World

Colman Domingo’s time is now

Published

3 weeks ago

November 20, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — Colman Domingo has a commanding physical presence, an expressive face and soulful eyes. But his most limber and powerful tool is his voice.

It can go low in a bone-rattling baritone, like in his Nigerian-accented pimp in Janicza Bravo’s “Zola.” Or it can rise to the warm, erudite rhythm of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, in “Rustin.” In Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” Domingo’s voice, as a union soldier, is the first thing you hear.

Domingo, himself, isn’t sure when his voice became so resonate. Tracing it sends him back to his childhood, growing up a self-described outsider — gay, awkward, unsure of himself — in west Philadelphia. That voice, he says, wasn’t there 20 years ago.

“At some point, as I grew into this person, comfortable in my own skin, sexuality, my mind, my intentions, who I am in the world, I think my voice developed more,” Domingo says. “I don’t know that I had this voice before. All the resonance in my voice, I can hear it. There’s confidence. There’s gravitas to it. I hear exactly what people hear now.”

This image released by Netflix shows Jeffrey Mackenzie Jordan, left, and Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin in a scene from "Rustin." (Parrish Lewis/Netflix via AP) — Domingo as Bayard Rustin in a scene from “Rustin.” (Parrish Lewis/Netflix via AP)

People are finally hearing Domingo. His performance in George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin” — Domingo’s first time atop the call sheet — has made the 53-year-old journeyman actor a favorite for a best actor Oscar nomination. It’s a deft and dazzling leading performance that channels all the complexities of the March on Washington architect.

Domingo also co-stars as Mister, the abusive antagonist of “The Color Purple,” one of the most anticipated holiday releases. The roles couldn’t be more different. Throw in the fall-festival hit “Sing Sing,” in which Domingo stars alongside a cast of mostly formerly incarcerated actors (A24 will release it in 2024), and you have the full spectrum of what Domingo is capable of.

Years of struggle as a supporting player in service of others have finally led to his turn in the spotlight.

“I started to feel like: Well, what happened, God? What is my journey? At some point, my journey felt like Bayard’s journey, which is maybe why I feel we’re so close,” Domingo says. “You know, I’ve assisted many people getting Oscars. I’ve assisted many people getting a lot of shine and love.”

On the heels of the actors strike ending, Domingo met recently at a Manhattan hotel overlooking Central Park. After months of being unable to promote that part of his life, he had been thrown straight into late-night appearances, interviews and a “Rustin” screening in Washington, with Barack and Michelle Obama, whose Higher Ground Productions produced the film. Domingo threw a bunch of cold-weather clothes together and jumped on a plane from Los Angeles.

“Basically, I was shot out of a cannon,” he says, smiling.

Domingo, sincere and amiable in conversation, had the appearance of someone eminently aware that a hard-earned moment had finally arrived.

“I keep telling people that I’m 54 years old. Because for this to happen now, it’s unusual,” Domingo says. (His birthday is Nov. 28.) “Suddenly, after 32 years, it seems like the sun is shining on every corner of my career.”

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Colman Domingo in a scene from "The Color Purple." (Ser Baffo/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) — Domingo in a scene from “The Color Purple.” (Ser Baffo/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Domingo was raised in a working-class family by his mother and step-father. Domingo’s father, whom he’s named after, wasn’t a part of his life. It wasn’t until he took an acting class at Temple University that he began acting. In regional theater, starting in San Francisco, he honed the wide-ranging ability of a character actor.

“Growing up, I never thought I was much to look at it. I think it liberated me,” Domingo says. “I know I can play a handsome man and a hideous man because I’m liberated. I can play anything. I’m not looking at myself. I’m not taking myself too seriously. I have the body of a clown.”

To “The Color Purple” director Blitz Bazawule, Domingo is belatedly becoming the leading man he was destined to be after years of out-acting more famous co-stars.

