Donald Glover handpicked Francesca Sloane to be the co-creator for their Prime Video TV series Mr. & Mrs. Smith—and with good reason. Sloane joined the Atlanta writer's room in Season 3 and delivered one of the most groundbreaking TV episodes in recent memory with "The Big Paycheck."
Over the years, Glover has assembled a sort of Avengers group of writers, showrunners, producers and directors who have worked with him on Atlanta, Swarm and now on Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Sloane was "mind blown" when she got the call from Glover asking if she would be down to co-create and showrun the series with him.
Together, alongside a cast of tremendous actors like Maya Erskine (who plays Jane Smith), Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Ron Perlman, and Michaela Coel, they have created a fresh and thrilling reimagined version of 2005's movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which starred Brad Pitt and Angelina.
In eight episodes, viewers will follow as John (played by Glover) and Jane meet, fall in love and carry out deadly missions assigned to them by the mysterious company they work for. The relationship between the two leads is the selling point of this story, though; it feels intimate, sexy and familiar, and you care about the storyline, beyond the explosive action scenes.
While their more tender moments together are incredibly charming, their arguments and fights are some of the most compelling scenes in the season. Sloane says Erskine and Glover were both "really committed" to their roles, and their acting as a couple was so convincing it confused her at times. "Even when they were arguing sometimes," she tells Complex. "I remember being really blown away by how authentic all of it felt between them that afterward, I'd be like, 'Y'all good? Are you mad at each other?'"
Ahead of the show's arrival on Prime Video on Feb. 2, Sloane sat down with Complex for a conversation about juggling her duties as a first-time mom and first-time showrunner, her friendship with Donald Glover and her aspirations to work on a film in the future.
How was your first time meeting Donald and how did you two start collaborating together?
Yeah. So I worked with Stephanie Robinson on Fargo who is an incredible person, and an Atlanta writer. They were expanding the room. She shared some of my stuff with Donald and then I got this interview and Atlanta was my favorite show. It's still actually my favorite show. I was really nervous and the thing is at the time Donald had a studio at the top of a tower of stairs and him and Stephen [Glover] were interviewing me. Stephen Glover, Donald's brother, is also the best. He's the funniest person in the world.
So I had to climb up the stack of stairs. I'm about to interview on my favorite show and I was so nervous. When I got to the top of the stairs, I thought, "OK, I'll get a second to sort of decompress and like catch my breath." But Donald was just letting out another writer who was interviewing just like a few minutes early and opened the door and just saw me standing there breathing so deeply.
I remember just trying to like get out like, "Yeah, I'm not, I'm not nervous. It's it's the stairs, man. It's the stairs." So that was my first exact interaction of locking eyes with Donald. And we were able to sort of, I like laughed at myself and then him and Stephen made me laugh so much so instantly. It just felt really easy with them. I actually was so alarmed by how comfortable I was with them. It felt like I had known them my whole life.
How many times did you watch the Mr. & Mrs. Smith movie in preparation for the show?
You know what? I'll be real. I watched it when I was a kid and it came out and then I watched it one more time right before we sort of regrouped with the writer's room and that was it. I feel like I learned everything that I needed to from the movie. I think the movie is really fun. I think it's strong for exactly what it is. We just wanted to do something very different for sure.
The movie felt a little bit more campy in a way, but I think the series has a more serious tone. Was that intentional?
Yeah, we definitely wanted it to have more depth. We wanted it to feel relatable and we wanted the relationship to feel authentic and so sometimes that lends itself to sort of more serious things in that respect. At the same time, there is sort of an allowance of letting yourself accept certain logic that otherwise you wouldn't get away with when you sort of deal with spy and action, which is really fun.
For instance, how do they keep getting away with killing people every mission, you know? But we felt as long as the relationship felt real, you can sort of then get away with the rest of the stuff in a little bit more of like a stylized campy fashion for sure.
There are a lot of things that are sort of left unanswered. Why was it important to keep that sort of mystery and not have those answers for the viewers to know even after they're done watching the season?
I feel like with a relationship when you start off getting to know someone, that is part of the magic of real love. You have an idea at the beginning and as you spend enough time with that individual, that idea transforms and transcends whatever your initial expectations were. The best way to deal with that was with mystery at the top. Sometimes it's important to keep things unsaid. Sometimes the thing that's the most interesting is actually the stuff that you don't say and the stuff that you leave out. We felt like that was the way to sort of wrap everything up to keep that intrigue and some questions but providing more answers about who they are as humans and also who they are together.
