When getting ready to conduct an interview, I always err on the side of overpreparation, with each question I have written out to the letter so that if I forget how to form sentences in the presence of someone I admire (something I am irrationally afraid of, as it has never actually happened), all I have to do is look down and read from my iPad verbatim. It’s sort of a crutch, a safety blanket to put my mind at ease, considering I look over the questions so many times that I have them memorized as well as the dialogue from my freshman-year high school, which I can still recall to this day. Still, I usually find myself glancing at my screen every so often anyway — a nervous tic, perhaps.

Colman Domingo breaks this habit. I hear him before I see him as I sit outside a hotel room at The London West Hollywood in late March. He’s in the middle of a long press day for Michael, wherein he plays the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask, though that’s certainly not Domingo’s read) Jackson patriarch, but you’d never know it — nor would you suspect it’s a Monday morning. Domingo is wide awake and contagiously joyful, his smooth, deep voice and booming laugh echoing into the hall as he jokes with his team. Like the rest of the world, I have always been obsessed with Domingo’s impeccable sense of style, so I am delighted to walk in and discover we are wearing the same color, my monochrome set matching the textured burgundy leather jacket he has on over a white tank top. I tell the camera person they don’t need to record my side of the conversation — that I won’t be posting the video of myself anywhere — but Domingo thinks they should roll on me anyway. “You’re in a good wine color. You’ve got to be seen!” In addition to being a hype man, Domingo is also a gentleman, standing up to formally greet me with a firm handshake and warm smile before we take a seat across from each other. It’s then that the entire room, with all its cameras, lighting equipment, and PR reps, seems to melt away. We are around eight feet apart, but it feels more like eight inches. There’s a magnetic quality that Domingo possesses, gently inviting you into his orbit. He is quite possibly the most attentive listener I have ever met. Domingo’s work might be everywhere at the moment — Michael, Euphoria Season 3, Saturday Night Live, Disclosure Day — but right now, he is only here with me. Throughout the entire 30-minute conversation, he doesn’t shift in his seat, fidget with his hands, or break eye contact, and it subconsciously inspires me to do the same: to be still, to be present.
Domingo Isn’t Just an Actor — He’s an Archivist

Photography by Sela Shiloni for Collider

It’s immediately apparent that there’s a natural curiosity to Domingo, a quality he attributes to his mother. “She talked to everybody,” he recalls with a fond chuckle. “I used to be annoyed when I was a kid. I’m like, ‘Why can’t she get out of the bank without talking to everybody?’ And I’ve become just like her.” While I can attest that being on the receiving end of that attention can make you feel pretty special, Domingo admits that it’s a little selfish. “I want to feel whole and connected to people on this earth and different experiences. I think that’s part of what keeps me grounded, and happy, and joyful, and still doing what I’m doing.” In addition to growing up with an extroverted mother, Domingo credits one of his first jobs — a bookseller at Barnes and Noble — with feeding his hunger for knowledge. “I used to take care of two sections: self-help and travel. That’ll explain a lot,” he says with a laugh. “I read a lot of self-help books. I think I was very interested in, ‘How do you become a person?’ I wanted to be different, whatever that was. I wanted to be an evolved human being. I wanted to know, ‘How do you do it? How do you become a good adult?’ And then I was, of course, fascinated with travel — being curious about other places and other people. I think that’s the thing that keeps me buoyant and fascinated with life. I’m curious about experiences. I really care about, ‘Oh, where are you from? What’s your story?’”

“I think that’s the greatest thing we can do with this art form — is to show us that we’re more alike than unalike.”

It makes sense, then, that Domingo graduated from Temple University with a major in journalism with dreams of being a war photographer. Though he ultimately never pursued the career, he did use his skills taking headshots for other performers during a particularly discouraging point in his acting career, which saw him rejected for a role in Boardwalk Empire because his skin was “too dark.” Domingo also has teaching experience, lecturing at the University of Texas at Austin, O’Neill National Theater Institute, and University of Wisconsin-Madison between 2014 and 2016. Besides acting in film and television, he has an extensive theater career that includes playwriting, directing, and producing for the stage. It’s an eclectic combination, and I ask Domingo how he thinks they all relate to one another. “Years ago, a friend of mine — my friend Candace [Allen] — said to me, ‘You know what you are? You’re an archivist. You’re documenting who we are right now, using your platforms to still have that journalistic heart. You’re really trying to connect us.’ And I thought that was such a great way to put it. I think that’s the greatest thing we can do with this art form — is to show us that we’re more alike than unalike.”
Domingo Stepped Into the Shoes (and Hair, and Skin) of Joe Jackson

