Donald Glover knows that humility isn’t a necessary ingredient of good art.
During a long and freewheeling profile in the new issue of the New Yorker, the “Atlanta” creator, 34, was asked if there was anything he’s bad at.
“To be honest, no,” he told the magazine. “Probably just people. People don’t like to be studied, or bested. I’m fine with it. I don’t really like people that much. People accept me now because I have power, but they still think, ‘Oh, he thinks he’s the golden flower of the black community, thinks he’s so different.’ But I am, though!”
Glover would go on to explain what makes him so different.
“I feel like Jesus,” he continued. “I do feel chosen. My struggle is to use my humanity to create a classic work — but I don’t know if humanity is worth it, or if we’re going to make it. I don’t know if there’s much time left.”
While the Jesus comparison might be a bit much for some, the magazine points out that Glover does, in fact, have a knack for hyper competency, whether it be making himself a better basketball player overnight or winning an award for one of the first projects he ever directed, “B.A.N.,” the seventh episode of “Atlanta.”
“The day before Donald directed, he said, ‘Hey, do you have any tips?’ I was mad, because I knew, You’re going to be fine — you’ll pick it up naturally, the way you pick up everything,” director Hiro Murai said. “And then he won an Emmy!”
The second season of “Atlanta” premieres on Thursday at 10 p.m.