Many people are wondering what made television icons Donald Glover (Atlanta, Community) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) split up while creating the latest TV series adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Waller-Bridge was originally supposed to co-star in the show alongside Glover, but it didn’t come to fruition due to alleged creative differences. But now, according to TVLine, Glover is starting to break his silence on his creative “divorce” with the Fleabag star.
The split between the two actors happened in 2021 while the project was still in development. It was reported that Waller-Bridged dropped out of it due to a “different creative vision for the series” incompatible with Glover’s. Waller-Bridge was set to co-star as Mrs. Smith alongside Glover as Mr. Smith. After her departure, the role was filled by Maya Erskine (PEN15).
Recently, Glover spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the split between the two creatives. He compares the situation to “a divorce”. He then goes on to explain “You’re like, ‘Oh s–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 then noted that the split might have been due to differences in how writing for television operates differently between the UK and the US. He explained, “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 [me and the fellow writers] 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.”
Glover then explains that he believes that the two just simply did not mesh together the way they expected to. “I don’t think we ever felt comfortable enough with each other,” Glover said to THR. “And that’s OK. That’s what happens when you’re two captains. It’s like, ‘This is how I run my ship.’ ‘Well, this is how I run my ship.’ And it’s such a big idea, this show, I don’t think it can have two captains. 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—ing show.’”
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is now streaming on Prime Video.