![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/584d6f4c-fb7e-4b72-8934-0cbb64ae487c.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\nI arrive at the hotel at 9.30am. There\u2019s no sign that Domingo is jet-lagged, tired or has been awake for the past five and a half hours. He\u2019s warm, friendly and engaging. Exactly as he appears in every interview or podcast appearance you can find of him online. We step into the taxi and start winding through London\u2019s back streets. It moves quickly through a city that Domingo knows well, having lived here for 18 months in the 2010s while performing on stage at the Young Vic, the Garrick Theatre and what was then known as the Tricycle Theatre. Once pleasantries are out of the way our conversation starts on the topic of introversion.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m a reformed introvert,\u2019 he says as we discuss how a shy and sensitive child from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania \u2013 a child who spoke with a lisp and didn\u2019t have the confidence to even wear the name Colman \u2013 became Colman Domingo. At Overbrook High School, he preferred to be known by his middle name Jason, or Jay for short. Today, he displays a flamboyance and self-assurance that appears innate. He explains the transition from introvert to extrovert was, in fact, very much deliberate. Over the years he\u2019s learned how to switch between the two. I see it in glimpses throughout the day. In front of the camera, Domingo is every bit the storyteller, using his body and physicality to convey what he needs it to. There are moments, though, that he takes for himself. At one point, he steps out of the former squat we\u2019re filming in, and for a minute or so just basks, alone, in the sunshine. These moments appear precious; they\u2019re also fleeting because today isn\u2019t a day for his introverted side. Today is a day for him to put on a pair of red Christian Louboutin boxing shoes and allow the extrovert in him to come to the fore.<\/p>\n Domingo was neither a popular or particularly athletic kid. At school, he was very much on the outskirts. In his formative years, he wanted to be a photojournalist who travelled to war-torn locations and reported back. \u2018I\u2019ve always been an observer,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n In the year above him at school were Willard Smith and Jeffrey Townes (yes, that Will Smith<\/a> and that DJ Jazzy Jeff). He remembers Smith as one of the popular kids. \u2018He would perform with Jazzy Jeff at the Wynne Ballroom and my fellow students would go there. I didn\u2019t because I come from a working-class home \u2013 I didn\u2019t have any money to do extra things outside of school.\u2019 Domingo says he and Smith now share the same barber and plan to meet up for a coffee soon. \u2018Because we come from the same place, it\u2019ll be nice to really connect.\u2019<\/p>\n His home was working class and full of love. Stepfather Clarence Bowles taught him discipline and work ethic, while his mother Edith cultivated his sensitive side. He has her name tattooed on his arm and his production company is also named after her. Both his parents passed away in 2006, and he can see the difference in himself before and after their deaths. \u2018Now I live without apology. What I feel is what I feel. What I say is what I say. How I love is how I love.\u2019<\/p>\n Also in the house were his three siblings. His older brother and sister, Derek and Averie, and his younger brother Phillip Bowles. Together with his mother, his elder siblings were protective of him. It was Derek who he first came out to in the early 90s. His older brother had taken him to a strip club, when Domingo asked him to go outside. He hadn\u2019t come out to anyone at this point and there was some trepidation about admitting his sexuality to his tough, older brother. But he knew he \u2018came from love\u2019. \u2018I told him that I was gay. He looked at me and was just like, \u201cWhat?\u201d He just couldn\u2019t believe it,\u2019 says Domingo. \u2018Eventually, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t care, man. I love you anyway.\u201d And he just hugged me. Then he said, \u201cHave you told anyone else? I said, no. He said, \u201cAlright, this stays between you and me.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n Two days later, his sister was on the phone. \u2018She was pissed off. I said, \u201cLook, yes, it was really hard for me to tell him.\u201d She said, \u201cNo, no, no. Why didn\u2019t you tell me first?\u201d She was pissed off because she didn\u2019t get the information first,\u2019 he laughs recounting the story. Not long after, that Domingo delivered the news to his parents. His mum took it in her stride and, like his brother, agreed to keep her son\u2019s sexuality to herself. \u2018Twenty minutes later, the phone rings and she says, \u201cI talked to your stepfather.\u201d She puts him on and he says, in his blue-collar masculine way, \u201cYou\u2019re a good boy and there\u2019s nothing you can tell me that would make me stop loving you.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018You\u2019ve got to be really fine-tuned with your body because you\u2019re performing on stage every night\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n Domingo started to come into his body when he left Philadelphia for San Francisco in his early twenties and adopted a \u2018hippie\u2019 lifestyle. \u2018I moved there, grew my hair out and I was going to nude beaches and retreats like Harbin Hot Springs.\u2019 He also picked up a job at a \u2018political children\u2019s circus\u2019, called Make A Circus. (He isn\u2019t sure how a political children\u2019s circus makes sense, either.) \u2018I played the evil salamander monster in this one production that toured all over. It was about politicians lying, and as they would lie they got more power. Every time I got more power, I would go higher and higher on stilts. So I start growing and then I\u2019m on five-foot-tall stilts.