Donald Glover Was Too Intimidated to Sing Next to Beyonce for ‘The Lion King’
Donald Glover admitted on Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live that he was too nervous to sing in the same room as Beyoncé for the upcoming Lion King remake. “I requested not to be,” he said with a laugh. “I did not want to be looking into Beyoncé’s eyes while doing this.”
Glover, who voices the older Simba in the photorealistic, computer-animated film, duets with the singer on a cover of the Grammy-winning Elton John/Tim Rice classic “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” But he preferred to record his vocals separately. “I imagine it’s less intimidating playing basketball with Michael Jordan if you’re at home just throwing pieces of paper in the trash,” he joked.
The actor-writer-musician, decked out in a lion costume, told Kimmel he planned to show the film to his young son, whom he hoped could detect his father’s voice. Before they could get to that point, Glover was overshadowed by Beyoncé’s star power.
“I was like, ‘OK, you know what, I’m not gonna tell him — I’m just gonna play it super cool,'” he said. “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.”
Glover is prepping to play a handful of Childish Gambino shows in Australia, rescheduling due to a 2018 foot injury. That same year, he teased plans to retire the project, and he’s not sure what the future holds beyond his upcoming dates. “I think I’m gonna still do shows,” he said. “I’m not quite sure … I really love making music.”