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I'm Colman Domingo, and this is my last meal.

Every person has exactly two things in common.

We all gotta eat and we're all gonna die.

Today's guest is an actor, writer, and director who's

been nominated for two Academy Awards, and he's currently up

for an Emmy for his work in the Four Seasons on Netflix.

If you saw him running around naked at Harbin Hot Springs in

the nineties, no you didn't.

Colman Domingo, welcome to the show.

That was me.

Yeah.

I like to run around naked still.

I was gonna ask you if there was a point where you realized

you may be too famous.

Um, probably now.

Well, you know, it's funny.

It just depends on what you run around naked.

I, I love a nude beach.

Mm-hmm.

I love an Yeah.

But these days you gotta be careful.

'cause now.

Everyone, there's a cell phone everywhere.

I know, you know, not that I'm ashamed of what I have, but

what's going on with all this.

But I feel like you just want a little bit more,

um, privacy in that way.

So yeah.

You know, you might get cast in a Marvel cinematic universe

or something and Exactly.

I don't know.

Maybe it'll up the chances of me getting in the

Marvel Cinematic universe by seeing my naked body.

So I might be nude by the end of this interview.

That's incredible.

I love that so much.

Uh, have you thought about your last meal before?

Not until this opportunity came up.

The thing about my last meal, I love food so much.

I have a robust appetite.

Yeah.

Which is, you know, but, which is challenging because,

you know, I need to fit into clothes for sure.

Events.

It was a great way to really think about what,

what would be the last thing you want to taste.

Yeah.

And for my, for me it's always attached to a

memory in some way.

Of course.

So I feel like it's gotta be home.

Yeah.

A, a meal like that, that's the thing I would

want to eat as I, um, leave this, uh, plane.

How often do you think about death in general?

It's funny 'cause I even just had a recent experience

where I. I, I did a, a skydiving adventure.

I won't tell anybody who or where or where I did it, but

I had a skydiving adventure.

And the funny thing is I was very calm about it.

Mm. I literally thought this, 'cause I thought,

well, God, I say something before I jump out of a plane,

which is, I said, you know, I said, I'm very happy.

I'm very content.

My life is good.

I'm blessed to thank you for it all.

God forbid anything.

Didn't happen.

Well, no, I had a good life and take

care of my loved ones.

I literally said that and I thought, but I

was like, let's go.

You know what I mean?

I'm like, let's go for it.

So I guess I literally don't think about death.

That's a, you pre said your last words just in case

before going skydiving naked.

That's incredible.

And then I'm like, let's do it.

Exactly.

I guess, man, I don't know what that says about me.

I feel like, listen, I've experienced

death like everyone.

Mm-hmm.

And you know, just had people I've losses in my life.

And I know that that's inevitable and it's

gonna happen to everyone.

You don't know when it's gonna happen.

But I do know that in the present, you want to just be

as full of life and living every moment to the fullest.

I know for sure, God forbid anything happened to me

when I walked up this door.

Everyone in my life would say, oh, Colman

lived his life fully.

Mm-hmm.

And I think life's fuller with oysters.

Mm-hmm.

I think so.

You ready to eat?

I'm ready to eat.

Colman, for the first course of your final meal, we

have a lovely refreshing glass of mint lemonade.

Here we have the hamachi crudo.

This is lightly cured on a little bit of bu.

Then we have a yuzu ponzu.

We have a little bit of fresh shallot oil, some serranos

micro herbs on top of that.

Then of course we have all of the East coast oysters.

Uh, we have Lip Petit Barra Schwab, that is out

of Prince Edward Island.

We have Island Creek oysters out of Massachusetts, and

then Bo Sole from, uh, new Brunswick in Canada.

Complete with, uh, minion net, uh, little

bit of horse radish.

This is actually a crying tiger cocktail sauce that

we've made a lot of fresh Thai chilies in there.

I know you like it.

Spicy cocktail sauce and hot sauce.

And then of course.

We have the Caesar salad.

I know you love the version from the dal ray.

Mm-hmm.

And now the dal ray, they do it tableside.

So, Colby.

Colby, my associate.

Come on.

Colby.

Oh, it's great.

He's gonna do the fresh tableside.

Caesar.

This is his first day on the job.

He's still training.

It's great.

Wonderful.

This is, first of all, fantastic.

Uh, it's gotta be like that.

Look at that.

It's gotta be because you, you just wanna know all the things

that's gone into it as well.

Yeah, yeah.

How it's made.

It's beautiful.

I prefer east coast oysters because they're smaller.

There's sweeter and brier.

Do you think you could tell the difference side by side

if there was like West you go?

Okay.

Yes.

Didn't mean didn't mean to accuse.

No, because West Coast always, oysters are always a little.

Larger and flatter.

Yeah, I think No, they are.

Yeah, they're for right.

Oh man, this is just perfect.

We're just gonna put lemon all over everything.

I think you can tell a lot of, a lot about a person

based on how they eat oysters.

Somebody who's a little bit hesitant.

It's like, I don't know if you know how to get

the most out of life.

Yeah.

You know, I think that might be judgmental of me.

No, I think it's wonderfully judgmental in a good way,

because I think that it's amazing to me still, like I've

had some friends recently, people who are like 50 years

old, and they're like, oh, I've never had an oyster.

I'm like, wait, what?

You've even tried it.

You gotta at least try it.

I agree.

So, I mean,

this is fantastic.

That's crazy.

Look at that.

Good, good balance on there.

I see the anchovy.

