‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’: Donald Glover Explains Why Things Didn’t Work Out With Phoebe Waller-Bridge

The much-anticipated Mr. & Mrs Smith reboot TV series premiered on Prime Video last week (February 2), with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine starring in the titular roles. But the show wasn’t always supposed to look like that.

Originally announced on February 12, 2021, the series, based on the 2005 film of the same name, was set to be created by and star Glover and Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, with Francesca Sloane serving as co-creator and showrunner. However, Waller-Bridge exited the project in September 2021 following creative differences with Glover.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview, the Atlanta star and creator opened up about his creative relationship with Waller-Bridge and why exactly things didn’t work out between them.

“I think because we were friends and I really liked Phoebe and we’d worked together,” Glover said, referring to their time as co-stars on Solo: A Stars Wars Film. “It’s a divorce in a weird way. You’re like, ‘Oh s**t, this should have worked.'”

As for why it didn’t work, Glover said he and Waller-Bridge struggled to be completely honest with one another. “And this is just me, being honest, but I think a good relationship is one where you don’t waver from the extremely uncomfortable,” he explained. “And I don’t know if we were ever going to get to a place where we could be completely brutal to each other.”

The Community alum said he doesn’t quite know why they couldn’t get to that stage but stated, “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.”

Mr & Mrs. Smith (Credit: Prime Video)

He added, “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,” Glover continued, noting it was like having “two captains” at the helm. “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.”

Glover shared how Waller-Bridge 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****** show.'”

As for how they came to the decision to end the creative partnership, Glover compared it to a “real divorce,” explaining that “the hardest part is knowing when to say it’s over. Like, when do you quit?”

“You want to be cool, like, ‘Oh it’s over, that’s fine,'” he said. “But we both put a lot of work into it. We both were working really hard. So, who gets to keep the cat?”

Mr & Mrs. Smith (Credit: Prime Video)

In the end, Waller-Bridge left the project, while Glover stayed in charge. He said this was partly because he brought Sloane on board and also because “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,'” he concluded.

In April 2022, it was announced that PEN15 co-creator and star Erskine would be joining the series, taking over Waller-Bridge’s role as Mrs. Smith. While a creator and writer in her own right, Erskine was only brought in to act on the show.

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“I wasn’t asked [to write],” Erskine joked to THR, before adding, “No, no, in a good way.”

“You’d just gone through that. But isn’t that interesting that you chose another creator?” she added, directing the question to Glover.

Glover said he’d never thought about that, despite having another actor/creator in the series in the form of I May Destroy You star Michaela Coel.

“I guess I just liked your guys’ styles, but I never thought about it,” Glover explained. “I mean, maybe that’s the problem because, in my head, I’m like, ‘They’ll fit perfectly in my vision.’ But also, I feel like I want to be asked sometimes to just act. Even if it’s a tiny role. No one ever asks.”

Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Now Streaming, Prime Video