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Donald Glover Revealed Billy Dee Williams’ Very Simple Advice on Playing Lando Calrissian

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 03: Donald Glover of Childish Gambino performs onstage during the 2017 Governors Ball Music Festival - Day 2 at Randall's Island on June 3, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)

The second season of Atlanta is understandably at the top of most people’s Donald Glover-related wish list. Still, the multifaceted star has a number of other things in the pipeline, including a little role as the famous Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars spin-off. The movie’s production has been a mess, switching directors mid-production, but Glover still seemed pretty excited to talk about his role in his Hollywood Reporter cover story.

The story’s most entertaining gem is Glover’s recollection of meeting up with the original Lando, Billy Dee Williams. Star Wars fans know Lando is one of the cooler and showier characters of the universe, but it turns out Glover’s eagerness to play the signature character was too extra, even for Billy Dee. Here’s the excerpt below (emphasis our):

Glover found himself frazzled and running behind, as he often is, and was more than a little nervous. Once the formalities were out of the way, he threw himself feverishly into a dissection of Calrissian and his possible virtues: “I was like, ‘I’ve always felt like this character could do this, and he represents this, and I kind of feel like he comes from here, and it’s very obvious he has a lot of taste, so maybe he grew up seeing that from afar? Because I’m like that. Maybe he saw it from other planets and was like, ‘I want to be that.’ ” Glover is full-on laughing now as he re-enacts the exchange. “He just let me ramble on and on, and then finally I was like, ‘So, what do you think?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t know about all that. Just be charming.'”

To be fair, Billy Dee Williams is 80 years old, and Glover will probably have mellowed out well before then. At the same time, charm is pretty much at the center of Lando’s character. Anyways, the still-untitled Han Solo film—disaster or not—is scheduled for a May 25, 2018 release.