Okay.

The garlic is good.

Good.

Not too heavy in the croutons.

I like that too.

Say one.

Mm-hmm.

When Josh, I'm not gonna be asking you.

I kind of want it to be like a freshly fallen, powdered

snow on top of there.

That's beautiful.

That that's what I mean.

That's good.

Cole, thank you so much.

And that Yes.

Fresh pepper.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Say what?

Thank you.

He knew.

Thank you so much because I like a nice balance of it

all, you know what I mean?

Uh, and I know that.

You mentioned with your oysters, you all drink a

glass of champagne, so we do have a gift from the kitchen.

Oh my gosh, as well.

Didn't specify it.

What?

Oh, what now?

Who wouldn't like Dom?

Now everyone likes Dom.

Come on.

That's perfect.

This is great.

I'm gonna get some of this Machi.

Get some of the crudo please.

Everything's gonna be perfectly balanced too.

I like a little bit of everything on here.

This is rude.

It's amazing.

How come?

Mm-hmm.

That's gentlemen taste.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Cheers.

Thank you.

Colby.

Yes.

Cheers.

Absolutely cheer.

Thank you.

Cheers.

I'll leave the bottle behind.

I didn't bring any cash to Tip.

This is quite lovely.

Thank you so much.

I wanna ask in these like self birthday meals, these gifts

you were given to yourself, drinking champagne, eating

oysters, you said you'd like to reflect on life.

Did you have any big epiphany moments that still

stick with you to this day?

I think you have to take in.

I dunno.

Maybe it's a, a recentering in a way of like, understanding

what I actually sort of been through, came

through, moved through, and then the possibility of

where I'm possibly going.

Mm-hmm.

Of course, we don't know what we're doing.

I feel like I've never been one of those people that's

like, oh, you know, a five year plan, 10 year plan, or

what I'm gonna do next year.

I actually have no idea.

I, I feel like it's a bit more gray and open

so I can receive that.

Yeah.

Like even, even last night, last night.

Was the most incredible Crescent moon.

Did you see that last night?

I did not.

No.

I feel ashamed.

So I'm driving to my house in Malibu, and suddenly,

as you're driving down PCH, really it was like

just hanging in the sky.

It was a, a new moon that was so beautiful.

And of course, me and my husband, we did, we

were like, oh, we have to send a, a prayer to it.

We have to like be open to it and like see how

it's gonna affect us and change us in some way.

What?

I don't know, but I feel like it's always.

A moment of faith in some way.

Yeah.

Or like reflection, so.

I, I just find like that there's magic everywhere.

You just gotta like grab it.

Yeah.

And so I feel like if it means like champagne and oysters

and pontificating on the future or the past, great.

Whatever's useful, that helps you because you gotta have

something to look forward to.

Yeah.

And I think that's what prayers and

wishes are as well too.

I love that.

Um, yeah, so it's like you always gotta something

to look forward to.

It's almost kinda like finding like sacredness everywhere

you look in a way, which I think is a really great way

to sort of go through life.

This is the thing I know for sure if I don't know

anything else, I do know that you have to have a

connection to something.

Mm-hmm.

And it doesn't have to be called God, but it could

be just nature or having faith in people or things.

Yeah.

You know?

But I have a friend who's very bogged down

by the ills of the world.

Yeah.

And she loves to send me a message telling me what

she's thinking about.

We've had a nurturing relationship where I have

to tell her, I say, you know, I understand how

you feel, but you have to think about how useful

is that feeling to feel.

Like that and let that carry you through the day.

Mm-hmm.

Or do you wanna find the small things and enjoyment

and what you can actually do?

I'm like, you can't take care of, I'm like, I can't

take care of the ills of the world, but what I can

do is have an effect on.

You know, these micro moments.

Yeah.

And hopefully that'll affect some change.

Yeah.

I don't know why I'm telling you this, but No, I think

it's really pertinent.

And also you're talking about bringing so much

magic to people, which you absolutely do.

Mm-hmm.

And also, you know, you're nominated for an

Emmy for a comedy, which is really incredible

because you're in a show.

The Four Seasons on Netflix, go watch it.

It's really great.

But in Sing Sing, you actually quote a famous

character, actor's Dying words, where you say, dying

is easy, comedy is hard.

Mm-hmm.

You make it look really easy in the Four Seasons.

Comedy is very hard.

In what way?

Because it was kind of scientific.

Everyone I worked with in the Four Seasons, they're like

mad scientists of comedy.

Yeah.

Tina Faye, the way she would tell a story, she's

never trying to be funny.

She just has all the beats and the timing and the pause.

It's, it's really mathematical in a way.

Even when I was coming up in the theater in San Francisco

years ago, we're talking about early nineties, I was

doing a lot of Shakespeare.

And I played the clown and I had to learn how to like land

some old dusty Shakespeare jokes, colleague of mine,

Danny Shea, a wonderful director and actor in San

Francisco would say, just imagine if I'm telling a joke

and trying to land a joke.

If I'm telling a joke to you, he's, he'd say, don't

tell the joke to that person on stage with you.

Turn out they know the joke.

It's not funny to them, man.

Sometimes you just go like, right, and then it lands, man.

So it's just math instead of being right.

That doesn't get a laugh.

Sure.

It just turn out right.

That'll get the laugh.

So it's all you have to learn.

The math of it and the numbers of it.

Yeah, so I think that it's actually harder to

be honest than like drama.

I feel like drama, you know, finding those moments

and beats and story and character and all that stuff.

