Donald Glover Says That Despite His Initial Goal, Being On ‘SNL’ Would Have Killed Him: ‘My Career Wouldn’t Have Happened’

Donald Glover

Donald Glover Says That Despite His Initial Goal, Being On ‘SNL’ Would Have Killed Him: ‘My Career Wouldn’t Have Happened’

It looks like the saying is true, everything happens for a reason — at least according to Donald Glover.

During a recent interview, the “Atlanta” creator opened up about being turned down from “Saturday Night Live” after auditioning in both 2007 and 2009.

Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) explained,

“I dodged so many bullets. Me being on ‘SNL’ would’ve killed me. I got friends who made it on ‘SNL’ and, at the time, I was like, ‘d*mn.’ But if I got on ‘SNL,’ my career wouldn’t have happened.”

Glover continued,

“And thank God, thank God I didn’t get some of those pilots. I wanted so desperately to be on ‘Parks and Rec’ because it was the cool, hipster show. I am the bullet dodger. I feel like Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Pulp Fiction.’ That wasn’t a mistake, you know? God did that.”

Donald Glover

Donald Glover previously worked as a writer on “30 Rock” in 2006 and was already part of the NBCUniversal family.

While reflecting on his time writing for the sitcom, the “Swarm” producer said he felt like he did not belong. 

He explained,

“It definitely didn’t feel like I was supposed to be there. I used to have stress dreams every night where I was doing cartwheels on the top of a New York skyscraper with the other writers watching me.”

Glover continued and noted he was hired as part of a diversity initiative at NBC.

“There is no animosity between us or anything like that, but [Tina Fey] said it herself….It was a diversity thing. The last two people who were fighting for the job were me and Kenya Barris. I didn’t know it was between me and him until later. He hit me one day and he was like, ‘I hated you for years!’”

Kenya Barris

It looks like Donald Glover recently dodged yet another bullet. The actor made headlines last month after he won a legal battle. As previously reported, back in 2021, Donald Glover was sued for allegedly stealing his Grammy-winning hit “This Is America” from an artist by the name of Kidd Wes.

According to Kidd Wes (born Emelike Wesley Nwosuocha), Donald Glover robbed the flow of the chart-topping hit from his 2016 song, “Made In America,” which was supposedly copyrighted in May 2017–a year before the release of the “Atlanta” creator’s track.

Kidd Wes’ lawsuit read that Glover’s “This Is America” was “unmistakably substantially similar” and “practically identical.”

Ultimately, Wes sued everyone behind the production and distribution of Glover’s song, including Roc Nation and fellow lyricist Young Thug, who sang the background vocals on the record.

In new documents, obtained by AllHipHop, the 39-year-old  singer/rapper was said to have beat Wes’ plagiarism accusations against him, based on a technicality.

Reportedly, proceedings in regard to Wes’ copyright claim were faulty, as the artist failed to properly register the music itself, instead of just the “Made In America” recording. According to the courts, Wes only held one copyright certificate, which didn’t protect the song in its entirety.

Donald Glover

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