Colman Domingo on Boseman, Rustin and Building Edith Productions
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- Colman Domingo received Variety's Creative Conscience Award at Frameline Film Festival's 50th anniversary closing night at San Francisco's Castro Theater, returning to a city where he lived from 1991–2001.
- Domingo recounted filming a fight scene with Chadwick Boseman on 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' — Boseman's final project — after which both men 'grabbed each other and burst into tears,' though Domingo said he didn't know Boseman was ill at the time.
- Domingo reunited with director George C. Wolfe on 'Rustin,' his first time as number one on the call sheet, playing civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and calling the role a chance to give the figure 'complexity and humor and fucked-up-ness and weirdness.'
- Euphoria creator Sam Levinson wrote the character Ali specifically with Domingo in mind while Domingo was still working on 'Fear of the Walking Dead,' which Domingo said he kept hustling on because he 'didn't trust' the show.
- Domingo co-founded Edith Productions with his husband in March 2020, with the slate including 'Sing Sing,' 'Dead Man's Wire,' 'North Star' and 'It's What's Inside,' framing the company around a 'love letter' animated short adapted from his play 'A Boy and His Soul.'
Why it matters: Domingo's Creative Conscience Award lands at a moment when his career has reached a rare multi-hyphenate plateau — Tony, Oscar, BAFTA and Emmy recognition in a single trajectory — and Edith Productions, founded mid-pandemic, is now releasing its first wave of films, giving him control over which stories reach audiences rather than waiting for roles to come to him.