You can land it and get there.

But comedy for me, honestly, I feel like my

comedy, I literally play it quote unquote straight.

Yeah, I sort of like.

I'm the straight man when it comes to, in the Four

Seasons with, uh, Marco Kani.

He's absolutely the fool.

Yeah, it's funny 'cause Mar uh, Marco and I would talk

about this 'cause he hadn't been, um, acting for like 15

years and so he would say, I would just look at him

very much, very be Arthur, very dry and deliver a line.

And, and then after he says, are you okay?

I said, I'd say, yeah.

I said, but I can't play into what you're doing.

I have to strike a balance client.

The straight man is almost like the voice of the audience

in a sense of reacting.

Absolutely.

With the perfect timing.

Think about this, be Arthur.

You think about the Golden Girls.

Golden Girls, magnificent.

Anyone wants to learn anything about comedy?

Just watch Golden Girls over and over again.

They all know the rules of like, okay, if Rose

is the fool right now I'm just, I'm deadpan and just

taking this information.

Who is actually the straight man in the, in the scenario?

There's always one.

I have a terrible thing to tell you what, I've

never seen a single episode of the Golden Girls.

I know Goldman and can we gimme the check?

It's so incredible to see like how.

You diagnose acting as like watching an elite athlete,

like diagnose their own sport.

Mm-hmm.

And I know you've been doing it for such a long time.

I wanna take you back to the moment when you were

living with three other people in a studio apartment,

in the Tenderloin in San Francisco, Jesus Christ,

you were producing plays in the basement of the

theater, rhinoceros Colman.

Yeah.

With the Afro Blues Power Theater Collective

for 500 bucks a pop.

My god, you know everything.

And you did it.

That's incredible.

Yeah, man, I listen, I, I started my career

in San Francisco.

I moved there to.

I think to my honestly, more than to find myself.

Yeah.

I had a good friend, my friend guy, he moved out to San

Francisco and he was like, you gotta come out here.

You gotta come out here.

I was struggling in school.

I wasn't, I was struggling 'cause I was, you know,

paying for my education and I was also working a

couple part-time jobs and I was starting to fail

and I was like, okay, I'm gonna take a beat, go out

to San Francisco, hang out with guy and his friends.

And I can, my mother was like, you can always

go back to school and pick up your credits.

So I took a chance, moved out there and there was,

there were three guys living in a studio apartment

in the Tenderloin, which is, uh, a little dicey.

Mm-hmm.

It still is a little dicey, you know, you, you

know, ladies of the night and, you know, hanging

out by your doorstep.

I got to know all of them because I'm very

friendly and I took an acting class in college.

But then when I, when I moved to San Francisco, I

was like, I think I want to, I like that feeling.

I'm gonna take some acting courses.

I got a bartending job.

I began.

Not only becoming an actor, I began living like

I would go to this place called Har Hot Springs up.

Mm-hmm.

Not that I became a nudist, but I was like, I want

to figure out my body and my body in spaces.

Yeah.

And learning different things about food.

I worked in.

Some fancy restaurants and I learned more about food

and eating 'cause there's so many seeds that were

planted back then in my early twenties in San Francisco,

living with three guys in the studio apartment

that really have helped me become the person I am now.

Have more of a, uh, an appreciation for food and,

and culture and design.

And I owe that all my early twenties in San Francisco.

It's funny when you talk about like food culture design, but

all, all that's just under the umbrella of like truly living

through all these seasons of your life where like you

were working at the craft and you were living life.

I think that's what gives all of this context,

that's what gives the, the Dom Perignon context.

I don't know.

Are you like sort of grateful for that?

In a way?

I'm, I'm very grateful that, like, I feel like my, my

whole path and I've been a working artist for 35 years.

Yeah.

But the entire time, wherever I was, I was fully living even

at, let's say, I would say even when I worked in New York

at a place called the 55 Bar.

I had shifts where I would close the bar at four in

the morning, about one o'clock in the morning.

I would invite my actor friends to come over.

We'd make drinks, we'd hang out, we'd do, so,

you know, I'd be doing some writing, Hey, would

you like to read this?

Whatever.

But I was still, I was making it all a part of.

The experience.

Yeah.

It wasn't just like, you know, 'cause I feel like sometimes

people like to parcel things out and say, well either I'm

doing this or doing that.

And I feel like I've always fused it all together.

Yeah.

I'm curious who gave you that first initial spark to

actually have the confidence to move out to San Francisco?

'cause I know you had an acting teacher in college

and the one acting class you took, your mother encouraged

you to take it and he said to you, I think you have a gift.

And it sounds like those words are really powerful.

I think it was the first time.

As I recall that someone ever told me that that was my gift.

Yeah, because you know, you're searching.

I mean, I, I first went to Temple University and I was,

um, I think my major was business administration.

Why?

Is because a girl in my class, she was like, we're looking

at like, what is your major?

Whatcha gonna major in?

And she's said, business administration.

I'm like, I guess that's what I'm gonna major in.

I, I don't know roughly how I end up in political science.

So, yeah, I get it.

You know what I mean?

You need to check something on the paper.

You check something off and then so you get

in, you're like, this doesn't make any sense.

I don't have a business mind.

I'm terrible with numbers.

Mm-hmm.

I really only only took the acting class because my mother

was, I was going through classes that I could take

and she says, great, how many credits do you have to take?

I'm like, 16 to 18, and she, so I was getting up this soon.

She said, take something just for fun.

