IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE

After years of slogging in Hollywood, Colman Domingo is revelling in the glory his role in Rustin has brought him 

- MAXINE PETERS

HIS Hollywood story isn’t one of overnight success or instant acclaim – there was no fairytale meeting with a talent scout or big early breakthrough that propelled him to stardom.

So for Colman Domingo, who’s quietly been grafting away for decades, earning his first Oscar nomination at the age of 54 was quite something.

“I’m old as f**k,” he told Vanity Fair. “It’s true – I’ve been working for 33 years. For me to have this time now, it’s because people have caught up with what I actually do.”

And he’s breaking a few records in the process too. Colman, who received a Best Actor nod for his role in the Netflix movie Rustin, is the first Afro-Latino ever to be nominated in the category and the first gay black man to earn an Oscar nomination for playing a gay character.

“I know so many journeymen in this industry and I feel like I’m the journeyman that broke through,” he says. “I’m having the time of my life.”

Colman may not have been a household name before his trajectory changed but he’s been a regular on screens for years, with parts in Fear the Walking Dead, Euphoria and The Color Purple.

But Rustin – which is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama – is his real tour de force. Colman plays Bayard Rustin, a queer man who helps organise the famous 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Junior delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Rustin’s role in the march was pushed to the sidelines because of his sexuality but his life and his work are now immortalised in movie history.

“Portraying this incredible unsung hero has been everything,” Colman says.