It is, admittedly, a little disorienting hearing Domingo’s voice come out of his own mouth after watching it come out of someone who looks very different just a few nights prior while attending a screening of Michael. The craftspeople behind the project, from the makeup artists to the hairstylists, totally transform him. He completely disappears behind green contacts, prosthetics, and even lighter skin to more accurately match the patriarch. Domingo praises the “great team of professionals,” noting that every detail added to his performance. While the physical aspects helped him, he confesses that it could be a bit jarring for him as well. “You look in the mirror, and suddenly, you’re like, ‘I don’t even look like myself.’” Domingo doesn’t have a set attitude or routine with which he approaches every project. “I think each opportunity and each set creates a different path for you, so you have to be malleable,” he explains. “I know some actors may think that they need to apply the same rigor or the same energy to every set — I just don’t believe that. I believe that everyone has their own intricacies, and you have to really lean into that, and with all the energies on set. It’s all psychological, so you have to be open and available to that and see, ‘Oh, this is what my job is on this set,’ which is different from the last set.” His job on Michael required a unique intensity he recognizes was somewhat at odds with the “soft, fuzzy, playful human being” he is at his core. “I’ll be very honest, I know that my energy on this set was different than other sets, because I had to come in strong,” he admits. “A lot of times, as actors, we come in, and the lighting’s not set up, or they’re adjusting lights and things like that — that couldn’t happen with me. I said, ‘No, no, no — I have to come in ready to work, because that’s what my character needs. I can’t come in and wait, because he’s not a waiting kind of person.’ I knew that there had to be a different reality of the way I approached set life that made sense for me, so I could stay in it. I’m not a method actor, but I stay close to my character.”

“I’m not a method actor, but I stay close to my character.”

Part of that near-method technique included not coming to set unless he was in full hair and makeup so as not to break the illusion with his young castmates, including Juliano Krue Valdi, who plays Michael as a child before Jaafar Jackson takes over for his adult years. “I knew that I could only come to set fully as Joe Jackson. I wanted to come in as their very strong father figure. I needed that reality created with us, and I knew it was important for them as well, so they looked at me as someone who was a bit more of a disciplinarian — that whatever character and story that we had was clear.” Domingo acknowledges that the lines between fiction and reality got a bit blurred with his young co-stars due to the immersive, meta nature of the approach. “As a more seasoned actor, I needed them to know the responsibility of working on a set and how we’re going to be efficient with our work. When we call action, we get to work. That’s a little bit of Joe Jackson, and it’s a little bit of myself as a professional, making sure that they knew how we’re going to get this done. A lot of them, it was their first film, and I know they’re probably looking at me, asking, ‘How do we set the tone? How do we do the work?’ I want them to know the rigors of a set.” Working with the adult Jackson family cast had similarities and differences. While the intensity stayed, Domingo felt less pressure to maintain it so strongly the entire time he was on set. “They were more of my comrades,” he says of the older actors. “Not my contemporaries, but my comrades — and I knew that they were looking at me, going, ‘How do I navigate and negotiate a set? How do I show up for work every day?’ I show up with a very rigorous work ethic, because that’s all I know, but I was probably a bit more playful with them because I knew that they could do that dance with me. They didn’t have to be shrouded in that reality of, ‘I’m playing your father.’ I felt like I could let go a little bit.”
Domingo Doesn’t Think Joe Jackson Is the Villain

