Colman Domingo is keeping busy these days. He currently is in movie theaters in the remake of ‘The Running Man.’ Coming next year he plays Joe Jackson in a biopic on Michael Jackson.
Courtesy photo
By Bill Vaughan
Entertainment Writer
One would be hard pressed to find a harder working actor these days than COLMAN DOMINGO. Just this year alone, he was featured in Netflix’ “The Four Seasons” and currently may be seen in movie theaters in the remake of “The Running Man” as well as being heard as the voice of the Cowardly Lion in “Wicked: For Good.”
“Am I a seducer of people? Possibly,” he admitted to Tasty Clips in 2016 when asked of his similarities to Victor Strand, the enigmatic character he brought to life on AMC’s hit series “Fear the Walking Dead.” “I seduce in a different way. I seduce with laughter.”
The self-described “bit of a wild card” from Philadelphia had been tearing it up for years with an impressive array of roles in history dramas: “Selma,” “The Butler,” “Lincoln” and Cinemax’s “The Knick.”
The topic turns to those experiences. “Ava [DuVernay] embraces each one of her cast every single day,” he recalled. “She really leads them with love. Then you have people like Lee Daniels who gets into your psyche and helps you break certain tropes that you do with your work. I learned a lot from Lee.”
Domingo has also sharpened his craft with stage legend Susan Stroman; Spike Lee, who he likened to a “basketball coach basically;” the trusting Clint Eastwood; and visionary Steven Spielberg, who he called “one of the loveliest men you’ll ever work with.”
The refuge of live theater had also become his domain with roles in “Passing Strange,” “Billy Flynn,” and “The Scottsboro Boys” for which he earned a musical Tony nomination.
“I pull that out when I need to,” he said after a laugh. “I think of myself as a character singer. I’m no Audra MacDonald or Norm Lewis, but I can tell a story with my voice.”
This stylish renaissance man has since shined in films “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Zola,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Sing Sing,” for which he was nominated for a “Best Actor” Oscar.
Domingo at the time was researching musicals for a Nat King Cole project he was writing (which he will direct and star in); and had just obtained the rights to a biography of James Baldwin.
“I think his story is an important one to tell and it’s ripe for the times,” he said of the iconic author’s life. “We have to examine his history, and his struggle, and his mind to examine what’s happening in America today politically, economically, socially. You name it and it is the story of progress and hope.”
We also chatted about the embattled biopic “The Birth of a Nation” in which he portrayed Hark, a documented brother in arms to slave revolt leader Nat Turner.
Of the controversy that shrouded the movie’s acquitted director Nate Parker and co-writer Jean Celestin, he hoped that the piece could stand on its own merit.
“The film was made by over 400 other artists as well,” he said. “Nate led the charge but there were over 400 people whose blood, sweat and tears went into the telling of Nat Turner’s story and it needs to be out there.
“It’s such a sensitive case and something that was 17 years ago in someone’s private exchange, or three people or whoever it was,” continued Domingo of the duo’s campus rape charges. “I leave it to them. It’s not for me to try someone again for something I have no privy to.”
He wistfully hoped that people would discover the film on the merits of his participation and co-stars Gabrielle Union, Aja Naomi King and Roger Guenveur Smith.
“These are people who stand always for justice for humankind, and they’re very interested in telling the story of an American hero that no one has been trying to tell.”
Next year, look for Domingo to continue his role as a counselor on HBO’s “Euphoria” and to embody Joe Jackson for “Michael” a biopic about Michael Jackson.
For more than 11 years, Bill Vaughan has kept Wave readers up to date with the latest news in entertainment. Now, we are collecting some of those past columns into what we call the Best of Tasty Clips. To contact Vaughan, visit his social media pages on Facebook and Instagram or @tasty_clips, on X @tastyclips, and on LinkedIn to William Vaughan.
