Ahead of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Donald Glover, who's playing a young Lando Calrissian, got to speak with the original Lando himself, Billy Dee Williams. And in an interview with EW, Glover relayed the exchange.
"It was really, really relaxed. He was great. I mean, I had a lot of questions," he said. "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."
For those who've followed Glover's career, it's not hard to tell that he's a longtime Star Wars fans. (His dad even took him out of school to watch the prequels). So when he approached the role, he had tons of things to ask Williams, especially since he was the first black person in the Star Wars galaxy.
"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," he said. "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."
It seems Glover got a lot of answers and advice that was able to share, unlike Harrison Ford's words for his young Han counterpart Alden Ehrenreich: "tell them I told you everything you needed to know, and that you can’t tell anyone." How Han Solo–like of him. Smirk.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is set to be released in theaters on May 25.