Photography by Sela Shiloni for Collider

All of the physical elements undeniably helped Domingo play Joe Jackson, but he knew he had to be careful that they didn’t make him feel like a caricature. “You didn’t want to feel like you were doing mask work or playing it too big,” Domingo says. “If anything, I needed to look for more subtlety in my performance. The makeup is doing so much, so I have to go deeper and find even more nuances within this character. That was the joy and the challenge at the same time.” Joe Jackson is undoubtedly a controversial figure. Several of his children accused him of physical and emotional abuse, and he had a reputation for being demanding and domineering, hungry for success for himself and his family at any cost. But Domingo wasn’t interested in his reputation as much as he was diving into his psyche and dissecting his motivations. “I feel like it’s my job as an artist to find out what makes them more complicated and interesting to me,” he says. “I like to look from their lens and not from what everyone else has supposed them to be. I think…the reality of Joe Jackson was someone who was a bit more complicated than I think people may want to attest to. Nothing is black and white. Nothing is what it appears to be. People who’ve worked in business with him, they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s a very tough guy — very hard.’ If someone says, ‘Oh, that’s a very tough person,’ I want to find out why they’re tough. I wanted to go to the interior life of Joe and see what his operating systems were from the way he was raised, the way he worked, and what his work ethic was.” One example has to do with Joe’s notoriously quick temper and sharp words, which Domingo believes were likely masking something more vulnerable: a wound created by his own difficult upbringing in the Jim Crow South during the Great Depression. “A lot of times, people’s actions are not because they’re angry or mad — it could be they’re hurt, or they want to be heard. Maybe they feel voiceless — maybe they feel they’re doing what they can do to survive — and for me, that creates a bit more empathy instead of villainizing anyone.” Early in the interview, Domingo offers a disclaimer that he had never met Joseph Jackson. Because of that, he had to do two things when creating the character: research and drawing from people he does know personally. The latter came especially handy for one scene when, after a producing session with Quincy Jones, a young Michael hugs him while Joe looks on from the doorway, expression unreadable. “I was assuming…that he’s probably not a touchy-feely person,” Domingo says as he explains what’s going through Joe’s mind in that moment. “He’s not that warm, fuzzy, ‘come up and grab and hold them’ type. I think he’s somebody who probably wants that, but he doesn’t know how to ask for it. I think he probably wanted it. I’d like to believe that. And maybe it’s based on relationships that I know with very strong men. Maybe it’s my own stepfather, to be honest.” Domingo remembers his stepfather as a “tough, strong, blue-collar guy” — a stark contrast to his own personality. “I was a bit more sensitive and not really a ‘guy’s guy,’” he explains. “I remember this one time, I watched him wrestle with my younger brother — they call it ‘wrastling.’ They were wrastling together on the bed, and I thought, ‘He never does that with me.’ I thought, ‘What does that feel like — if you want that, but you don’t even know how to ask for it?’ Joe is caught up in his ways of how he was taught how to be a father, and to be tough, yet he watches a moment of tenderness with Quincy Jones, and he feels some kind of way, and it’s a bit complicated.”

“I think…the reality of Joe Jackson was someone who was a bit more complicated than I think people may want to attest to.”

Joe was also known to pick on Michael’s appearance, particularly his nose, which gives special weight to the scene where Joe discovers Michael has gotten a nose job. Domingo worked closely with director Antoine Fuqua to get it just right. “We found that moment together,” he says. “Joe knows his son. He knows all his son’s feelings about self or self-worth. I think that he may understand that he probably fed into it. From what I know, he used to tease Michael about his nose, but teasing him in a way, I believe, that was not being hurtful, but how you’re trying to toughen somebody up. At least that was my perspective. I don’t know the reality of that. But when you tease another person, you don’t know they’re really taking it in deeply, and it’s really messing with their psyche and their self-worth. I don’t know if Joe understood that because of his lack of evolution in that way of understanding somebody else’s feelings. He’s unpacking a lot in that. His reaction is probably, ‘It’s funny and weird,’ but also, ‘What did I do?’ and how devastating it is. I love to leave it in the hands of the audience of what the feeling is.” The relationship with his children wasn’t the only important one in Joe’s life — he was also married to his wife, Katherine, for nearly 70 years, until his passing in 2018. Nia Long plays Katherine in the film, and she and Domingo discussed their dynamic at length to build an authentic, lived-in chemistry. “We had to really examine them as a long-term couple that’s been through a lot,” Domingo says. “They have a lot of children. They’ve come from nothing together and then built this empire together. What does that look like? What does it look like in private spaces?” Finding quieter, sweeter moments ended up being the key to unlocking the power couple. “When we were doing the scenes with the younger family, we had some moments of tenderness that I think may not have been in the script, to be very honest,” Domingo reveals. “Nia and I would question that. I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, they’ve had 10 children — there had to be some tenderness in that family and between these two. For this family to be together, there had to be some laughter. There had to be some joy. It wasn’t always just hard rigor, work ethic, superstardom.’ So we started there to really layer our performances together to say that these two were a team, even in little moments. It starts from the early scenes, when Katherine is looking on while I’m instilling rigor in our boys because he wants them to be the best. She’s looking at me, and she’s very proud. She knows that this is very meaningful to Joseph, and it makes him feel like he has some worth by pouring it into his children.” Things, however, are far from always sunshine and rainbows. As time goes on, Katherine gets increasingly worried about Joe’s treatment of their children, questioning his methods. She voices her concerns and disapproval in several tense scenes, wherein Joe responds with a surprising lack of violence or rage. “She’s the one who Joseph can sort of bow to,” Domingo says of Katherine. “That’s his equal — that’s his partner. She knows him, and she can say things that many people couldn’t say. We wanted to create that complicated nature of a relationship and that push-pull struggle. He does need her. He needs her to co-sign on what he needs. That’s his partner, whether he can admit it clearly or not. As a character in the movie, he will do some things on his own, but he does need her approval.” The original cut of Michael was over three and a half hours, with producer Graham King being vocally hopeful for a sequel and Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson all but confirming that it’s happening. Domingo is fully on board for this, teasing that “there are a lot of intimate moments that are paired with the larger performative moments” that got left on the cutting room floor of this installment. “Jaafar did a few more performances that are fantastic, apparently — like, huge performances — so if there does happen to be another sequel or something, I hope there’s a way to use that.”
From Sabrina Carpenter to ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Domingo Is Everywhere