\u2019<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t know it at the time, but he was taking his first steps to becoming the physical actor we know today. This was really honed in the theatre, where, he explains, everything is about preparing for the 7.30pm stage call. \u2018You\u2019ve got to be really fine-tuned with your body because you\u2019re performing on stage every night.\u2019<\/p>\n What a lot of profiles about Domingo get wrong is that this stage of his life is deemed at worst unsuccessful or at best a precursor to his success. During this time he was a successful theatre actor and playwright. Just being a jobbing or \u2018journeyman\u2019 actor would have been enough for him. In 2001, he moved from San Francisco to New York to continue his theatre career and in the years that followed he was nominated for everything from a Tony Award to a Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer. Occasionally, he\u2019d appear on TV. He was blown up on an episode of Nash Bridges \u2013 \u2018My mother hated that episode. She\u2019s like, why do you always die in things?\u2019 \u2013 or Law & Order \u2013 \u2018My sister was like, \u201cOh wow, you\u2019re really doing it.\u201d I was like, \u201cI\u2019ve been doing it. What are you talking about?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n What it is fair to say is that screen success eluded him. He remembers a time he was training at Equinox gym on East 43rd Street; he\u2019d been auditioning for multiple parts, week after week, and hearing rejection after rejection. He auditioned for a part in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, and everything about it said this part was his. They were looking for a dancer and showman, and he stormed the audition. Everyone in the room loved him: the producers loved him; the director loved him. \u2018Then I get a call from my agent,\u2019 he says. At the 11th hour a researcher raised their hand and said hosts in Harlem at that time were all fair-skinned. \u2018I just yelled, \u201cThey knew what I looked like before I got there. I feel like everyone\u2019s fucking with me.\u201d And I literally just leaned up against the gym equipment sobbing in the middle of Equinox.\u2019<\/p>\n Domingo was in his early-to-mid forties and ready to leave the industry. Serendipitously, a friend of his got in touch, saying that his manager wanted to meet him. The change in representation lead to a role on Fear The Walking Dead<\/em> and later, Oscar-nominated roles in the likes of Rustin<\/em> and Sing Sing<\/em>, as well as a career-defining TV turn in Euphoria<\/em>. \u2018When I met Domingo I knew he would be a big part of my life. He has a generosity of spirit and his talent is unparalleled,\u2019 Euphoria<\/em> creator and director Sam Levinson told me over email. \u2018He\u2019s rooted in a way that few are. He knows who he is, what he values and he has such a dedication to the craft. You see it in every single frame. He\u2019s a blessing. He brings out the best in everyone.\u2019<\/p>\n Back in the car our conversation turns to body image. Domingo explains to me that like any man in his fifties, he\u2019s had his own issues with how he looks to deal with over the years. As a kid he was \u2018very skinny<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018very awkward\u2019. Although not skinny any more, he\u2019s still lean. A few years ago, as he turned 50, he started to wonder whether bigger would be better, even if it was achieved artificially. \u2018You look at your lean self and your very natural self and you think, well, maybe I could use a boost,\u2019 he says. \u2018I went to a doctor to see if I would qualify for or need more testosterone<\/a>, and he told me my testosterone levels were as high as they were when I was 16.\u2019<\/p>\n Domingo\u2019s physique, the physique you see in these pages today, is all natural, but it has been crafted. For the past 10 years he\u2019s been working with his friend and trainer Vann Duke to make the most of what he has. Duke is the founder of SecondHalf Fitness<\/a>, a fitness company that caters to the 50-plus crowd. He explains that his sessions are often cardio based. Because getting bigger isn\u2019t what he\u2019s aiming for any more, resistance training is less frequent. Flexibility and staying lean<\/a> are what really matter to him now. \u2018For the fashion world that I\u2019m a part of, I need to look good in clothes. Because I\u2019m 6ft 2in and 183lb [13st], and I can wear sample sizes, so I need to stay that way,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I don\u2019t count calories; I barter with them\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n To stay lean, Domingo has also had to learn to eat differently in recent years, too. Coming from Philadelphia, he loves soul food and still has a particular penchant for the meatiest, cheesiest and greasiest varieties. When he was younger, that didn\u2019t matter. Nowadays he has to be more selective with what he eats. Meals these days usually consists of meat or fish and vegetables. He does allow himself a treat occasionally, but he realises that there\u2019ll probably need to be a trade-off somewhere else. \u2018I don\u2019t count calories<\/a>; I barter with them,\u2019 he jokes.<\/p>\n While filming The Madness<\/em> for Netflix, his weight shot up to 205lb (14st 9lb) for the first time. It was a tipping point and the moment he decided that he needed to pull back. This was around the time of the writers\u2019 strike in 2023. Domingo used the break to make some tough choices, deciding that he couldn\u2019t just eat anything any more and had to be careful with his sugar, alcohol and carb<\/a> intake. \u2018I went back to work and I was much leaner than I was before. I can see it in the cuts. I know the difference of a scene where I was 205 and a scene where I\u2019m 20lb lighter.