<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> After more than three decades in the business, American actor Colman Domingo is booked, has itchy feet, and good vibes.</div></div></div></div>

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> Photography DIEGO BENDEZU Styling WAYMAN BANNERMAN and MICAH MCDONALD</div></div></div></div>

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> While it may seem like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kingofbingo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colman Domingo</a> is everywhere these days—he&#39;s starring in four movies next year, as well as upcoming seasons of Netflix&#39;s The Four Seasons and HBO&#39;s highly anticipated <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/pop-culture/euphoria-saison-3-la-production-recommence-enfin-apres-un-long-delai" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Euphoria</a> —he&#39;s not coming out of nowhere. Remember that Heinz ketchup ad featuring Carly Simon&#39;s &quot; Anticipation ,&quot; about the thrill of waiting for something worthwhile? (If not, watch it.) Apply that to the actor&#39;s career, which is practically overflowing. Good things come to those who wait, but Colman Domingo didn&#39;t have to wait too long. He&#39;s been an actor for 35 years, emerging from the San Francisco theater scene after a journalism degree from Temple University. His work has taken him to Broadway and the West End, where he earned Tony and Olivier nominations for his role in The Scottsboro Boys , a dark musical about nine young African Americans <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">falsely accused of rape in 1931 Alabama. But he&#39;s never stopped working behind the scenes, carving out a niche for himself. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">“Although my career has taken many paths, what I&#39;ve always wanted to do is be a respected actor, working and creating,” <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">he says. “I never had the luxury of being just an actor if I wanted to find work. I had to become a writer, a director, a producer.” <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">To call him a “respected” actor would be an understatement: in addition to the trophies already mentioned, he has been nominated for two Oscars and two Baftas (for <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Bayard Rustin <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">and Sing Sing <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">), two Emmys (one won in 2022 for <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/video/maude-apatow-euphoria-saison-2-lexi-howard-hbo-tv-show-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Euphoria</a> , <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">and the other nominated for The Four Seasons <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">), as well as another Tony (for Fat Ham <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">). But his talent goes beyond his aptitude for acting – he has been given the gift of connection, capable as he is of influencing the atmosphere of a place simply by being himself. We admire him as much as an actor as he is a great friend, the kind who is a party in himself, and handsome, to boot. </div></div></div></div>

<div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> L&#39;OFFICIEL HOMMES: This fall is going to be intense for you. You&#39;re already starring in The Running Man . What can we expect from it? COLMAN DOMINGO: It&#39;s a crazy, brilliant movie, with Glen Powell as a sort of Everyman who just wants to take care of his family, but is falling on hard times. A familiar theme, right? He&#39;s on a dystopian game show where he has to survive 30 days to win a prize, while the whole world is after him. I play the game show host, Bobby T., very famous and well-dressed, dripping in <a href="https://www.lofficiel.com/fashion-week/chez-dolce-gabbana-un-vestiaire-entre-intime-et-bitume-une-sensualite-sans-fronti" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dolce &amp; Gabbana</a> the whole time. He&#39;s not the boss, he&#39;s just playing a role. He has to keep the game running, he&#39;s part of the system, but his character has an interesting development. OH: How did this role come to you? CD: It was pretty sudden—I was in London on a promotional tour, and I got offered this role. First, I shot Dead Man&#39;s Wire with Gus Van Sant in one weekend. Then I did four days of prep for The Running Man . All that work for two movies coming out in the fall—I did it in two weeks. L&#39;OH: What strikes me about this role that you play in The Running Man is that you play a Black man at the helm of the spectacle that constitutes the hunt for a White man pursued by killers, a reversal of the situation in relation to History. CD: When I started researching different talk show hosts, I focused on Jerry Springer because in his own way he helped transform a certain idea of civility into what it is today. Bobby T is part of that tribe. He&#39;s completely disconnected from the world; he doesn&#39;t care if people outside are attacking the flamethrower or not. He thinks, this is the system, this is what it demands, so I&#39;m going to do my job and go back to my nice apartment and I&#39;m going to sleep very well. He&#39;s Black, but at the end of the day, he thinks, My function is different now. I&#39;m not—I feel more and more Black as I become more successful. OH: What do you mean? CD: It&#39;s about being more comfortable in this body, about being authentic in my tastes. Being Black means so much: it&#39;s not a constraint. All these possibilities are liberating. I love living in my time, having the visibility I have, because I know I&#39;m being watched. I don&#39;t just represent myself. I didn&#39;t ask for this responsibility, but when people look at me, they see a lot of other Black men.</div></div></div></div>