Photography by Sela Shiloni for Collider

Domingo is no stranger to his own fantastic musical performances, namely teaming up with Sabrina Carpenter for her “Tears” music video, which has racked up a cool 74 million views on YouTube since dropping last summer. “No one saw it coming,” Domingo laughs. “I love that it came out of nowhere. People were like, ‘What is happening? Wait, what?!’” He goes on to explain that the two’s Pennsylvania roots were key in the collaboration happening. “Sabrina Carpenter is from Quakertown, PA. I’m from Philadelphia. We had been seeing each other here and there, and we had a curiosity about each other. ‘Who is she? Who is this woman?’ I love her music,” Domingo gushes. “I was one of the late ones to ‘Espresso,’ but once I got to know her music and her, she’s so joyful and sweet, it just made sense.” Domingo revealed that Carpenter originally asked him to be in her “Manchild” music video, but that he was unavailable. “And then she had the ‘Tears’ video, and she said, ‘Colman, I will put it on whatever date you need.’ And I was like, ‘Really? Okay.’ I talked to my team, they sent me the concept, and I was like, ‘This is great. Let’s lean into all of this.’ She said, ‘Are you okay with the drag part?’ I said, ‘Yeah, whatever you want me to wear.’ I was game for everything — the corsets, the bras, the stockings, the heels… until about 3:30 in the morning.” At that point in the night, shooting moved out to a cobblestone street for a big dance break, and Domingo’s feet were already killing him. “If you really look closely, I’m wearing a flat man’s shoe in that scene. First, I’m in heels, and everything’s looking glamorous, and then we go out there, and I’m literally in a Florsheim. I’m dancing, and I’m giving you all arms because I’m like, ‘I can’t get this choreography in these heels. It’s gonna be an arm show.’ So that’s how that scene came about. We rehearsed and rehearsed, and I was like, ‘Listen, it’s late. I’m exhausted. I’m also 56 years old.’ So we leaned into it. [My character is] her hype man. I’m saying to her while the music’s going over it, ‘Girl, you go. You go, girl. Do it. Yes. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, yeah, yeah!’” In typical Domingo fashion, he also made up a whole backstory for the character who appears in the five-minute video. “He’s actually married to a woman he loves. He’s feeling himself in this other world as well, and he wants you to embrace that,” he laughs. “He’s a father of five children, but he’s got this house where they just live their lives. Everyone can go into their own fantasy, and everything about it is like pure joy and leaning into just whatever you want to be, taking away boundaries.”

“He’s really written them towards me and towards my strengths. Up until Sam [Levinson], no one was really writing this complexity for me.”

Domingo also got to embrace a sillier, more lighthearted side when hosting Saturday Night Live (for which he earned rave reviews), which brought him back to his comedy roots after doing two seasons of The Big Gay Sketch Show in the late 2000s. “Kate McKinnon and I were actually castmates together,” he points out. “I haven’t lived in that world in a long time. People know me from hard-hitting dramas and heavy-duty emotional work, but most people who know me know that I have a lighthearted sense of play. I get to play again.”

