With the recent premiere of the second season of Atlanta, a starring role in the just-released Solo: A Star Wars Story and a groundbreaking music video under his rapper alias Childish Gambino, it’s safe to say that Donald Glover is on top of the world. The jack-of-many-trades visited the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday (May 10) to discuss his recent successful endeavors, and some of the early moments that perhaps inspired his rises to the big screen and music charts.
“I told my agent, ‘If they’re making a Han Solo movie, Lando’s gotta be in it, and I wanna be Lando,'” Glover recalled to host Jimmy Kimmel. “And to his credit — and I appreciate it — he was like, ‘I don’t like your odds’…I just really wanted to be it, because that was my first toy and I just really wanted to be that character.”
Glover detailed how his father gave him his first toy, a Lando action figure, and the moments that followed him receiving the news that he’d earned the role he spent years dreaming of.
“I did call my dad first and told him,” he explained. “That was a big moment. He was proud. Then I went and got a large cheese pizza and then went home and watched Empire Strikes Back.”
On the music side, Glover’s gone viral with his smooth slow jam “Redbone” and the politically charged banger “This Is America.” However, the first album he remembers purchasing with his own money was on an entirely different wavelength.
“You can tell how old I am, but it was probably like, Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt,” Glover said. “I think that was the first time I had money, and ‘Don’t Speak’ was out, and I was like, ‘I love this song.’ But I think I probably listened to Miseducation by Lauryn Hill the most. It’s kind of flawless…I’ve just never heard an album quite like that.”
Watch Glover’s interview below.