Donald Glover Explains ‘Divorce’ from First Mr. & Mrs. Smith Leading Lady Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star as a married couple in Amazon Prime’s new espionage television thriller Mr. and Mrs. Smith — but that wasn’t always the case!

Ago PEN15 creator, 36, has been cast as Glover’s leading lady, Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been cast in the role.

Maya Erskine and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Karwai Tang/WireImage; Max Cisotti/Dave Bennett/WireImage

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter released Wednesday, Glover, 40, explained why Bed the star has been replaced.

When asked why he thought he and Waller-Bridge, 38, wouldn’t be a perfect fit as co-creators and co-stars of the show, he cited their very good friendship.

Rival spies Donald Glover and Maya Erskine are ‘not in this for the romance’ in the first Mr. and Mrs. Smith Trailer

“I think because we were friends and I really liked Phoebe,” Glover said.

“It’s a divorce in a weird way,” he continued. “You say, ‘Oh … this should have worked.’ And this is just me, to be honest, but I think a good relationship is one where you don’t shy away from being extremely uncomfortable. And I don’t know if we’ll ever get to a place where we’re completely brutal to each other.”

Donald Glover.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

Former Community star in comparison works on Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Waller-Bridge to collaborating with other creators on his FX comedy-drama series Atlanta.

“I do not know. Maybe it was just cultural,” he said. “You have to think, Bed was entirely written by her, they don’t really do writers’ rooms in the UK and I look back at Atlantaand we’ve built a culture where we can say mean things to each other or say, ‘That idea is kind of [crap],’ and then we would laugh. You weren’t afraid to say something — but we also had the right to roast you. We just laughed so hard.”

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Glover felt he could never see himself being brutally honest with Waller-Bridge the way he was with others.

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine — ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’.

David Lee/Prime Video

Earlier in the interview, he and Erskine agreed that she was never asked to write for the series when she signed on for the project, only to act.

For her, the lighter burden was fine because “I just got rid of years of that.” [with PEN15].”

Glover noted that his split with Waller-Bridge was difficult because “we both put a lot of effort into it.”

“We both worked very hard. So who’s going to keep the cat?” he joked before saying he would have let her do the project if she truly loved him more than him.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie — Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Cinematheque/Shutterstock

Donald Glover reveals Brad Pitt’s reaction to New Mr. and Mrs. Smith Reboot: ‘He gave me good advice’

Amazon Prime Videos Mr. and Mrs. Smith is based on the 2005 film of the same name, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. In the new series, Glover and Erskine play married assassins who work for a mysterious spy agency.

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Source: HIS Education