Colman Domingo left everything on screen in his newest role of a wrongfully convicted man.
In “Sing Sing,” Domingo stars as John “Divine G” Whitfield, a real-life person who served as a leader in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program while incarcerated. RTA is a program that brings creative art workshops to over 230 incarcerated men and women across the country. As Whitfield fights for his release from prison, he finds belonging in a group of incarcerated men who are creating a theatrical stage show production through the program.
The role required Domingo to stretch himself emotionally and give, what he calls, his most liberating performance yet. The Oscar nominee had just finished filming “The Color Purple” and was preparing to film “Rustin” when he began production on “Sing Sing” in 2022. Domingo says in a new interview with theGrio that he only had 18 days to complete the movie, forcing him to let go and dig deep.
“Usually, I take myself through a very rigorous process of research and all this other detail that might drive a person crazy, but that’s my process,” the 54-year-old actor shares. “But this [film], I had to liberate myself in a different way. I had to just find out what was human, what was deeply connected to me as just a Black man in the world.”
“I could actually be in this situation, or could have been in the situation, and my life path would have gone a different way,” he adds. “But to cling to life and hope and art the way [Whitfield] has, because I think that’s what he had to do, and that’s truly essence of a spirit.”
Domingo says that he also had to liberate himself “with a company of men who may not have been professional actors, but they had respect for the craft.” “Sing, Sing” stars several actors who are formerly incarcerated people and participants in the RTA program playing former versions of themselves, including Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who received critical acclaim for his performance.
“I couldn’t come in with any preconceived notions about them or their process. I had to be completely free and that’s the only way we can create a film that, I believe, has more soul work happening than anything.”
Domingo tells theGrio that he was a “leader” on set among the cast, but he made sure the other actors, whom he calls “craftsmen,” felt supported and had “the space to do their work.”
“I trusted that they were men who really did the work when they were in these programs, when they were incarcerated, and some of them do the work outside of it,” he explains. “Many of them have never done a film before. I never took that as something that was not great. I thought, ‘Oh, what a great opportunity that we can create something different.’ The texture will feel different; the authenticity will feel different because they have lived experience.”
Domingo gets emotional during his interview with theGrio while talking about one scene in particular, where his character embraces Maclin after being released from prison. In the scene, Whitfield has a complete breakdown, sobbing and releasing years of emotion, once Maclin hugs him.
“That scene was rewritten at least 20 times,” Domingo says about the scene that director Greg Kwedar shot in only one take.
“By the time we were going to shoot it, I asked Greg to give us a take where — we already have the bones of the scenes inside of us, but I think we just need to let it play out,” he says. “All I need to know from my character is that he’s been incarcerated for 25 years, wrongly convicted of a crime for 25 years. His last parole was seven years prior, where he had to stay on the inside. My own secret is his mother passed away as well, so he had no one waiting for him at the end.”
“That scene, we shot it once and we knew that was it,” Domingo explains. Describing the scene as “organic and guttural,” Domingo says he had no idea that he would “let out that wail” the way he did.
“That came from my brother Clarence hugging me. The shared history of ‘this man can hold my pain, my trauma.’ It became, for me, a tied bow around our story of these two men who you never thought would get along at all, and suddenly they are truly responsible to each other on the outside. You got somebody there — Oh, I’m about to cry — you got somebody out there who’s got your back.”
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Domingo, who was previously nominated for an Academy Award for his role in “Rustin,” is already receiving Oscar buzz for his performance in “Sing Sing.” The actor says the accolades are nice — not because of the glitz and glam, but because of the light it shines on the film and its meaning.
“I think if it leads people to the film and the messages of the film, how wonderful,” Domingo concludes. “I made this with love. I made this with respect for these men, believing that their stories mattered. That’s why I was a producer on the film as well. I think stories like this matter. This is what I want to be out into the world. And if we get amplification and all this buzz and nominations and awards, I say, bring it on.”