“Colman comes from the old-school of actors. You think about Bogart or you think of Daniel-Day,” says Bazawule. “These people, the minute you hear them or see them, there’s a clear presence. I think he is in that tradition of leading men. Colman takes the frame.”

Voice played a central role in Domingo finding Rustin. The film, which is streaming on Netflix, depicts the tireless grassroots activism of Rustin, who was openly gay, in organizing the 1963 march where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would give his “I Have a Dream” speech. Domingo was flummoxed by the origin of Rustin’s Mid-Atlantic accent before talking with Rachelle Horowitz, who organized transportation for the march.

“She said, ‘He made that up,’” Domingo says. “I thought that was key. Here was someone who truly created themselves at a time when everyone was trying to write you off or box you in or violate your body because you’re Black and queer. I thought: That’s courage.”

Actor Colman Domingo poses at GQ's Men of the Year Party at Bar Marmont, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) — Actor Colman Domingo poses at GQ’s Men of the Year Party at Bar Marmont, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) –

This image released by Netflix shows Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin in a scene from "Rustin." (David Lee/Netflix via AP) — Domingo in a scene from “Rustin.” (David Lee/Netflix via AP)

Domingo’s own path also required self-invention. His first breakthrough came in the play “Passing Strange,” which ran at the Public Theater in 2007 before opening on Broadway in 2008. Though celebrated — Colman shared in an Obie award for ensemble — once the play closed, Domingo found himself bartending again.

Resolving to make his own opportunity, Domingo wrote and staged the autobiographical “A Boy and His Soul,” a dexterous one-man play that used the soul music of his youth (Earth Wind & Fire, Donna Summer) to evoke his life story and the inspirational figure of his mother, his greatest champion. In it, he recalls his mother telling him: “Keep a song in your heart, and you will always find your way.” She and Domingo’s stepfather died in 2016.

“I started writing my solo show in the last year of my mother’s life and I didn’t know that that writing was going to save my life,” Domingo says. “I was writing so I could be with my family 90 minutes a day.”

Domingo’s production company, Edith, is named after his mother. When her son was struggling to catch a break, she wrote at least six letters to Oprah Winfrey, Domingo says. “She said, ‘She could help you. I want you to know her.’ I was like, ‘Mom, Oprah doesn’t care about me.’”

“The prayers and wishes people have for you are sometimes more profound than what you imagine, yourself,” says Domingo.

In the years that followed, Domingo’s range only extended. He did comedy on the series “The Big Gay Sketch Show.” He was Tony-nominated for “The Scottsboro Boys” on Broadway. “Fear the Walking Dead,” in which he played Victor Strand over eight years, brought him to his widest audience yet. Directors like Barry Jenkins (“If Beale Street Could Talk”) and Bravo (“Zola”) came calling.

“When I was cast in ‘Zola,’ I thought, ‘Me, playing a pimp? What? In this dark comedy? What do you see in me?’” says Domingo. “And Janicza Bravo said, ‘I see that the possibilities of the way you think are endless.’

Wolfe, the esteemed theater director, first cast Domingo in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” alongside Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, as the trombone-player Cutler. Gradually, he came to see Domingo as Bayard Rustin.

“I would be talking with Mark Rickler the production designer, ‘Oh, Colman could do that.’ Part of my brain would go, ‘Oh, Colman could do that,’’ recalls Wolfe. “It was an organic conversation that had a degree of inevitability but I didn’t realize it at the time. I think all good smart decisions, there’s a sense of inevitability.”

Now, Domingo finds himself collaborating with some of the Hollywood legends his mother envisioned him with. Winfrey is a producer on “The Color Purple” and the two have become friendly. During a hike for Ava DuVernay’s birthday in Hawaii (DuVernay cast Domingo in “Selma”), he told Winfrey about the letters his mother wrote her.

“I said, ‘I think I just realized that you answered her letters,’” Domingo says. “And she clutches her heart and says, ‘Oh, Colman.’ And then we started hiking again.”