For literally, I was like, for fun.

Like my mother was a a lot of fun.

I remember how much fun you used to have.

When you were in the one summer at the Society of

Playhouse and you did, you did acting stuff.

I said, oh yeah, that was fun.

I did like that.

He said, you were, you were really, you

have fun with that.

Take something like that.

So I saw acting 1 0 1.

So I took that class and my teacher, Chris,

who passed away, I think about a year ago, mm.

Chris Wolf, wonderful guy.

He pulled me aside one day.

This is after maybe about two months into the class,

he says, Hey Colman, have you ever thought about

acting as a profession?

And I thought, I, I don't even know what that means.

Like who, who, who does that?

Yeah.

Like I didn't grow up going to the theater, so I didn't know

I could have a theater career.

And people in television and film, they live in Hollywood.

I don't know how you get from Philadelphia to that.

Sure.

Or what that is, but I thought that those

were special people.

He said, he said, no, I, I'd be very curious if you

did pursue this, because I really think you have a gift.

And really, that's why I think I, I know teachers are that

powerful because I know that changed my trajectory and so.

Because I took some other matriculating classes

and I, I knew the Walnut Street Theater School.

I looked up classes I could take off campus.

'cause I was a very shy kid.

I didn't want anybody to sort of like crush

this possibility.

Sure.

So I would go off campus and take courses at night after

I was in school all day.

This one coach said You should protect your art.

Like you a protected child.

You have to feed it, nurture it, protect it at all costs

in order for it to grow.

It's incredible.

Which is why it's funny.

You.

Wow.

This is like a therapy session.

So I'm like, oh my God.

That's why I do this.

You're a good therapist, man.

You're like, I'm like, I don't go to therapy, but

apparently this is it.

I have a very reasonable day rate.

I, I don't say I don't take insurance, but I Colman you

said you were judgmental about the Caesar salads.

Where does this rank?

I'm gonna have to give it one more tape.

It's good.

Colby.

I would've, did you put anchovy in this?

You did.

Maybe.

I like anchovy heavy.

Now I'm not gonna, I gotta give you something to work on.

All right.

This is a good eight and a half out of 10.

Colman for course number two of your final meal.

We have the Don Julio Margarita served straight

up with salt on the rim, a little bit of dehydrated

lime as garnished there.

Then of course, we have these six hour slow smoked ribs.

Now we got these from blood SOS barbecue.

We got the candy dms made in house, and then

of course the collard greens cooked with pork

. And then I wanted to offer one more gift.

From the kitchen, we have ow, some fried chicken wings.

Colman, I want, I want to bring you back.

I'm that your blackest guest.

I just screamed.

That was like history.

That was my soul.

That was ancestors.

I wanna bring you back to your ancestors.

Oh, I wanna bring you back to your mom.

That's flipping fried chicken with a full bra.

Yeah.

My mother would flip fried chicken.

She would come home on, on a Sunday.

It's a great memory.

I have a picture of it, of her.

It was a hot summer day in Philadelphia and she comes

in and she gets out of, you know, we went to church and

she comes in and she gets in.

She's just in her bra and some shorts and she has a fork.

And she's a little sweaty and she got a little rag and

she's frying chicken, and you hear the crackling and

she, oh, you go getting back, turn it over, flip it over.

And she wanted it nice and crispy and she always did

it with buttermilk and she also did it with Crisco.

And also she also kept the old Crisco.

In the can.

Yeah.

And it was, and then all the other goodness

of the other meats and all were at the bottom.

But then you would just go in and scoop that

out and reuse that.

What do you do?

Throw away good Crisco?

Hell no.

But also this is just a plate of like tradition and sex.

That's what I like.

Which part of this is the sex to you?

I think the ribs.

Listen, I'm, I, I might have to go in, so this

is, I'm jumping in with you going on this.

If we're truly doing a sexual style with the ribs,

Goldman, I gotta make sure you gotta wear protection,

you know we're ready for sex.

Exactly.

Exactly, exactly.

First, we'll take a sip of this and take a toast.

I love a good Cheers, Don Julio Margarita.

Margaritas have become my cocktail of choice because I

feel like you can't go wrong.

You're always at a party with a margarita.

Yeah.

I think it's, it's become the world's most, uh, popular

cocktail for a reason.

This is almost so rude.

I don't even know where I wanna start.

I feel like I'm, I'm taking your cue.

I'm already grabbing at the ribs.

I'm like both.

I'm like, can I eat both of in Devil fixed?

Right.

Let's see.

This is amazing fun.

We did, man.

Really did.

Maybe I'll die after this too.

What the hell am I gonna drop this mom?

Your mother is the one that always taught you to dream and

to be curious about the world.

Mm-hmm.

And you obviously see that so much in the

way you tell stories.

How do you try and honor that legacy?

Every day I've done a thing where I not only

have a tattoo of her name Edith, but my production

company is named Edith.

Mm-hmm.

I think it's important to find ways to honor someone

who's no longer on this plane.

And I, I think I've been doing it by keeping

their name in my mouth in some way, shape or form.

Yeah.

Even my husband, his alias, well, I don't wanna give away

his alias, but his first name of his alias is one of our

dear friends who passed away.

Oh, wow.

So it keeps that name moving around.

And so when you say the name, I don't know.

It just, they, they still feel alive.

And it's funny, I talk about my mother a lot because

really she was my best friend and she was really such a,

a kind, funny, warm person.

Loved to talk to.

Anybody.

