Donald Glover reveals he got COVID while filming pivotal Mr. & Mrs. Smith scene

Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for episode 2 of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. 

Living the spy life can be hazardous to your health — and that's a hard lesson Donald Glover had to learn while filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Glover co-created and stars in Prime Video's reimagining of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's 2005 spy movie of the same name, and while he wasn't facing the same kind of life-or-death stakes as his onscreen persona John, he reveals that he did get sick while filming the pivotal scene in episode 2 where he and Jane (Maya Erskine) have to get rid of a dead body for the first time on a mission.

"It was strange — I got COVID in that scene," Glover tells EW. "You can actually see the moment it was happening. It was wild. And then we had to take two weeks off."

That wasn't the only reason Glover will never forget filming that unintentionally hilarious moment for the two strangers who become newbie spies together. "Dismembering the body was so strange because you have these body parts that you break, so you do feel gross doing that," he explains with a laugh. "And things are popping, so you do feel strange and we laughed a lot, just because you're just not usually in that kind of situation. And also you have a naked man in front of you who's pretending to be dead. So it was weird and it was late at night, and everybody's just f---ing loopy."

Erskine laughs as she remembers all the sounds Glover was making as they filmed that scene. "All I'll say is Donald is the most amazing fake vomiter or gagger," she tells EW. "I don't really know how you would put those words together, but he made me almost vomit multiple times while filming that."

It might seem as though that moment is purely comedic relief in the otherwise dramatic story about strangers who sign up for a mysterious spy agency and become a married couple as their secret identities. But according to Glover, it was one of the most important moments for him and co-creator Francesca Sloane (Atlanta, Fargo) as they started plotting the entire series.

"That was the scene we had wanted to do from the beginning," he says. "What is it like having to get rid of a body for real if you've never done it before? It's just awkward and horrible, and it's not glamorous at all. People always skip that part in the movie."

All eight episodes of Mr. & Mrs. Smith are now streaming on Prime Video.

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