When Coleman Domingo thinks about the characters he's played, he's reminded of a lyric from an Abbey Lincoln song: "I've got some people in me."
"I believe everyone lives in me and everyone calls on me to help tell their story," Domingo says. "It is metabolized in me. .. I'm not a method actor, but I can go very deep with my characters."
Domingo is nominated for two Emmy Awards this year for two very different performances. In the Netflix comedy The Four Seasons, he plays Danny, one half of a long-married gay couple who vacation each year with their oldest friends. And in the final season of HBO's Euphoria, Domingo returns as Ali, a man in long-term recovery who has spent the series trying to help a drug-addicted teen stay alive. Domingo won an Emmy for the role in 2022, and this year, he's nominated for his performance in the series finale.
It's the latest chapter in a remarkable stretch for Domingo, whose rise in Hollywood came after decades in the theater. He started in regional productions in San Francisco, then moved to New York, where he performed on Broadway and wrote and directed his own plays.
In his 40s, Hollywood caught up with him, and since then, he's had a run of steady roles, including back-to-back Oscar nominations for Rustin and Sing Sing. He played Joe Jackson in the biopic Michael, co-starred in Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day, and recently has hosted Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Interview Highlights
On being an avid learner
I was a very curious kid. I come from a very humble place. I come from inner city, West Philadelphia, a lot of blue-collar folks. I was the first in my family to go to college. I think I knew that my power was in learning and in education … and get as much as you can from every situation.
So you name it, whatever show I'm on, I can't just go in there just as an actor. I will always end up as a director and a producer, you name it because I have that interest. … When I did the show Fear the Walking Dead, I started as No. 9 on the call sheet, ended in No. 2 and [as] a director, and a producer. Because it was that thing that my mother told me — get everything you can out of it. And it's not taking from it, but just learning, and learning, and then figuring out what can you give to it.
On pivoting to comedy in The Four Seasons
When I first got the invitation to be a part of it, I thought ... well, why me, in particular? I'm not really known for comedy. But I think that what Tina and the rest of the gang could tell is that I'm willing, and I'm game. I'm very known for these very dramatic roles, whether it's Bayard Rustin in Rustin or Mister in The Color Purple or Ali in Euphoria. And so I love defying people's expectations of me. … I hadn't relied on those comedic chops in a long time. So to lean into that … felt new and fresh again for me, especially this late in my career. … I love a challenge. And if there's something I haven't done before, I sort of run towards it. … I'm not afraid to be wrong or to make bad choices or to grow from them.
On working alongside comedy stars like Tina Fey and Steve Carrell on The Four Seasons
The funny thing is about funny people — and I'll tell you this, and I wonder if they would say this about themselves — they don't naturally laugh when something's funny, because they're like mad scientists. They almost look at the math of it. … "That's good. I wonder how that happened. You did this. You turned on this line. You gave a pause. You give a beat." Most comedians I know are very serious people, I think, and also, they're also a bit shy. … But they know how to get the thing done like mathematicians. They look at it in that framework, which I think is fascinating.
On directing and acting simultaneously
I don't know if everyone's brain is meant for that, but I feel like I have one of those brains. … I can handle a lot of frisbees up in the air at the same time. … I think it starts with the way I came into this industry, which was learning by going to rehearsals I wasn't even in. I would go and sit … and I would watch. And I will watch all departments and what was going on, so I had a handle of everything. And also, if I was invited to be in a scene, I would be able to take a look at what I'm doing and how the engine of what I am doing is forwarding the whole thing. So I'm never just focused solely as an actor, or as a writer, or a director. I'm looking at the whole picture at all times. So I know I can manage that. So I think that that's what my brain naturally does.
On the men who inspired his interpretation of Joe Jackson, patriarch of the Jackson family, for the biopic Michael
All the blue-collar men that I know of a certain generation who were raised pre-civil rights. The men who maybe had a third grade education, who … [believed in] working hard, showing up, showing up for your family. … It's the Great Migration men — men that I have a soft spot for, that I understand.
My stepfather … had a seventh grade education. … He had very rigorous rules, which was about education, doing your homework, being a man of your word, chores. He was tough. When he came home, you better make sure the house was clean. You had to make sure your chores were done. He would come in exhausted from work. …
It was my mother's job to give us the nurturing, and the comfort, and the care for school, and sweetness. But my stepfather was tough and I think that I understood that kind of man. I'm like, OK, now let me get into the headspace of that man, that man who's got to support the Jackson family. … I had to look at the lens of being a father and a parent. I couldn't let the court of public opinion what people said about him be the truth.
On whether he felt pressured to soften his portrayal of Joe Jackson, since the film was produced by the Jackson family
I didn't feel pressure to soften him. I wanted to make him as complex as I thought that he was. And I wanted to love him as well.
On working alongside incarcerated actors in Sing Sing
I've never been in a production of any sort with people who actually have the real lived experience. And I sort of had to blend into that, so I knew I had to bring a bit more of myself. … As a Black man in America, I could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly be in a situation like this. It's not that foreign. And so I'll bring my experience, what fears would I have? How would I try to hold on to my humanity? … When [the men] would tell me their stories, and they would talk about how they would work with each other, and what they were doing in practice with the theater, they were exhibiting tenderness. … It's not a word associated with prison. Especially prison with men, in particular, men of color.
On loving being in his 50s
I really love being in my 50s. … I've told people this and they don't believe it. I said: I'm gonna do a lot more between now and ... 61, 62, and then I'm going to live a bit softer in a way, because I feel like I've been building so much and I feel that I don't want things to pass me by. …
Right now, I'm still working a lot and putting out a lot but ... I think your life should be about becoming other things, too. … I think it's just my curiosity. I just wanna keep learning, and growing, and becoming something different, and want to learn new languages, and learning how I fit in this body. Will this body change? … I'm curious about evolving. So I don't feel like that I'm rushing anything. I feel like if anything right now, I'm taking more time and being very conscious about time with people.
Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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