How Donald Glover and His Team of Collaborators Wrote, Then Made, ‘Guava Island’
Royalty, the creative collective behind ‘Atlanta,’ ‘This Is America,’ and Childish Gambino, explain how they created the secret film
By Charles Holmes
The creative process that would eventually lead to the critically acclaimed Atlanta began, inadvertently, with a former child actor, porn star and viral rapper. In 2013, Abella Anderson was the center of adult entertainment, Danielle Fishel was years removed from playing Topanga on Boy Meets World, and Trinidad James was still running off “All Gold Everything” fumes. They all starred in Clapping for the Wrong Reasons, the visual prelude to Childish Gambino’s 2013 album Because the Internet.
The short film was the brainchild of a pre-Grammys, pre-Emmys, pre-Golden Globes Donald Glover — and a clear sign of the ambition that would net him those trophies in the near future. Hiro Murai, the visual architect of Glover’s Atlanta and other film projects, directed it. Royalty, a collective of Glover’s colleagues, were responsible for the story. A surreal, existential meander through a mansion, the 20-minute movie — at the time an odd, bold piece of internet culture — now looks like the blueprint for much of Glover’s later output…
