Donald Glover Chalks Up Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Exit From ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Series To “Cultural” Differences: “That’s What Happens When You’re Two Captains”

Many were shocked to hear that Mr. & Mrs. Smith would be getting recast and remade for a Prime Video series, but nothing topped the collective surprise when Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge were announced as collaborators on the project.

But the anticipation was short-lived as Waller-Bridge later exited the series during development and PEN15 star Maya Erskine stepped in to replace her. Glover claimed her departure was not personal, chalking it up to “cultural” and creative differences in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“It’s a divorce in a weird way. You’re like, ‘Oh shit, 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,” Glover said. “And I don’t know if we were ever going to get to a place where we could be completely brutal to each other.”

Glover noted that both he and Waller-Bridge have experience creating, writing for, and starring in their own projects before signing on to Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

“It might’ve just been cultural,” he said. “You’ve got to think, Fleabag was written entirely by her, they don’t really do writers’ rooms in the U.K.”

He continued, “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.”

Glover added that he didn’t think he and Waller-Bridge ever “felt comfortable enough with each other” to work on the series, but he didn’t share any complaints about his former collaborator.

“And that’s OK. That’s what happens when you’re two captains,” he said. “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 fucking show.'”

He later added that he felt like Waller-Bridge “wasn’t fully in love with the thing.”

When Erskine’s casting was announced, Glover confirmed that Waller-Bridge’s exit happened amicably. “I still like her. I assume she still likes me,” he said at the time.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is now streaming on Prime Video.