All in the Details

Colman Domingo has arrived at his leading-man moment, becoming a vibrant red-carpet presence in the process. But, as he tells Marley Marius, it starts with the little things.

- Marley Marius

Out there is a video, captured on someone's phone, in which Colman Domingo, star of last year's affecting prison drama Sing Sing, can be seen onstage during the Oscars, doing a jaunty little dance. As he bops along to Maze's "Before I Let Go," his lank frame a blur of scarlet and black Valentino, he shouts out members of the audience-"C'mon, Cynthia! C'mon, Penélope!"-not that they need much persuading: The entire front row, from Kylie Jenner to Demi Moore, is on their feet.

Some 30 years into his professional acting career, the 55-year-old Domingo is surely one of the most celebrated men in Hollywood right now. Not celebrated as in winningest, per se-though he's won an Emmy and been nominated for two Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, four SAG Awards, two Tonys (including one as a producer), and an Olivier-but in the "wow, people love this guy" way. Bradley Cooper has called him "a luminous human being." George C. Wolfe has praised his "joyful, playful, available spirit." Per Oprah Winfrey, Domingo is "the real deal."