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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World

Armenia and Azerbaijan announce deal to exchange POWs and work toward peace treaty

Published

34 mins ago

December 8, 2023

Press Room

Armenia and Azerbaijan announce deal to exchange POWs and work toward peace treaty

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed Thursday to exchange prisoners of war and work toward signing a peace treaty in what the European Union hailed as a major step toward peace in the long-troubled region.

The two countries said in a joint statement they “share the view that there is a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace.” They said they intend “to normalize relations and to reach the peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

THOUSANDS OF ARMENIANS FLEE NAGORNO-KARABAKH AS AZERBAIJAN RECLAIMS SEPARATIST REGION

Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The offensive ended three decades of rule there by ethnic Armenians and resulted in the vast majority of the 120,000 residents fleeing the region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Until Thursday’s announcement, the two countries had bitterly argued on the outline of a peace process amid mutual distrust.

As part of the deal, Armenia agreed to lift its objections to Azerbaijan hosting next year’s international conference on climate change.

Countries had been unable to agree on an eastern European host for the 2024 climate talks, with Russia vetoeing EU countries and Azerbaijan and Armenia nixing each other. A decision on the meeting’s location and presidency is due within the next week.

Ethnic Armenians flee as Azerbaijan’s military advances.

The joint statement said that “the Republic of Armenia supports the bid of the Republic of Azerbaijan to host the 29th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, by withdrawing its own candidacy.”

European Council President Charles Michel praised the agreement as a major breakthrough, saying on X that he particularly welcomes the deal to release detainees and make an “unprecedented opening in political dialogue.”

Michel called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize a peace deal as soon as possible.

The U.S. government also welcomed the deal, saying the swapping of POWs was an “important confidence building measure as the sides work to finalize a peace agreement and normalize relations.”

“The United States will continue to strongly support efforts to reach a durable and dignified peace,” added the statement from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Armenia and Azerbaijan said in their statement that talks between Azerbaijan’s presidential administration and the office of Armenia’s prime minister led to an agreement “on taking tangible steps towards building confidence between two countries.”

Azerbaijan said it would release 32 captured Armenian military servicemen, while Armenia will release two Azerbaijani soldiers.

The two countries said they will continue their discussions “regarding the implementation of more confidence building measures” and called on the international community for support “that will contribute to building mutual trust between two countries.”

World

Netanyahu warns Hezbollah after cross-border attack kills Israeli civilian

Published

1 hour ago

December 8, 2023

Press Room

Netanyahu warns Hezbollah after cross-border attack kills Israeli civilian

Israeli PM says Hezbollah will turn Beirut, southern Lebanon into Gaza and Khan Younis if Iran-backed group’s attacks on Israel continue.

Israel has said that a guided missile attack from Lebanon killed an Israeli civilian in the north of the country, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that Beirut would be turned “into Gaza” if Hezbollah started an all-out war.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that fighters from the Lebanese Shia group carried out an antitank attack in northern Israel.

Hezbollah, which supports the Palestinian group Hamas, said one of the 11 attacks it carried out on Thursday targeted an Israeli barracks in Mattat, a village abutting the Lebanese border.

The Israeli army said its jets struck a Hezbollah command and control centre in response to the Iranian-backed group’s attack.

“If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war then it will, by its own hand, turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis,” Netanyahu said while visiting troops near the border.

It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu’s comment was linked to the most recent Hezbollah strike.

‘Farmer killed’

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said the man killed was a farmer and the country’s ambulance service said he was 60 years old.

Hezbollah said Thursday’s assault was in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israel-Palestinian conflict started on October 7 after a deadly attack by Hamas into southern Israel was followed by Israel’s massive air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Since then, Israel and armed groups in southern Lebanon – some 200km (124 miles) from the Gaza Strip, particularly Hezbollah, have engaged in frequent back and forth exchanges across the United Nations-patrolled Israel-Lebanon border.

More than 17,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the authorities in the enclave.

Israel says its death toll stands at about 1,150.