I RECOGNIZE I'M HAVING A MOMENT'

GETTING AWARDS BUZZ FOR HIS PERFORMANCES IN RUSTIN AND THE COLOR PURPLE, THE VETERAN ACTOR IS RELISHING THE ACCLAIM-AND ENJOYING ALL THE CHAMPAGNE

- ERIC ANDERSSON

As a shy, bookish boy growing up in Philadelphia in the 1970s, Colman Domingo gravitated toward adults. He kept his mom, Edith, company in the kitchen while she cooked, and he'd join her and her girlfriends at the local watering hole Gert's with a cherry-garnished Coca-Cola in one hand and an Encyclopedia Brown novel in the other. "That was back when you could bring kids to a bar," recalls Domingo, now 54. While getting his hair cut at a local barbershop, he'd also listen to what the older folks were saying. "I was always fascinated," says Domingo, who couldn't wait to be their age. "I would think, I'm going to be really cool when I'm 40 years old.""

His 50s, as it turns out, are his best decade by far. Domingo has been working in show business for years, showcasing his range by performing on Broadway in the 2008 musical Passing Strange, cutting it up with Kate McKinnon on The Big Gay Sketch Show from 2008 to 2010 and captivating TV viewers on Fear the Walking Dead and Euphoria (for which he won an Emmy in 2022 for his role as recovering addict Ali). But in 2023 his critically acclaimed performances in Rustin, as the passionate civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, and The Color Purple, as the charismatic but abusive Mister, have transformed this self-described “journeyman” actor into a leading man—and a leading Oscar contender.