Maya and Donald together play such an organic couple. What was it like helping them get to that point as actors?
You know, I wish I could take credit for getting them to that point. Obviously, we constructed the scripts and we knew that we wanted to show the duration of an entire relationship within the eight hours that we show. That was all very thought about and crafted. But to be honest, the chemistry between Maya and Donald just grew so naturally with each other. I remember sometimes just sitting back on set—because Donald was already my good friend, Maya has become one of my best friends—and sitting with my hands folded and my chin on my hands and being so smitten with their chemistry and with how real they felt.
Even when they were arguing sometimes, I remember being really blown away by how authentic all of it felt between them that afterward, I'd be like, “Y'all good? Are you mad at each other?” They brought that just by being so talented.
How involved were you in crafting the story and making sure that it all aligned?
Yeah. I mean, obsessively. Maya and Donald, they're also writers and they're hysterical and there's definitely room for improv and that freedom. I was obsessive about the scripts and obsessive about trying to make sure that certain seeds that were planted paid off later. When I say obsessed, I mean, obsessed, staying up all night thinking about it and going back through and making sure that certain things are being paid off. In terms of jokes and things like that, we were constantly always laughing on set, and all of the directors are also incredibly, incredibly talented, but starting with Hiro Murai. Hiro is so funny and in such an understated way and he knows how to deliver humor in an unexpected fashion and we wanted to maintain that. So getting to start the journey with Hiro [Murai] is certainly very helpful.
In the Mr. & Mrs. Smith movie we meet them when they already falling out of love with each other. Why did you decide to start the show from the point of them meeting instead of picking up from where the movie began?
We thought about that initially, about starting it off with a married couple who was losing that that shine. But it just felt like we really wanted to be able to live in that journey and there was something really compelling about two strangers meeting. It made it both compelling in terms of the company. It made that a little bit more mysterious, but it also made their journey feel more complete to be able to see it from the from the ground up.
The beauty of TV versus film sometimes, even though I love movies so much, but you have the real estate to really let the story unfold and take its time and show all the nuances and vulnerabilities of what a real marriage might feel like, at least within eight hours, right? That just felt like the right move for us.
As you said before, the arguments [between Donald and Maya] felt very real, and as a viewer you care deeply about their relationship. How was it witnessing their progression on set?
It's funny because like the characters, and Maya and Donald themselves in some ways, are so different from each other, but their differences are so complimentary. Donald and John don't question themselves. They just kind of shoot from the gut and that's part of both of their mag components, both in Donald as a person and John as a character. Maya is an overthinker and Jane is an overthinker and in that they both learn from each other, which is what happens in a relationship. you start to rub off on the other person in this way and it starts to evolve.
Watching Maya and Donald become fast friends but like become really deeply good friends with such a level of vulnerability. they really did feel like a married couple as time went on and this was not an easy show in the sense that it was grueling hours and all over the world and we spent so much time away from our families and they really leaned on each other and it became like summer camp, everybody got really close, but they especially really just genuinely connected.
Funny enough, we did some reshoots and Maya has mentioned this in some interviews as well, but Hiro came back for some of the reshoots and he saw this dynamic from where we had started and he's like, “Man, things have really changed.” He saw that connection come together, which is really sweet for sure.
Maya hasn't done a lot of action movies or shows before and Donald hasn’t either. What was it like getting them prepared to do those actions and fighting scenes?
I'll be honest, I was not expecting much at first and I was actually really impressed and surprised with how good they were. They did a lot of training. We had an incredible stunt coordinator with an incredible team and they spent a lot of hours and time working on those things, but still trying to make sure that the action always felt stylized but somewhat real.
Maya especially loved our action days. We would joke and call her Action Maya. She jumped right in and was really get into it. And Donald has become just such a like healthy human being. I love Donald to death, but I remember one day like chilling with him and eating an apple and he like took a bite and he's like, “Oh, this is cheating.” I was like, “When an apple is cheating, it's gone too far and way too far.” But they were both really committed.
Did he get like that for the role or was it a lifestyle choice that he made prior to?
I think it started off for the role. I don't want to speak for him. But I think now it's a lifestyle choice. I think he realizes just like how energized he feels and how healthy and I'm sure his wife really likes it.
I also loved the guest stars. How did you get them to be on the show? Did they have to audition or did you call them up and say, "Hey, we would like for you to be on this show"?