And that was also like, that was the thing

that my, my stepfather would be annoyed with.

Like, she would go into a market and he'd be sitting

there waiting for her to come out of the market.

I, I was like, what is she doing?

He'd be like, let's go get your mother.

We go in there and my mother has spoken to everybody.

She's having great conversations.

Oh yeah, so wait, let tell you how to take care of that.

You need to do this.

And she's talking to the fish guy.

She's talking to the cashier.

She just made friends.

Everywhere.

Yeah.

And she would talk about me.

She was like, um, oh, that's my son.

He's so smart.

He's going to tell him about that.

My mom, I don't care.

Don't care.

Yeah.

And I realized that I've become just like her.

We all have come to, isn't an we.

At some point you become just like your parent.

You're like, I'm that person.

I say hi to every single body.

Mm-hmm.

It takes me forever to leave a party.

That's why I do a good old Irish goodbye, because

otherwise I am that person that will make sure I

connect with everybody.

Yeah.

You know?

I think that's such a good trait to have.

You wrote a really beautiful play called Wild with Happy.

Mm-hmm.

Where you see that, God, you've done your research.

I, I thought it was really fantastic and you, that

theme kind of comes up where you have the aunt who she

just wants to sit and she wants to visit with people,

and your mother passes away in this play and she

wants to really sit and connect with people on this.

As you know, your character is somebody who just wants to.

Move on with things, and that creates a lot of

central tension in that play.

How much of that was based off of your real

life, or was that just a story you wanted to tell?

I, I wrote this play Wild with Happy in about 2012,

and it all started with a, a couple inspirations.

One, I was, I wanted to write about how people grieve.

Mm-hmm.

And because everyone says that I lost both my parents

in 2006 and they were like, my grieving process, they,

they appeared to have been very healthy and then.

I got treated to a trip to Disney World for the

first time by one of my dear friends, an Rose who's

a, uh, Disney princess.

She had just become Princess Tiana and she said, Hey,

I'm gonna take you that we gotta go watch the fireworks.

We're walking through Disney World.

And so she's just, she literally says, oh my

God, look at everyone.

Everyone's just wild with happy.

And I thought, what a. They're wild with Abby.

They're just wild with Abby.

And then we sit and we watch the fireworks display

and she's like, I really want you to see this globe

comes down on the barge, and then there's all these

lights and faces of people.

Then it opens up and then fire comes out and Celine

Dion's playing and you're overwhelmed by all of it.

And then suddenly I started crying and she's crying.

The others were with us, were all crying.

She's like, oh my God, I believe you.

Did you believe?

I'm like, yeah, I believe, I believe.

And I thought, that's the play.

It's about getting someone to believe again.

Yeah.

And so I wanted to really sort of like

construct someone sort of.

The had traits that I have, but to really invert

it in a way and make this person a very sort of

like hardened human being.

And the whole arc of the of the play is to get this person

to believe in something.

Again, if you're not gonna believe in God or people

or humanity, maybe you'll believe in Disney World.

Yeah.

Maybe you'll believe in the Cinderella

Suite at Disney World.

And I'm glad you brought that one up because it was

something, it keeps coming up.

Mm-hmm.

Because also it talks about my relationship, my character's

relationship with faith.

And writing letters to Oprah, which is what

my mother used to do.

So I put that into play.

Then my mother wrote letters to Oprah and he's just

like, why are you writing?

She's not gonna do anything.

She's like, oh no, she helps people.

And he's like, ah.

He's so disgruntled by all of it.

Yeah.

And then the wildest thing is, 'cause that's really based on

real conversations with me and my mother, the fact that Oprah

Winfrey and I are very close now, so it makes me think

maybe my mother's letters got through in some way.

I think.

I think they definitely did.

I think so.

And I think I do.

Believe that the world is set up to do me

more good than harm.

I can't take care of the ills of the world.

I can take care of things around me, but I can

also have faith that things are gonna be okay.

It seems like so much of your career, like this

chicken, like this chicken, I'll, I'll, I gotta

stop you happening, man.

This ain't no therapy session.

This is the last meal.

All right.

Gotta eat this chicken buttery.

One of my favorite moments of someone eating fried

chicken is in the movie Cereal Mom by a John Waters.

Oh my God.

Yes.

I'm so sorry.

I forgot.

The wonder was, I thought, now how are we gonna eat

fried chicken without, you know, I'm gonna hot.

We got, we got a second bottle too.

Just, just in case you want something a little bit hotter,

but still pretty hotter.

Those are, um, moment in Serial mom by, um, the

John Wood film where they do a closeup of people

eating chicken and it's the most disgusting thing

you've ever seen, but it's, it's hilarious.

Mm-hmm.

That's what I thought was happening.

Right.

Now, I wanna talk about your bartending days.

Mm-hmm.

Over at 55 Bar.

You mentioned like cleaning up, inviting friends in.

You had a, a friend named Rodney that used to show up.

Mm-hmm.

You would help you clean the bar till four in the morning

in exchange for a couple bucks, maybe a free drink.

What did Rodney mean to you and what'd you learn from him?

He, he was a, he was a unhoused man who would come

in and just, uh, as you could tell, he still wanted to earn.

Whatever donation you gave him.

Yeah, so he put up the chairs, he would sweep up.

We had this really incredible moment where he came in and

I was playing this Donny Hathaway, uh, album and I

was really going through it.

I was going through like, how do I survive as an artist?

How do I take care of both my parents, my both

my parents had illnesses and um, he came in one day

when I was just, we were, I was singing this one song.