Speaking of heavy-duty emotional work, Domingo is currently appearing in the third (and presumably last) season of Euphoria, which he previously said would go deeper into his character Ali’s backstory. Thematically, Domingo teases that this installment is all about belief and trying to connect with a higher power. “Everyone’s looking for some grace now this season. Beyond grace, everyone’s looking for some faith. I think Sam [Levinson] has really leaned into something greater than ourselves. Ultimately, what is it about? What is this life experience about? And then also I think that maybe it’s a thing that I know that Sam and I connect on, is that we know that love is bigger than all of us.” Despite rumored tension between Levinson and some of his cast, including Zendaya and Barbie Ferreira, Domingo has nothing but good things to say about the creator. “He’s a true collaborator,” Domingo says. “He never just says, ‘Oh, your character’s doing this.’ He’ll call me up and say, ‘What do you think about this? I’m thinking about these beats for Ali in this scene in this season.’ He really wants to please his cast and say, ‘Are you down with that?’ He always gives me some really good in-depth moments. He’s given me some of the best moments that I’ve had on television. He’s really written them towards me and towards my strengths. Up until Sam, no one was really writing this complexity for me. I go back to that episode between Season 1 and Season 2, which is a gift. It’s not only a gift for me, but it’s a gift for Zendaya and for, I think, the world. It really became a sermon about how you take care of yourself in this culture — in this world — and how everyone’s an addict in some way.”
Domingo Has Always Had an Important Voice — He’s Glad People Finally Want to Listen to It

Photography by Sela Shiloni for Collider

If you think you’re seeing a lot of Domingo now, you haven’t seen anything yet. The next few months promise to be just as busy — if not busier — than the last. Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated sci-fi film Disclosure Day premieres this June and will see Domingo in a star-studded cast that includes Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Josh O’Connor, and Eve Hewson. “I worked with him just a little bit before on Lincoln,” Domingo says, “and then he produced The Color Purple musical film, but this was long stretches of time with the greatest living director. Truly. And the kindest. I think we created something really beautiful and something that we need right now. Again, I think ultimately, maybe it’s about having faith. Maybe it’s a thematic thing that we’re all trying to figure out right now. How do we hold on to each other a bit more instead of fighting?” Domingo is also currently preparing for his directorial debut, a Nat King Cole biopic called Unforgettable. While this will be his first feature, he has been directing theater for nearly three decades, and he plans on leaning on that experience. “On every set, with everything that I do, I try to bring that sense of theater — of community — with me that we’re all doing this together,” Domingo says. “We’re all pushing that rock up the hill, and we’re all trying to make something that wasn’t there before and leave an impact. I go to my theater roots because that’s all I know where to go.”

It feels like I’m being met in a way that I always saw myself, and that’s a beautiful thing for anyone who’s been doing this for a long time.

In addition to directing, Domingo will also write, star in, and produce the film. “I’m not usually that guy,” he confesses. “I like to collaborate with many other people. But I see this. I see it in every single expression, and I know that I am the conduit to get it all done, so it makes sense for this.” He’s glad he’s finally in a position to be able to flex all of his muscles — wear all of the hats he’s so passionate about. “People want you to just be one thing — ‘you must like one or the other more’ — I’m like, ‘No, I just like to tell a story, and show up, and be useful.’” To say Domingo has had an incredible few years would be an understatement. From winning an Emmy in 2022, to being nominated for a Tony as a producer in 2023, to earning back-to-back Oscar nods in 2024 and 2025, that’s the kind of run most people could only ever dream of. After so much heartbreak and rejection, it seems people are finally paying attention to Domingo and appreciating just how special he really is. I ask Domingo what these past few years have taught him, both about himself and the industry. “I think it taught me that I have a larger voice,” he says. “And maybe it was a voice that I always believed that I could have and make an impact [with]. I’ve followed my own sort of North Star as an artist to get here for a long time as a multi-hyphenate. I’m very proud that, in these last years, I’ve shown up fully, and I’m fully evolved as myself. I’m not limited in my expression, so therefore, I could be in comedies and dramas, write musicals and plays, and direct TV and film. It feels like I’m being met in a way that I always saw myself, and that’s a beautiful thing for anyone who’s been doing this for a long time.” Photography: Sela Shiloni | Groomer: Jamie Richmond | Stylist: Wayman + Micah | Barber: Pierce Austin | Location: The London West Hollywood