Colman Domingo
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Oh, man, thank you so much. It's a beautiful film. It's a film about the power of art, and when you pour it into a human being, what blossoms. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's what it's about.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I did, actually.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
You know, listen, I was a very shy kid and, like, just a nerd, and I just felt like, you know, unpopular. And honestly, the moment I took a theater class, and it sounds so, like, silly in a way, but I took a theater class. Yeah. And I felt like I came alive because I started to put myself in someone else's shoes and become other characters. And I really felt like I had a voice.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
And literally, I think my voice dropped into a deeper place. And usually, even when I teach acting, every so often I would teach acting, I teach people more than anything to have a voice. I think that's the most important thing that you get out of learning theater in every single way. So that's the gift that I was given. And that's what I like to share with other people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
And that's why this film is very important to me because I feel like it's just about finding your voice, finding that you have feelings, you can name them, and you can actually place them. And actually, it does some really good work in our film. It's based on our Rehabilitation of the Arts program at Sing Sing Prison, where these inmates were doing theater.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
And they really gained some skills that they didn't know that they even needed. And so much so that it just transformed their lives. Yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
90%.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
It's...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Thank God. Thank God, finally. But you know what's kind of cool is that these guys had the lived experience of going through this. But also, they were trained while they were on the inside. So I was working with actors. People had training and had respect for Shakespeare. And, you know, we were just doing the work together. So we sat at the table and we just collaborated in a very gentle way.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Now, these guys, a lot of guys were in prison maybe 20 years, 25 years. And so, but I love, it's a little subversive because when you see the film, you don't know really. Well, now you know because I told you. But you don't know really still because it feels like a documentary in some way. But then you realize that people are playing versions of themselves when they were inside.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
It's really incredible.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I love that it's so meta, because a lot of these guys actually were, we filmed in two decommissioned prisons in upstate New York, and a lot of guys passed through those prisons. Downstate is one of those prisons that everyone sort of lands at, and then they're spread out throughout New York.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
But a lot of guys were like, Clarence Macklin Jr., literally, he said he was in, we were filming one scene, and he knew, he said, oh no, there was a cell that I was in before. So it had that meta, but it also had a meta quality that my best friend, Sean San Jose, is actually my best friend.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Exactly. I've known him for 30 years. He's another professional actor that I know from San Francisco. So there is the meta of... That's why I think it feels like a documentary, because there's something really real happening.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
And I feel like, you know, there's no real... The only agenda is looking into a person's humanity and filling it with art and hope. That's the agenda of the film.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Which is so rare because usually anytime you see a prison drama or something, it's all these tropes that you usually see. It's violence. It's a horror story.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Now, I'm not going to say it's not a horror story, but inside there are other people in there, people who are like trying to advocate for others, who are in the law library trying to advocate for good food or make sure their fellow inmate is ready for their parole board hearing.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
or starting theater programs or gardening or taking care of animals and things like that, and how it's having a profound effect on them. So much so, and I love to give this out because a lot of people don't know, like, I didn't know about this until I started going on this journey, that there is a 3% recidivism rate amongst members who go through this program compared to 60% nationwide.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
So it's something that works. Is that right? That's the truth, yeah. Yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Yeah, yeah. But also, I'd like to say, the film is actually really funny, too, which no one would ever believe when you think, oh, it's about inmates. You're like, it's actually really funny. These guys are doing some, first of all, we have a whole crazy play musical that we're doing.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
It's based on a real, it's called Breaking the Mummy's Code. And you have everything in there from mummies and Freddy Krueger. So you've got these grown men putting on a play and watching them in their antics and rolling around on the floor and being silly. But also it brings out these really warm feelings.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I feel like I know anyone that I know who's watched it, they're very surprised because they go in thinking it's going to be one thing. And they walk out feeling filled with so much hope and love for their fellow man. And I think that's what we need right now. We need more warm feelings, right? We need those warm feelings. We do. We do.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
No?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
You can't. I just feel like it's... You're going to kill it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I don't know. I just think it's in, like, I don't know. It's something... I'm a little superstitious about that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Any award that I've ever won, a lot of times I'm working and I'm not able to be at an award show. Sure. Which I always feel like, well, maybe that's good because maybe I don't know. I'm going to react like a weirdo or something. Yeah. Or... I'm at the awards show and literally my publicist, she literally told me, she said, you didn't expect to win, did you?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I said, I don't even think about winning. I just sit and I'm happy to be there. I'm just with a big smile on my face, hugging and kissing on people. And I'm like, oh, wow, I got to get to the stage and say something. But then I try to trust that I'll be in the moment and I'll try to say something loving. I'll try to say something appealing to the moment. And that's all I can do.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
But I don't want to, I'm not going to be standing there like, oh, I want to, you know, first thing. Thank God. You know, I'll thank God on my own. But I feel like, you know what I mean? That's personal. I'm not judging people who do that. But I'm just saying that, like... Wow. Wow. Things are really dark here. No, I think it's important, but that's private for me.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
For me, I think I like to have those private conversations and I'll say something to appeal to the moment. But I think, like, I'll thank you afterwards. Really?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
What I look like? No. Yeah, I do have to. I actually, because I'm such a, I thought for a long time nobody would recognize this face. But now they recognize it everywhere. And so I have to dress for it as well. Because also, because I've sort of, me and my stylist have been sort of slaying the game when it comes to this thing.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
It's true.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I mean, it's fun to dress, and I want to get more guys to dress. You said you wore that blue suit for me. I did.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
It's great, man. But I also think that that's what it's all about. And I love the idea that this Met Gala is going to be centered on tailoring towards the black dandy, which is interesting. So it's honoring black men's style throughout history. And literally, I just had a meeting at the Costume Institute, and I was blown away in an extraordinary way, because it's really looking at tailoring
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
there's so much more to it than one would even imagine. But it's historical. It's also how people define themselves and redefine themselves. And then how they show up in the world. And I feel like I know as a black man in the world, I know that the way I show up I mean, look at all these basketballers and stuff like that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
Everybody's stunting now when they come out because they're telling a story and they're showing how they define themselves and redefine themselves regardless of the way the world may perceive them. They're like, no. And you do that with style. So what I'm telling you all is get a good sense of style. Thank you. Work on it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
How about how about a Carol Burnett?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Elon Crashes the Oval Office, Trump Pushes Gaza Takeover | Colman Domingo
I'll do that.