Someday we'll All Be Free.

It started coming on and really Donny's

wailing and then.

I start singing, then I didn't know.

He starts singing.

So instead there's a trio.

There's three black men in this space singing together.

And the song ended and we both were very emotional and we

were both, I feel like I can now that I'm thinking about.

We were both silent for a while.

Eventually he left.

He say, all right, Colman, thank you.

I said, thank you, and we left.

And then I didn't see him for a while.

And I thought, 'cause he had all these health

issues and all, I thought something happened to him.

I thought, oh God.

'cause it was a cold winter and all that.

And then really it's like cinematically, like spring

appeared and suddenly somebody, uh, one of the door

guys was like, Hey Colman, I'm bartending our regular shift.

And it was a busy, busy night.

And he says, Hey, I'm, somebody wants

to see you outside.

And like, I'm really busy right now.

I can't see anybody.

He said, no, I'm telling you, you wanna see this?

I was like, hold on.

Second, I go out there and then I look around like who?

Then I look down and Rodney's in a wheelchair and he's

cleaned up and he looks like a college professor.

He looks so beautiful, and I was like, Rodney,

he was smiling and he was like, oh man.

I went home to dc I re reconnected with family.

I got my leg.

Apu hated all that stuff, but I just want you to know that

I'm well and, and I wanted to see you, and I was like.

Oh man.

And we, we hugged and yeah.

And literally that was the last time I saw him.

I don't know what happened to him or where he is now,

and I like to believe that that moment was a, a, a bit

of catharsis for both of us, or a prayer or something

we needed to do together to help move through a moment.

I think it's really fascinating that so many

people, especially in this industry, right, in

entertainment, think that the peak of success is to.

Get offset, go in a private jet, go to their isolated

compound in Jackson Hole or whatever, to reach these

levels of, you know, wealth, which ultimately means

some sort of isolation.

Right?

Mm-hmm.

You know, how important was it to you to actually

still be in communion with people living in communities?

No, I live in a, a more isolated area, but I think's

more for privacy, but.

I do know that I, I make active choices to like

work out at a gym where there's a lot of people,

it's not a private gym.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know how you can possibly tell stories

about humanity and people without being around people.

Mm-hmm.

I've witnessed that with certain people who've

gained some success and they're very isolated.

Mm-hmm.

And also, I don't want to.

I end up crazy or, or weird, you know?

I feel like you haven't joined a cult yet.

Now that you moved to Malibu.

I almost joined a cult, Mexico City, but

that's another story.

That's who all these people are outside.

I was wondering all the matching outfits Colman had

seemed very, I thought they were part of the Met Gala.

It was like, it was just a group of nice people,

and then I was like, wait a minute, this is weird.

I was like, what's up with you guys?

Yeah, this is my first encounter.

But as I did research and found out more about them,

I'm like, oh, that's a cult.

I still feel like we should join, but I,

after we'll get dessert mulled over is physical.

It might be that fair.

Colman, for the final course of your final

meal, we have a beautiful bottle of Soarian wine.

Beautiful.

Nice syrupy, a little bit of Flo, a little bit of

those honeysuckle notes.

Mm-hmm.

And then of course we have these sticky toffee pudding.

Oh.

With a little bit of clotted cream of vanilla ice cream.

Then we have the sweet potato pie with the

butter pecan ice cream.

And then we did have one more.

Surprise for you.

What is that?

You did not get water.

Ice.

We got you.

Water.

Ice.

Because, 'cause it's my last meal.

It's your last meal.

And I was watching Sing Sing the other day, which

is a fantastic movie, but there is a point where you

as Divine g Whitfield are being asked to talk about

your perfect memory and you say it's a hot summer day.

My mom gave me 25 cents to get the water.

Ice, and I thought Divine G Whitfield is

not from Philadelphia.

He's from New York.

New York would call this Italian ice.

You got it.

I thought this might be a Colman Domingo memory.

It's a Colman Domingo memory that was embedded in there.

You, you're really good.

Thank you.

Because that was, um, my director, Greg Quitar

said, we want you, we're gonna do an improv and

tell a personal story.

And so for us it was the moment to actually bring

in instead of Divine G, it was Colman right there.

Mm-hmm.

And it was like one of my memories, which was

a cherry water rice.

It is very Philly and you gotta say water.

Because that's what we say.

And we say water, ice, water, ice.

I grew up heavy on the water.

Ice, yeah.

Water, water, ice, water, ice.

Mm-hmm.

All of it's beautiful.

It's like, it's given me like very, very British here

and then very southern here.

Very Philly, very French.

That's me.

It truly is.

This the whole story.

This could have been the entire last meal.

Mm-hmm.

And I grew up on my mother's sweet potato pies.

Um, and everyone knows how to make sweet potato

pies in my family.

Mm-hmm.

And I actually will challenge my.

Sister right now that I make the best sweet potato pies.

I figured it out.

I know the secret battle.

Me sis sis, come back.

Come on the show.

We got a full kitchen right here.

Two of the official Domingo family sweet potato pie

battles going down here.

Exactly.

When's the last time you've been to Rita's Water?

Rice?

Last time I had a water rice was about maybe about

three years ago, and I went down to South Street.

I was like, we gotta, we gotta get a water ice because it's

not a thing that we, we just don't have that in California.

Mm-hmm.

No.

They've, Rita's tried to franchise, but I

think they're, they're doing California's like,

we're not having it.

Yeah.

