Donald Glover will star in this year's hotly anticipated film Solo: A Star Wars Story, which will see the actor/musician reprise the role of Lando Calrissian once played by Billy Dee Williams. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Glover recalls having met Williams in the past, who gave the Atlanta star some foolproof advice on how to bring the character of Lando to life on the big screen once again.
Glover admits that meeting Williams was a relaxing experience, noting how "he was great. I mean, I had a lot of questions. And then he just told me, just be charming. [Laughs] And so, I was like, “Okay!” I just kind of did that. He said, “Just be interested in things.” Lando has, I wouldn’t say eccentric, but eclectic tastes. So I tried to work that into the role as much as possible."
Glover is a well-known Star Wars aficionado, so he naturally came ripe with questions for Williams about his thoughts on Lando being the first black character in the Star Wars universe, and what that meant to the actor.
The actor formally known as Childish Gambino reveals "I just wanted to know, Star Wars was such a big deal and then they make the second one and you’re kind of the first and the almost only black guy in the universe at that point. I was like, How did you go into that? What were your thoughts? It’s always a big thing when you break a mold. What was the thought process of that? He gave some good advice about this, about being yourself as much as possible, making the character a real person, rather than the whole identity for a whole group of people."