Zazie Beetz on Van's Breakdown in 'Atlanta' Season Finale: "Her Identity Has Shifted"

Just when fans were gearing up to relish the return of FX's Atlanta, it was also time to prepare to say goodbye. Shortly before the premiere of the long-awaited third season (delayed due to a combination of the cast's increasingly busy career schedules and the COVID-19 pandemic), it was announced that next season, its fourth, will be its last.

Knowing that makes watching Atlanta's third season all the more intriguing. This time around, creator Donald Glover shows less of the eccentric foursome that is Earn (Glover); Alfred, a.k.a. Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry); Darius (LaKeith Stanfield); and, of course, the show's leading woman, Van (Zazie Beetz), and intertwines vignettes about America's relationship with racism. Half of this season's episodes don't even feature the main cast, and instead opt for 30-minute segments detailing cultural nuances such as young Black adoptees in white families, biraciality and white adjacence, and the overlooked domestic sacrifice of nannies. It's a creative decision that has left fans divided—with some praising Glover's approach, and others uninterested in the time spent away from the core group.

A continuous theme throughout the episodes that do feature the main cast, however, is that Zazie Beetz's Van is in no way okay. Tonight's season finale follows her character as she wreaks havoc in Paris (in what appears to be the midst of a manic episode) while pretending to be someone she's not in an effort to escape the looming reality that she's struggling with motherhood back home.

"Her identity has shifted," Beetz tells BAZAAR.com. "She's sort of lost touch with who she is, and she's desiring freedom."

We sat down with Beetz to talk more about Van's character journey this season, how Atlanta changed her life and career, and what fans can expect for the show's fourth and final season.

From the first episode this season it's clear that something is going on with Van, and the season finale confirms that. How would you describe what she's experiencing?

She's definitely experiencing this feeling of like, "Am I a mother? Am I a partner, a lover? Am I just myself? What does that mean?" She also originally had to be stable and had to be the provider, and couldn't really be a different version of herself. Now in some ways, Earn has taken over more of the provider role and, in some ways, even that has been taken from her. Her identity has shifted, and I don't think she really knows who Van is.

In the beginning of her arc this season—having her steal things and having her pop in and out and acquiring different personalities and trying on different characters—it culminates ultimately into the biggest role of all, which is the final episode.

Why is it so important for viewers to see Van—a Black woman and a Black mother—be a little bit lost? What do you think that ultimately represents?

Elements of her and her character are based off of me and my own experiences, but also off of Donald's feelings and the aspect of searching for who you are. I identify with having a spirit of just wanting to drop everything and just go—I definitely have that in my character. Particularly for women, there is so much pressure to be caretakers, to be the stability. I've noticed, like, on my Instagram or something, any comments on the show are a lot of people simply mad that Van isn't with her daughter this season.

You don't really see that being said in regards to Earn. I just find that really eye-opening—like, "Wow, we do have that expectation." It's what also contributes largely to the pay gap for women, because our society is just set up with the emotional expectation that we're the ones that take off work. We're the ones that jump in when something needs to happen. I think Van is exhausted, and I think she also doesn't just want to be a mom. I think it's her trying to run away from that and trying to figure that out, which I get.

Zazie Beetz and Donald Glover as Van and Earn in Atlanta.

This episode also has a surprise guest appearance, Alexander Skarsgård. My jaw dropped. What was it like working on those scenes? Which were chaotic, but in the best way possible.

He was wonderful. It's really hard to come into something and have this chaotic energy to be big and playful, and onto a set where you don't know anybody and you immediately have to be super vulnerable. I'm so grateful for him just really jumping in. He was ready to play! That was sort of, in general, the energy of the whole episode—a big go-for-it energy. I really appreciated his commitment.

The fan reaction to this season has been pretty divided. Some are calling it a masterpiece, and some people are asking, "What's going on?" What was your initial reaction to the tone of this season?

I mean, I was really excited. We would talk a lot saying, "Oh, people are gonna be mad," or knowing people were going to have feelings about this. So we went into it, I think, aware that having episodes where there's no main characters or that some of the content will spark up thoughts and ideas. We also just weren't trying to copy what we did before, but really continue to try to grow and do something else, as we've grown and also evolved and become different people. All of us have had profound experiences these last two years—people becoming parents, people experiencing loss—our lives were changing.

Donald calls Season 3 the maximalist season. It definitely feels like it's a punch to the gut. That's sort of how I have been describing it. It doesn't surprise me that people have different feelings on how things have played out. I also think that that is the tone of the show in general. There's always been open-ended questions and people being a little confused or trying to interpret what something meant, and episodes not necessarily being linear. I think it's good for people to have opinions—for me, that's easy to hear and whatnot, because [the show] is not about my personhood or who I am. It's just about the art and the show, and how people choose to interpret it.

LaKeith Stanfield, Brian Tyree Henry, Donald Glover, and Zazie Beetz in Atlanta.

Take us back to when you first knew you were gonna be part of Atlanta before anyone knew what it would become and what it would be. Did you ever think in that moment that the show would become part of the historic Black television lexicon, especially as we're nearing its end?

No, none of us really knew what it was gonna be. In terms of the cultural impact, when I booked the show, I was hugely excited. I got this show, and my life sort of changed. I went in a bit doe-eyed and naive. But I've always been a bit of an optimist—I remember thinking, Yeah, this is gonna work, and it's gonna be great.

It definitely exploded into something more than what—I don't wanna say what any of us expected, because I think we were all hoping for the best. But it was more of an attitude of, it's just gonna be what it's gonna be. I remember Donald and all of them were like, "It's okay if it gets canceled the first season, we just wanna make this." I think that's ultimately the attitude that led to it being so interesting and compelling, because they were less careful about what they felt like they could and couldn't do.

That show completely changed my life. I think it changed all of our lives. We sort of have this sacred bond, and I feel very blessed to have been a part of that story with this, I think, good group of people.

What has it been like saying goodbye to this character, and what should fans expect for the final season?

Saying goodbye was emotional. We knew going into it that Season 3 and Season 4 were gonna be the last seasons. So we were able to, as we were shooting it, be in that mindset and reflect on that. It wasn't something that was sprung on us after, so everything was really intentional, and we actually leaned into each other and were more actively appreciative of the process and of the time we get to spend together versus just taking it for granted. I'm sad!

I know intellectually it's smart for the show to end and not to drag it out. Hopefully, it's still sort of on this high and not trying to hang on for dear life. I love Van. I feel very protective of Van. I wanna take care of her. I think maybe because of sort of the connectivity between having her, this character, be sort of the character that changed my life, I feel very connected to her. Not in a way where I think I'm still Van to this day, but more in a sense of she's this little delicate fairy that needs somebody to, like, give her a hug and tell her it's okay.

Particularly after Season 3, I really felt that for her, which will become obvious when this last episode drops. In Season 4, it's sort of this homecoming feeling, and it's not the end of the search for identity for any of the characters in terms of what the future is holding and whatnot. The last few seasons really felt like she's supposed to be the strong person, the strong woman, the strong Black woman—but she's delicate! I want her to know that I am holding her hand.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she's not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey's Twitter feed. 

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