A little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Mm. Which is perfect.

Okay.

Have that now.

Sweep it to the pie.

I'm gonna judge this because I've, listen, I'm such a fan.

Something insane man.

You gotta have some So turns with it too.

Wait.

With the butter called ice cream.

That's amazing.

Okay.

Sticky type pudding.

Sticky typey pudding.

You lived in London for a fair amount of time.

Is that where this comes from?

I lived there for a year and a half, um, when I was

doing a lot of theater there.

Huh.

I love that.

The two textures of cream.

Oh, there's so many different temperatures going on.

Look at that.

That's very sexual, isn't it?

Look at that.

This is very se this is an incredibly sexual meal.

And I'm gonna talk a little bit about more about Sing

Sing because I love that one of the theses of the

film seems to be that.

Like vulnerability is really the key to

what makes us human.

Absolutely right.

And so much of the film, it's like you're not seeing

these people as criminals.

You're not even seeing them as men.

You're seeing them as humans who thrive off

vulnerability, love, and safety, just as anybody does.

What would you say to a generation of young men

who frankly seems like it's, uh, it's tough to

get through to them right now about why people need

to be vulnerable when you see these sort of like.

Very strong, strong-willed men.

Incarcerated men doing work to become vulnerable to, to

in telling us, you can just view this and see that they're

saying, I need all of this to be complete and to be human.

Yeah.

The fact that I didn't allow myself to be vulnerable,

to be, um, to have all the feelings is probably part of

what has landed me here and, and made certain choices.

'cause I didn't, you know.

Whether developed empathy, um, or having faith that I

can cry, that men can cry and that men can hold each other.

Not everything has to do with sexuality,

which is something that.

It's so deeply seated in, in our culture mm-hmm.

When young men are being raised to say like, oh, even

touch something about that.

Yeah.

Well, but also I, the idea, this is the, the thing that I,

I, I've enjoyed about being a part of Ang sing, the ideas of

like what touch means is like, not everything is sexual.

Not everything is masculine, feminine,

it's just being human.

Yeah.

That's all it is.

And what we're saying is an examination and sing,

sing is saying these men are putting that on the

line and saying it's not.

It.

It hasn't been key to my, my humanity, my evolution.

I've gotta let that part of myself go.

My tears are okay.

Me being vulnerable does not say that I'm weak,

but also, it's okay to be weak sometimes too.

Yeah.

Who said that being weak is not a strength.

Yeah.

You know, because I feel like you can only learn from it

and grow from it in some way.

So I think we're telling young men to say, have

all those feelings.

I don't think I was a necessarily effeminate

child, but I was very soft.

I was very skinny and, and, and a nerd and all that

stuff, but I was never told by my family that was wrong.

You know?

But they also knew that I was very sensitive and I, I think

that I knew that that was.

That wasn't a terrible thing for me.

I knew that it was okay to be vulnerable and to have all

my feelings, you know, like when I can come in and see

my mother at the dining room table worried about bills,

and she'd be in tears and I would go and hold her and we

hold each, you know, I'm like, it's gonna be okay, mommy.

You know what I mean?

I feel like I know that there was nothing wrong with that.

So I think I, I tell young men these days, if

anyone's sort of like.

Watching me as like how I navigate spaces, which is

like have all those feelings.

This is the thing that I love, and this is a weird segue to

this, but it all makes sense.

I was walking in the streets of Harlem about a month

ago doing a photo shoot, and I'm wearing all this

stylish clothes as for a magazine shoot and everything

walk through Harlem and I, it was one of the most.

Moving days to me because I'm, I'm there with all aspects

of society and community, and the things that really struck

me the most is when I have these strong brothers, you

know, just a yo bro, yo man, yo, I'm so proud of you, man.

I love the way you represent.

I appreciate you.

Now, that's something I never knew was afforded

me, that these guys would think this sweet, weird,

skinny, vulnerable kid.

Was something to aspire to and to say I'm proud of.

Yeah.

I, I'm glad that I've, I've gone that road and I, I

I that road and I didn't sort of try to subvert that

and become something else.

Sure.

So I become this hyper masculine version of myself.

This, it's easy to do that.

That's easy.

I play that.

I play that stuff in, in, in, in movies and tv.

I don't wanna be that.

Yeah.

I wanna be all the things that I am, and I think I,

I want people to always, I tell young, if you are

listening to me, young people, liberate yourself.

Stay liberated.

With all your feelings, because I think that, is

that the key to your, um.

To your heart, to humanity and finding

your space in the world.

Mm-hmm.

It's funny when you say like, it's easy to perform a

certain type of masculinity, and I think you'd say it as

much in Sing Sing where you say It's easy to play anger.

Absolutely.

It's harder to play hurt, which is actually

what the anger is.

That's more complicated.

Much more complicated.

Because when people, I mean people are like, I

mean, playing angry is the the easiest thing to play.

Yeah.

You can play anger like that, but it's more complicated

to deal with hurt or pain because actually with hurt

or pain, if you call it that, you're like, actually,

you hurt my feelings.

You can actually grow from that.

Yeah.

If you're saying, I'm mad, I'm angry, that doesn't

get you anywhere, then that other person's gonna be

defensive and gonna be both mad and angry together.

Yeah.

Unless you say, I'm hurt, that really hurt me.

Then you Oh wow.

Okay.

Now there's more complicated things to unpack.

Yeah.

It's actually more interesting too.

Yeah.

And talking about growing from hurt, if you take it

back to wild with happy, there's a line where you

say death is a thief.

