Rory Culkin's Viral Swarm Penis Scene Was Apparently Inspired By Donald Glover's Own Hook-Up

From confusion and surprise to thirst and awe, people were shocked when they saw that scene in Prime Video’s Swarm. You know, the scene where a nude Rory Culkin offers strawberries to Dre after they hooked up? Yeah, that one. It went viral, and now, Janine Nabers, the co-creator of the Amazon Prime series, has revealed that this awkward viral moment was actually inspired by a story Donald Glover, the show's other co-creator, told her about an awkward hook-up of his own, that involved cherries. 

The scene in question comes right after Dre, the show’s main character, loses her virginity after meeting and hooking up with a random dude (played by Rory Culkin) at a club. When she wakes up, Culkin’s character is naked and washing a bowl of strawberries. He walks over to Dominique Fishback’s character with the glass bowl of berries, and he offers her one while holding the see-through bowl against his flaccid penis.  Turns out this incredibly awkward scene was inspired by a story Donald Glover told Janine Nabers, and she told Insider how this true story helped inspire this now viral scene in Swarm.

Donald told this very funny story about a girl who he really liked, and how after they hooked up, he was standing there with a bowl of cherries, just being like, 'Hey,’ She was like, so not into it, because it's so weird to hook up with a guy that you barely know and then wake up with him holding a bowl of cherries.

They say art imitates life, and I guess this time, life inspired the art, because after hearing the story from the Community alum, Nabers said she had to put it into their new show. She said that Glover was down, and explained:

I was like, 'I'm stealing that. And he was like, 'All right.' So I just ran with it.

She ran with it, but she changed the fruit from cherries to strawberries, and it paid off, because now tons of people are talking about and watching this new and unique psychological horror thriller. Rory Culkin only has this small role in the Swarm cast, but because of Donald Glover’s own awkward hook-up, his naked strawberry moment will likely never be forgotten by anyone who watches Swarm. 

Along with this viral strawberry hook-up, Swarm is also making headlines for being Billie Eilish’s acting debut. The entire show is quite eerie and creepy, but also darkly funny – see the hookup scene – and Eilish and the cast are already giving viewers chills. The series has garnered quite a bit of attention because of the “Bad Guy” singer and Donald Glover being attached to the project, and now that it’s out, its shocking scenes are also grabbing the internet’s attention. 

To see what all the talk is about, strawberries, penis and all, you can watch this 2023 TV schedule entry with an Amazon Prime subscription

Riley Utley
Weekend Editor

Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.