<div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> L&#39;OH: You&#39;re FaceTimeing me from your home in Los Angeles. Do you miss New York? CD: I lived there for sixteen years, but what I didn&#39;t like was that I didn&#39;t find a quiet space to think. There was always someone yelling downstairs, or honking their horn. It&#39;s an energy that attracted me when I was a young artist; it nourished me. And after a while, what really nourished me was recharging my batteries by taking peaceful walks, by living quietly. So I did what most New Yorkers don&#39;t do, which is to leave for LA quietly. I didn&#39;t say anything to my neighbors. People think you&#39;re crazy. Why are you leaving New York? You have everything here! OH: Did you feel like you were giving up when you left? CD: That&#39;s what some people might have thought. What shocked me the most, I think, is that no one ever moves out of a rent-controlled apartment. Even at this time in my life, I find it nice to <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">downsize a little. We spend time wanting to build, consume, and amass lots of things, and I want less. People think I have an extraordinary wardrobe—it&#39;s not true. I brought in TheRealReal [a site specializing in the sale and purchase of second-hand luxury items], and they left with at least 250 items of clothing. I really want to unload, and we&#39;re back in New York. My relationship with material things is different, and nature attracts me more. Before, I would go out drinking, go out to restaurants, all that—now I go hiking. I feel like I&#39;m doing good for my body, and it turns out I&#39;m having deeper, more meaningful conversations. It&#39;s not a social directory thing, I have enough of that at work, I want authentic contacts. What we lose on one side, we find on the other, and this way I take care of myself and my soul more. OH: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">You are more centered now. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">CD: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Deep down, I&#39;m a builder. I like to build and rebuild. I don&#39;t want to say to myself, &#39;That&#39;s it, I&#39;ve made it.&#39; I get asked that a lot, and I think, &#39;Really?&#39; You&#39;re not supposed to think that. I think &#39;making it&#39; is something that comes at the end of the road. Maybe I&#39;ll consider myself successful when I&#39;m 75.</div></div></div></div>

I&#39;m a supporting actor, but also a leading actor, and also a clown, and also a romantic lead.

L&#39;OH: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Success doesn&#39;t mean achieving all your dreams—it also means reaching a goal you never dared to imagine. Do you think that experiencing a sense of success too early makes you lazy? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">CD: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Yes – when your moment comes, you don&#39;t know if it&#39;s going to last. Sometimes that moment fades, and you see people trying to rekindle it, but it&#39;s no, no, no. You shouldn&#39;t try to relive the moment, keep those clothes on, or keep saying those things that got you noticed back then – you have to evolve. L&#39;OH: I saw you about a dozen years ago in The Scottsboro Boys , <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">and you&#39;ve certainly changed since then. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">CD: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">It&#39;s a blessing for me to have been a part of such works of art, whether it&#39;s <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Passing Strange <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">or <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">The Scottsboro Boys , <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">two works that weren&#39;t meant to make it to Broadway. Those plays changed me. Because you have to really want it to be in a <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">minstrel show. [a style of musical show born in the United States in the 19th century featuring caricatures <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">of Black people, played by White people with blackened faces] deconstructed about nine African-American teenagers accused of raping two White women, we must stand firmly in its truth and assume that yes, it is revolutionary theater. I know that these two plays were the seeds of what led me to act in films, whether it was <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Rustin <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">or <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">If Beale Street Could Talk <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">or <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Sing Sing , <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">because I&#39;m used to taking risks in my work. I&#39;ve always been a jack-of-all-trades actor, the one who can play four or five different roles. I was trained to metamorphose. I&#39;m a supporting actor, but also a leading actor, and also a clown, and also a romantic lead. OH: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">It seems to me that you have a very strong core, and that you are willing to be shaken by what surrounds you. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">CD: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">I&#39;m not a rigid person at all. I&#39;m pragmatic. I&#39;m the one who puts on the brakes. I know that the only way to deliver great work is to take my time. I&#39;m not the kind of actor who says, &#39;Oh, get the edits for this three-page monologue a week before? No problem.&#39; <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">

