don’t work out."
She told Vanity Fair:
"I worked on that show for six months fully in heart and mind and really cared about it—still care about it."
"And I know it’s gonna be brilliant."
"But sometimes it’s about knowing when to leave the party. You don’t want to get in the way of a vision."