The Liberated Lifetime of Colman Domingo

The final time I talked to Colman Domingo, in 2021, his life was utterly completely different. At fifty-one, he was a profitable character actor, the sort whose face you would possibly acknowledge from a flashy supporting position on TV—say, a con man turned post-apocalyptic dictator on “Concern the Strolling Useless,” or Zendaya’s rehab sponsor on “Euphoria.” After a protracted profession in theatre, showing in musicals on Broadway and writing and directing Off Broadway, he was popping up in films—as a pimp in “Zola,” as a creepy laundromat employee in “Candyman”—and on crimson carpets, the place he’d rock a leopard-print or fuchsia swimsuit. However comparatively few individuals knew his title.

Then, in 2022, Domingo received an Emmy, for “Euphoria.” The next 12 months, he had an enormous, villainous half within the film musical “The Coloration Purple” and performed the title position in “Rustin,” George C. Wolfe’s bio-pic of the homosexual civil-rights chief Bayard Rustin. That film, which had the backing of Netflix and of Barack and Michelle Obama’s outfit Larger Floor, was a high-profile showcase for Domingo’s heart-on-his-sleeve charisma; like Rustin himself, he was lastly getting his due. The position earned Domingo an Oscar nomination for Greatest Actor. Come subsequent weekend, he stands a robust probability of getting a second consecutive nomination within the class, for the A24 drama “Sing Sing.” In different phrases, Colman Domingo is a film star now. (In reality, Out referred to as him “the primary Black homosexual film star,” a title that, with a couple of doable caveats, is difficult to dispute.)

In “Sing Sing,” which returns for a theatrical rerelease this weekend, Domingo performs an harmless man incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility who has turn out to be a number one participant in a jail theatrical troupe, a part of the nonprofit program Rehabilitation By the Arts. The movie, directed by Greg Kwedar, attracts on actual life and actual individuals—John (Divine G) Whitfield, the idea for Domingo’s character, is an alumnus of this system, and the solid contains former inmates enjoying variations of themselves, notably, his co-star Clarence (Divine Eye) Maclin.

Whereas Divine G makes artwork in constricted circumstances, Domingo has been dwelling an expansive life. After I caught him final month, over Zoom, he was at his house workplace in Malibu, the place he lives along with his husband, Raúl. (Happily, the home was unhurt by the wildfires.) He’d simply come from London, and earlier than that New York, and earlier than that Puerto Rico, the place he’d shot the Netflix sequence “The 4 Seasons,” Tina Fey’s remake of the Alan Alda movie. “You’re working with, like, the mad scientists of comedy: Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Will Forte,” he mentioned, with trademark exuberance. “And now introducing the brand new comedy ingénue . . . Colman Domingo!” Subsequent, he was off to a Mexican getaway with Tessa Thompson and Niecy Nash, after which on to the Golden Globes, the place he was nominated for “Sing Sing.” (His look: a Valentino mohair-wool tux with a flowing checkered ribbon tie.) At his desk, he wore an A24 cap and sat in entrance of framed pictures of Paul Newman and James Baldwin. Often, he acquired distracted by a squirrel or a chunk of chocolate, as we walked the lengthy path that introduced him from West Philly to late-blooming stardom. Our dialog has been edited and condensed.

After we talked in 2021, I keep in mind not figuring out which position to deal with, since you had been in 4 films directly however not the lead of any of them. Does it really feel like your life has utterly modified previously 4 years?

It has, however I can really feel on the within the place it’s been gradual, the place I’ve been making strides for a very long time. It’s wild. I’ve been working for thirty-four years, and I’ve all the time been forging my very own path. Considered one of my early brokers mentioned, “You’re a personality actor in a number one man’s physique, and it’s going to take some time for the business to know that you simply’re truly each.” I all the time believed that I may lead, but it surely’s truly very difficult to be a personality actor, and that’s the place I normally discover my pleasure: in discovery.

However the issues that I’ve led, it’s usually because I helped construct them. Even “Rustin,” I used to be part of constructing it for 4 years earlier than it truly occurred. And “Sing Sing,” as properly. For “Euphoria,” Sam Levenson truly wrote towards me. Administrators know my work, writers know my work. They’re like, This man, he can activate a dime. He can play a queer civil-rights hero, after which flip and play an abuser in “The Coloration Purple.” I’ve this twin factor taking place on a regular basis.

I learn that you simply shot “Sing Sing” within the eighteen days between “The Coloration Purple” and pickups for “Rustin.” What was it wish to plunge your self into this venture between two different issues which can be utterly completely different?

It felt prefer it had to occur. In something that I do, if I’m somewhat nervous and I really feel like I’d mess it up, that’s the place I run towards. Rustin, that’s a seismic position. I used to be on just about each single web page of the script. And “The Coloration Purple,” the place I used to be the male lead—he’s very propulsive, and he alters everybody within the movie. After which I’ve this, the place I’ve to steer with a way of generosity, to permit individuals who had by no means been on a set to do it. However I knew that I used to be prepared for it, as a result of I’ve been prepared for thirty-four years. I’ve been the lead of firms in theatres. Quite a lot of issues proper now are harkening again to my theatre days, issues that I’ve been doing that folks didn’t know that I’ve been doing. I used to all the time assume, Why do I all the time must construct it from the bottom up? Why can’t issues simply come to me? However I understand now that that’s a part of my journey.

Whenever you say you constructed “Sing Sing” from the bottom up, what did that encompass?

I’ll provide the genesis. My director, Greg Kwedar, and the co-writer, Clint Bentley, had been working at Sing Sing jail as volunteers, and so they saved considering, Wow, if we will make one thing out of this expertise with the Rehabilitation By the Arts program, it could possibly be profound. They did passes of scripts for a pair years. Six years later, no matter that they had they form of trashed. Then Greg got here up with the concept to middle on the friendship between these two males, and he thought, Oh, possibly the story’s truly smaller. It’s nearly a friendship, whereas they’re placing on this play and going by way of their parole-board hearings. He mentioned he wrote my title down on the underside of the remedy. They reached out to me for a gathering. We had a pleasant Zoom. I mentioned, “Ship me the script.” They mentioned, “We don’t have one. We now have an article from Esquire detailing this system.” And I mentioned, “Ship me that.” I learn it fairly rapidly, and I used to be like, Wow, a program like this exists? And I’m eager about these lovely photographs that they had, of those Black and brown males carrying costumes, figuring out that they’ve gone by way of the jail system, and so they regarded so filled with pleasure.