<div class="page" title="Page 4"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> OH: How do you go about, say, this three-page monologue? How do you approach it? CD: Sam Levinson, the creator of Euphoria , gives me a lot to think about. My office is full of inspiration, books, and stuff I can download. I love sitting at my desk... I haven&#39;t found a better one... and going through my scenes. I record other characters&#39; lines and have fun with them. That&#39;s not where I make the final choices, where I determine my character&#39;s reactions. That happens on set, or on stage, because I have to accommodate what the other actor is doing. OH: Is your approach different depending on whether you&#39;re playing a real character or a completely fictional one? CD: My approach is different. I play Joe Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic [ Michael , scheduled for release in 2026] and I played [civil rights activist] Bayard Rustin [in Rustin [in 2023] . There&#39;s a big archive of both of them, so I&#39;m getting all the information I can. Videos, audio: I watch how they sit, what they do with their hands, what they ate, how they laugh, all that. And I play with it, and I invent more with my cracked brain. Characters like X in [the 2020 macabre comedy] Zola – I create them from my imagination and people I know. For Zola , there&#39;s this guy I see at the gym. He was a trainer, African but he always wore hazel contact lenses. And I don&#39;t know why, I thought about it again when I was thinking about this pimp character for Zola . I went to ask the director: “What if he wore hazel contacts?” Because I want people to see him and try to understand what’s going on. And she said, “What if he only wore one?” Oh, even better. L&#39;OH: This way of being attentive – of noticing the little peculiarities of each person and keeping them for later – I wonder if it comes from your studies in journalism. CD: I&#39;m very curious about other people. I want to understand them. I like asking questions; it helps me feel less alone in the world. I can talk to anyone, and I can even find common ground with people who initially seem very different from me. I can always find something.</div></div></div></div>

<div class="page" title="Page 4"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> OH: What makes everyone love you? CD: A friend of mine, Anika Noni Rose, once asked me, “Why do people like you so much?” <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">I don’t know why, but I know it’s a gift. Last week, I flew from London to LA—I don’t know Shawn Mendez, but he and I got in a car together and we had a great chat. We get on the plane, and who do I see? A woman I’ve met maybe twice in my life: Kamala Harris. And she calls out to me, Colman! She hugs me, and all the passengers are standing there thinking, Who’s this guy? Yeah, I feel like when I walk into a place everyone likes me, and I think it’s because I know how to make them feel good. L&#39;OH: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">You forgot to mention the cute factor, too. My girlfriend demanded that I tell you that she has some kind of small feeling for you—not sexual, but she would like to give you a big hug. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">CD <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">: People always want to hug me! Men, women, friends. And I&#39;m not the one who&#39;s going to say no, because hugs feel good. When people look at me, it reveals something about them. Sometimes it&#39;s attraction—I love meeting a group of women who are like, &#39;Oh my God, you&#39;re even more attractive in person.&#39; In New Orleans, during Essence, I can&#39;t step outside. But then there are younger people who see me as a father figure or a big brother. I love getting affection from younger guys, like, &#39;Yo, I like the way you dress, the way you look.&#39; And they grab me, hug me. I didn&#39;t know if that was for me when I was younger. But maybe by living my life authentically, it makes people see the whole picture of me. L&#39;OH: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">This is one of your most fascinating facets, your different approach to masculinity. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">CD: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">I play with it. I&#39;m joyful, sensitive, strong, I flirt, with everyone. I think I get that from my father, who came from Central America and was a real Don Juan. It&#39;s the energy there is in noticing someone&#39;s hair, or the way they move, without excessive provocation, in an exchange that is beautiful for all of us, a way of being comfortable in your own skin, of being human and sexy. Someone who really believes in their beauty is not attractive. Because if you already think you&#39;re hot, what good am I? <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </div></div></div></div>

Credits: <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Pierce Austin <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Hairdressing <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">MAKEUP Jessica Smalls with <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">MAC COSMETICS <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">products <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">STYLING ASSISTANTS <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Ynes Trabelsi, Byron Williams, Kyra Singletary and Angela Rose Gutierrez

Colman Domingo Is Booked, Busy, and Bringing Good Vibes

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