Donald Glover was starstruck for “10minutes” when he saw Beyoncé in her favorite pizza restaurant.
The 35-year-old actor Donald Glover — who stars alongside the “Formation” hitmaker in The Lion King live-action remake — was initially too nervous to speak to the 37-year-old singer and her husband Jay-Z when he and his partner Michelle White saw the couple in Lucali’s pizza place in Brooklyn, New York, but then tried to play things cool.
He shared the story on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“[My partner and I] talked for like about 10 minutes,” he said. “We’re like ‘Are you going to say something? Go say something. No, you say something. You’re the famous one….’
“It was like 10 minutes and then you go over, and you’re like, ‘Oh hey!’ And then you’re like, ‘What are you doing here? I didn’t see you.'”
Beyoncé plays Nala in the Disney remake alongside Glover, who takes on an older Simba, and the pair had to duet on a cover of the Grammy-winning Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice classic “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” for the film, and the actor joked he couldn’t be in the same room as the R&B legend.
Opening up about the song on he joked: “I requested not to be [in the same room]. I did not want to be looking into Beyoncé’s eyes while doing this…
“I was actually in London and I recorded [my part] at Abbey Road. I imagine it’s less intimidating playing basketball with Michael Jordan if you’re at home just throwing pieces of paper in the trash!”
And Glover doesn’t let his kids watch TV and wanted the fact he’s in The Lion King to be a surprise.
But despite his little boy’s lack of knowledge of popular culture, the Childish Gambino star was amazed to realize he knew who Beyoncé was.
He added: “I was like, ‘OK, you know what, I’m not gonna tell him — I’m just gonna play it super cool.’
“My son doesn’t watch TV, doesn’t have commercials. We basically just show one movie once a week if he wants. Yesterday, out of nowhere, I was like, ‘Hey, you wanna go see The Lion King?’ Just to see if he might notice my voice or whatever. He was like, ‘Oh, sure. Beyoncé’s in it, right?’ I was like, ‘How did you know that? But also daddy’s in it. I’m in it too!’
“I’m just saying Beyoncé has people who haven’t even television loving her. She’s incredible.”