Donald Glover Interviews Himself, Says He Modeled His Career After Willy Wonka
Actor. Rapper. Comedian. Creator. Donald Glover is a man of many talents - and many personas. So it's only fitting that for his own Interview Magazine segment, the person they chose to interview this prolific performer was...himself.
Yes, Donald Glover recently interviewed himself. Why? Well, he answered that pretty much first thing:
"Yeah, so first question, why'd you want to do this?"
"I guess I don't love interviews and I asked myself, "Why don't you like interviews?" And I think part of it is that the questions are usually the same. This way I can get questions I usually don't get asked."
"You don't think this is contrived?"
"I don't think it's more contrived than any other interview."
And it isn't - not for a creator with as far-reaching a vision as the man behind Childish Gambino. Glover has so many irons in the fire that it almost makes more sense than anything else for him to interview himself - there's so much going on there, only he could truly know where to start. After all, the multifaceted man said he modeled his career after Willy Wonka:
"That's the world I like. You have your factory, you make something, put it out, and then close shop to the public for a while."
His imagination factory is currently closed to the public, but this interview is kind of like a little peep into the magic of the things he's working on - because, like many celebrities his age, Glover tries to be very careful with the ways he chooses to engage with social media.
"I don't think life is real unless some things are just for you. Things that should not or cannot be shared. I think the younger generation is going to have a hard time distinguishing whether something is for them or for others, and I think it could play out as a diminished sense of self. You really have to know what you would do if no else was watching."
Glover said that he feels that nobody really knows how to use social media in a healthy way yet.
"I was born in the '80s, so I had a good context of how I felt without it. And I felt better without it, so I stopped. The internet moves like a drug. An accelerant. I don't know...Everyone I meet who's active on the internet looks tired as f**k in real life."
Not being on socials, Glover says, has freed up his time and focus for more important things - things like spending time with his partner and his sons, or like his music production or his hit show Atlanta. He's more worried about making something he himself will like than trying to create for the masses - because, at the end of the day, when you strip away all the system-gaming tactics and hype, that's really what it's supposed to be about.
Glover seems to be of the mind that as long as he's making things that he believes will hold up, he won't have any regrets - whether he stays "relevant" or not.
"I think that's the game. A lot of people out here are celebrities. So their value is in people liking them. I believe my value is in my vision. So I have to make something good enough and just be human. You can get torn apart for anything, true or not."
