Actor Brian Tyree Henry is well aware that the break between season two and three of FX’s “Atlanta” was incredibly long: nearly four years.
But he said with all the mayhem of the past four years, including the George Floyd protests, the pandemic and political upheaval since 2018, “we have more to talk about. ‘Atlanta’ works best by observing the world we live in and embodying it in the show. The writers were incredibly malleable to what was going on.”
The series shot its third and fourth season last year in succession. The third season debuted last month with the fifth episode airing last Thursday. And “Atlanta” is by no means taking any conventional path in its story telling. The main characters, including Henry’s Alfred (aka rap star Paper Boi), are touring Europe. Yet two of the first five episodes that have aired so far in this 10-episode season had nothing to do with the main story line.
One featured two stories, one about the haunting of a lake that was dammed over a Black community and a longer one about a white liberal couple mistreating Black foster children. Both were based on true stories, with the first one alluding to Lake Lanier urban legends and the second loosely based on a 2018 murder suicide in California. The second stand-alone episode that aired April 7 feels like creator Donald Glover’s interpretation of a “Black Mirror” episode. A white man’s life is turned upside down when Black people are suddenly able to demand and win reparations from white families and corporations whose ancestors had benefited from slavery.
Henry, in a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was totally on board with these side track stories.
“If it wasn’t our show, these subjects wouldn’t have gotten out there,” he said. “We can take on certain topics people are afraid to approach. We can flip them on their head.” (And yes, he is all for slavery reparations.)
And race is still very much a central part of the show. The first episode has Alfred and his crew in Amsterdam where they encounter a disarming amount of Blackface, which is largely verboten in the United States but not so much in Europe.
And Alfred learns that fame often turns his humanity into a “commodity,” Henry said. Racism is not just an American thing. During a poker game in episode three at a rich man’s home, Alfred is told it’s a $20,000 buy in and almost to overcompensate over the presumption he might not have that amount to gamble, he whips out $60,000 in cash.
“No matter what level of success he finds himself in,” Henry said, “he still has to prove he belongs at this table. He experiences a lot of dichotomous situations.”
One of the stranger situations is in a Netherlands jail, where he is treated like a king and he likes it so much, he takes a nap before leaving, even after Earn had paid for his bail. And when Alfred gets out and has some extra cash, he just throws it at his adoring fans as if they were a bunch of strippers at Magic City.
“He’s leaning into the perks of being Paper Boi,” Henry said. “They don’t need to know Alfred. He is bringing these fans a certain kind of joy.”
Henry himself feels that dichotomy as well, given his own level of fame thanks to all the film work he’s done in recent years. He has been feted in serious films like “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Widows” and crowd-pleasing big-budget films like “Godzilla vs. Kong” or “Eternals.” He, like Paper Boi, is now recognized everywhere.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m Paper Boi or in a Marvel movie,” he said. “I can’t afford not to be conscious about my standing. That’s the same with Alfred. People love him, but something is always dragging him back.”
And he knows even in these press interviews, there’s an artifice to it all, that he can’t be entirely vulnerable to a random journalist. “We shouldn’t give parts of ourselves away to people who don’t deserve it,” he said. “We have to navigate to make those parts precious and keep to ourselves.”
Al’s relationship with his cousin Earn has become more business, less personal. As his manager, Earn is mostly there for logistics and problem solving, whether it’s scrounging up cash to get Al out of prison in time for a concert or to interrogate suspects who may have stolen Al’s smartphone.
During the fifth episode, Al attempts to connect with Earn during a quiet moment, asking how he’s been doing, noting how he seems busy all the time. Earn, in pure business mode, provides Al nothing except to agree, saying. “Busy’s good” before leaving the room. Earn, as usual, seems disconnected and vaguely unhappy.
“There are glimmers of them trying to hold on to the family aspect” during the season, Henry said. “But there are things pulling Alfred away.”
In comparison, the relationship between the surrealistically quirky Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Alfred remain rock solid. It’s an unspoken understanding that their friendship is authentic with no strings attached. “That is something that never deviates,” he said.
Fame and success, though, has clouded Al’s ability to make music. And he admits to a stranger, a possible culprit who might have stolen his phone, that he wasn’t really into rapping but it’s what he does and “it’s too late to do anything else.”
Henry has spent the past 10 months in Atlanta, after finishing “Atlanta” to shoot another FX series called “Class of ‘09,” an upcoming sci-fi thriller that just recently wrapped. But he will always treasure “Atlanta,” which is ending after four seasons.
While “Atlanta” doesn’t reach the eyeballs of some of Henry’s big-budget movies, the show “is a representation of home for me. These other projects take me all over the world. Even when we shot ‘Atlanta’ in Europe, it felt like coming home. It still felt like it was ours.”
ON TELEVISION
“Atlanta”
Thursdays at 10 p.m. on FX and available on Hulu the next day
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