Colman Domingo Says His <em>Euphoria</em> Role Was Written For Him

He's debonair, solitaire, and an actor extraordinaire. He's Colman Domingo, the impeccably dressed actor with currently two Oscar nominations to his name. With his recent appearance and shot at directing on the Netflix miniseries The Four Seasons, Domingo showed up for a new episode of "For the Record" where he provided insight into some of his biggest projects and Met Gala fits. Of course, Euphoria came up.

Speaking to Esquire, Colman Domingo says he met Euphoria creator Sam Levinson "in the basement of a Sundance party." The two connected and later worked together on Levinson's 2018 film, Assassination Nation. When Levinson started developing Euphoria, he wrote the character Ali—Rue's mentor and sponsor—for Domingo. "He said, 'I have a role based on the guy who used to be my sponsor.' So he really started to write for me."

Domingo praises Euphoria star Zendaya, citing her openness as a scene parter. "We slip in very deeply," Domingo says, "It's funny, because we're doing some work now on season 3. And it's just easy. It's very easy to listen and respond to her. She's an observer. And that's the part that I know about myself too. I'm an observer. I think that that's her strength."

Colman Domingo with Zendaya, in a season 2 episode of Euphoria.

It's not all Euphoria for Domingo's appearance. The actor brings up Fear the Walking Dead, a series that Domingo credits as "sort of my re-entry into the industry." Coming after Domingo's run on the musical The Scottsboro Boys, the actor says he felt he had "done everything I was supposed to do" when The Walking Dead spin-off came to his attention via his agent, Elizabeth Wiederseim, who was jazzed about the show. Domingo was initially resistant, being wildly unfamiliar with the franchise and unenthused by its genre nature.

"I started to poo poo on her [Elizabeth's] idea," Domingo says. "But then I got the opening monologue for this character. I thought I was reading something from Richard III. And I thought, well, this is different television. In order to do this monologue, I knew it needed a theater actor."

Domingo admits he "was a bit of a snob" over the zombie series. "I come from humble, inner city, West Philadelphia working class people. But I always make decisions based on my soul and craft, and not about money. I got cast as a lead of this show just off a self-tape. I sort of didn't play into what I thought the genre was."

To think Domingo, now a celebrated stage and screen actor known for his good taste, almost didn't do any of this. On "For the Record," Domingo reveals he only took up theater in college, when he took an acting class as an elective during his sophomore year. "My teacher Chris changed the trajectory of my whole life by saying, 'I think you have a gift in this artform, and I would be very curious if you followed it,'" the actor recalls. We're all thankful he didn't take up ultimate frisbee instead.