We got so lucky. I honestly don't know how we got this lucky, but no, nobody auditioned. They're all just too fabulous for that. It really was just a matter of them responding to wanting to work with the people who were working on this project, especially Donald and also responding, thank God, to the scripts. Some people we wrote with them in mind, like for instance, Michaela Coel, we thought of her because we wanted it to be the most intimidating person you could possibly imagine your spouse spending time with. And no one is cooler in the world than Michaela Coel.
Luckily she read the script, she's friends with Donald and she said yes, but really, we just wanted legends who also felt really grounded, but also like kind of play in the same sandbox as Maya and Donald. And we just got the coolest of the coolest character actors out there. And it's pretty incredible that they've all come on board for sure.
I was reading some of the credits and I saw some familiar names from Atlanta and this incredible ecosystem that Donald is creating. Why do you think that helps create the kind of shows that he's making?
Working with the same people, the same familiar people helps. I think like having in any kind of relationship, a shorthand with someone where you don't have to explain yourself and they already speak your language goes so far and is so rare and is so important. Donald has really taught me that such a big part of life is making sure that the hang is also fun.
He also knows to surround himself with people who really care, good people who care about the work actually being really good and also maintaining this philosophy that you choose the show first and the best idea wins. It doesn't matter where it comes from. And so he surrounds himself with people that share that philosophy and I think cool things come out of that because there's trust in place and there's respect in place and there's room for experimentation. It really did feel like while we were working on this sort of big scope, high budget show, like this really intimate group of misfits hanging out every day and being a family.
Once you got that call [from Donald], how did you prepare for this? And what have you learned from working on this?
The fact that he ever wanted to do this with me in the first place, blew my mind. I was so honored and touched by all of that actually, that he would even want to do that with me and that he trusted me. How did I prepare for that? I don't think I did. I was really naive. What did I learn from it? Everything. I learned that it's really hard work but it is such a freaking privilege and an honor to be able to use your imagination, work alongside some of the best people in the game who also happen to be your friends and create something together.
I was a first time mom while we started shooting the show. While we created the show, I got pregnant and we had my child and making the show. I was raising him as a first time mom and a first time showrunner and just really learning a lot about how strong I actually could be and also how weak I can be. If I ever got the opportunity to do this again, which I really hope that I do, I would make sure to sort of maintain that idea of making sure it's a fun hang and being surrounded by people who you love and trust. Because it's a lot of time spent.
I don't know if I would necessarily recommend doing those two things at the same time to anybody. But we did it, we made it through it, and it turned into a show that is coming on TV. So somehow we figured it out for sure.
And after that, nobody could tell you you can't do anything, you could do anything.
That is so true. There's nothing like location scouting with like a breast pump under your shirt surrounded by a bunch of dudes and still trying to write at the same time.
Was TV writing and creating shows always a part of your vision. Is this something that you always wanted to work on?
I have always written and I always loved writing and, you know, I, you know, movies, just like a lot of us nerds in, in, in the field that we do movies. That was my escape. That was, that was something that I invested so much love and time into watching and learning and, but no, I never, in a million years expected that I could do it for a living. It just wasn't something that I would ever dare to dream.
I come from Philadelphia. I don't come from much. It just didn't seem like something that felt like a realistic thing to even think about. But here I am, and I'm very, very grateful for it. I can't imagine doing anything else to be honest. So thank God that's worked out.
You also have a deal with Amazon. What kind of shows or movies do you have in mind to do while you're working with them?
I'm at Amazon, that's home right now. I would love to find the right film to do. I really missed writing within that medium. It's a beautiful way to tell a story...We'll see if that works out and then there's a few other little thoughts on the fire, definitely still collaborating with really talented smart friends that I've already worked with and also some new people too, but everybody's still within the same kind of school of trying to make good things for sure.
People have said that the golden era of TV is over but how do you feel about the current state of TV?
You know, that's a great question. I don't really think about things in those terms and I feel like I'm too present of a person. Somebody asked me recently if I think about how the audience is going to, to something and while I definitely wanna make sure that it's an enjoyable ride for whoever gives something that I've had anything to do with the time of day when I think beyond just like, you know, a scene just i it gives me an existential crisis.
I can't go beyond something that has to feel like the tiniest little crumb and make that feel really honest. So I don't know, I don't feel like I have the right platform to speak on TV as a whole yet. I just wanna make sure that I'm present and making these shows right now and hope that somebody out there likes them.