\u2019 His colleagues could see the difference, too. \u2018My costume designer looked at me and said, \u201cOh, you lost your middle.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n After six hours of filming, we jump back in the car and get started on the second part of our interview. This time we discuss Domingo\u2019s upcoming work. Spring and summer 2026 will see four new projects released, including the Netflix global comedy drama hit The Four Seasons<\/em>, and a reprisal of his role of Ali Muhammed in Euphoria<\/em>. In the show he plays a recovering addict and sponsor to Zendaya\u2019s Rue. It\u2019s a part for which he\u2019s received critical acclaim and an Emmy award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He\u2019s also got a couple of films being released, too \u2013 he\u2019s part of an all-star cast in Steven Spielberg\u2019s first film in four years, Disclosure Day<\/em>, and, more controversially, Antoine Fuqua\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic, Michael<\/em>.<\/p>\n We discuss the projects in turn. On Euphoria<\/em>, Domingo references the iconic diner episode he shared with Zendaya, where the two go back and forth bearing their souls to each other. He says the episode was one of the first times anyone had written something like that for him and believed he could deliver it on TV. \u2018It was the first thing we shot after the pandemic and it felt like a sermon,\u2019 he says, teasing that in some ways, his appearance in season three of the show will top that.<\/p>\n About Disclosure Day<\/em>, which at the time of our conversation has just released its trailer, there\u2019s not much he\u2019s allowed to say. What he can divulge is that it\u2019s a film full of humanity. \u2018I saw it a couple weeks ago and I wept,\u2019 he says. \u2018I don\u2019t think people usually weep for a sci-fi film. I called Steven Spielberg afterwards, and we talked for half an hour. I said to him, \u201cYou wrote this because you believe in us. You believe in the power of people coming together.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s when we start discussing Michael<\/em> that Domingo is most considered. Most people know his character, Joe Jackson, as the monstrous head of the Jackson household who is accused of beating his sons with a belt buckle or the cord of an electric kettle. For the role, Domingo is hidden under heavy prosthetics. His physical approach to acting means he\u2019s also shielded behind the way Jackson walks and moves through the world, too. He doesn\u2019t believe he\u2019s portraying a villain in the film, nor does he view the world in such binary terms. He took the role because he believed he could deliver a fully-rounded character. \u2018I looked at him as a blue-collar man who was raised at a certain time,\u2019 he says. \u2018It was his job to put food on the table and to be the provider and to make sure his children were safe and they were the best that they could be and even took it a step further to be better than who they were. And so that\u2019s the way I tapped into Joe Jackson.\u2019<\/p>\n The accusation of violence is another thing, but he says he knew men like Jackson \u2013 men who were the disciplinarians of their family and left nurturing to wives and mothers. His own stepfather could fit that description. He describes their relationship as loving, but it wasn\u2019t warm or soft, he says. \u2018He was the one that when he came home from work, the energy changed in the house and he was checking, \u201cAre your chores done? Is your homework done? Are things in order?\u201d That\u2019s what he required.\u2019<\/p>\n Our journey ends with Domingo discussing his stepfather\u2019s work ethic and how he inherited it from him. After we\u2019re finished, he has another interview to do, though there\u2019s no sign that his energy is starting to flag yet. We go our separate ways with a handshake. Later that evening, as I\u2019m going over our conversation in my head, I think about Domingo returning to his hotel room. I wonder how his inner introvert will reflect on the day.<\/p>\n Photography:<\/strong> Chris FloydThe Journeyman<\/h2>\n
![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/0a5ff6eb-e240-467f-a874-45c82bd159fa.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\nWhat to read next<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/b92f8f1e-dceb-43f7-a8ba-2f1d9c291796.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/01cb360f-c43e-43ca-9f74-1271465bc0bd.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\nSecond-Half Fitness<\/h2>\n
![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/1a0f52ff-9286-43d8-831e-1ce21d2c2658.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\nHeroes and Villains<\/h2>\n
![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/c6166652-2c1e-41db-bca6-539ef63337de.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/37567e02-db13-4ad1-8d46-cc38db111690.jpg?resize=4500%2C5625&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
Styling:<\/strong> Eric Down
Grooming: <\/strong>Mata Mari\u00e9lle using Danessa Myricks Beauty
<\/p>\n
\nThis interview features in the June 2026 issue of Men’s Health<\/em> \u2013 out now. Subscribe to MH<\/em> by hitting this link<\/a>. <\/h2>\n
![\"colman](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/daac00df-9f7d-47b9-a806-7204c515276e.jpg?resize=2421%2C3224&ssl=1\" "\\"colman")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n![\"Lettermark\"](\"https:\/\/www.menshealth.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/menshealth\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.70e252c.svg?primary=%2523000\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"