Uh, but with that thief of life, we can grow

ourselves from it, which I thought was like a

really beautiful way to.

To phrase that.

Hmm.

Is there anything about when your mother passed away or

the process of writing that play that you know, you felt

yourself really grow from that, whether it was, you

know, viewing Oprah as a benevolent deity because she

is, I think my most vulnerable self is found in my writing.

Every character's me and that line Death is a thief

that comes along, but you can learn and grow from it.

And, 'cause I think that's exactly what I did.

I had to, I lost both my parents six months apart

from each other, and it was like a thief in a night.

They came without any warning and took, I've had one of

my dearest friends, Ari, passed away a few years

ago and I was on the phone with him like right before

he was going into hospice.

And I knew this was the last time that we would

talk and I would see his face and laugh and talk.

You know, I'm, you're never ready for it, but

you're like, you know what?

If I can make it softer and make it softer for you,

that's all we could do.

Yeah, because it's going to happen.

It seems like that's been so much of your life and career.

It's just been trying to, one, protect the, um, protect

your baby, your art, but also use that to make other people

feel seen in a lot of ways.

I, I believe what I do is, um, service work.

Yeah.

I'm in service to humanity to story.

To amplify and telling someone else's story.

Even this in some way, shape or form, I think, I don't know

if I'm completely conscious of exactly like, oh, I want

to affect change or to, I'm, I'm not that person.

Sure.

And feel like, oh, I'm coming to be a superhero.

But I do believe that I'm very conscious of my words

and words have power.

And I know that I wanna tell a story and I want

someone to feel something.

So if I can enter spaces and leave spaces and leave a

feeling, I think that's really being human, that's doing the

work of service, whether it's an as an artist or a speaker

or whatever, but like, yeah, we have an opportunity to

change something a little bit.

Tell you one piece of magic from Wild with Happy that

really stuck with me is people don't realize the very.

Physical and almost bureaucratic nature of

death of you need to go to a funeral home and they will

try and upsell you a coffin.

Mm-hmm.

And my dad, that's the common.

Mm-hmm.

And it was like blindingly funny.

My dad before he passed, he went in for surgery when I

was 19 years old and there's a pretty low shot that, you

know, he wouldn't come out of it, but he, you know,

had his last rights and all that and estate figured out.

And, um, he went to the funeral home himself.

And got the lowest quote he could at $1,200 and made

the guy sign a thing and then he gave it to us as

he was going to surgery.

He says, do not pay a cent more if I die.

Don't pay a cent more than $1,200.

And then we go to this funeral home and they go.

You know, our cheapest package is $1,800.

And I go, Hey, uh, my dead dad said you told him 1200.

And the guy was like, ah, shit.

All right.

1200. And it's just the funniest is so how

your dad stuck it to the Oh, he really did.

I remember when my mother passed away and we, you

know, me and my brother and sisters, my two brothers and

sisters were at our apartment and we cleaned it out and

everything and it was my sister's job to hire the um.

Van to remove things we're like, oh, where's this van?

And she said, you know, they're coming,

they're coming.

You know, I'm just, I called, I, I don't know what kind

of van it is, whatever.

And we're like, oh, you know, it was like, get

mommy's precious things and separated out.

And then, um, a wise potato chip truck pulled up.

I like, why is that truck pulling in here?

And like, ugh.

Mom, these precious things are being taken away

in a wise potato chip.

And then we all started laughing.

We're like, why did you do that?

I don't know.

I got this.

I got them off Craigslist.

I don't know.

Will you please?

So we were laughing so hard.

The local Philly company.

Yeah.

So we could not stop laughing.

We're like, wow, that's that.

That's not the way.

I think my mother imagined her precious things being

carted away, but we thought it was funny and we thought she

would get a kick out of this.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, what do you think happens after you die?

Or what do you hope happens?

I hope that people will just remember me and

how I made them feel.

I feel like this should be a huge dance party on

my behalf, but like dance parties like around the world,

like dancing, celebration, ribs, sweet potato pie,

stuff like that, I feel like people, I would want

people to just like remember.

Remember me and have a good time.

We'll be happy to cater your funeral.

That's exact.

Wow.

That's dark.

It got really dark.

I didn't know where.

Sorry.

I I thought it was a very light happening.

I thought you, you're trying to book a offer.

I thought it was actually an surface right now.

My good right.

Do I die now?

Is that what happens?

Uh, I don't know, but I, I hope, like, I, like, like

I've done with my mother and her memory is that

someone speaks about me lovingly over and over again.

Talk tells great stories.

I think you're definitely gonna have a lot of people

telling those stories.

Your stories have impacted me.

So, so, so much, and this has been a truly

incredible last meal.

Are you ready to go on the lightning round?

Absolutely.

Who's the one person dead or alive?

You'd want to share your actual last

meal with My husband.

Raul, what song do you want to be played at your funeral?

Uh, Diana Ross.

Remember me?

You're one of the most fashionable men alive.

If you could give me one fashion tip to change my

life, what would it be?

You saw the whole fit.

You saw it out there.

You can't see my pants.

It, it was, it was good.

First of all, it was, I, I judge you very quickly and

I was like, he did good.

He did.

He put himself together.

Look at it.

You know what, what the, the tip I would

give you right now.

Please take one button down.

I thought about it.

I thought about it, but then can you see the mic?

Oh yeah, but that's fine.

Give, give the mic some love.

But you know what it is, because you know, for me the

difference between that and that is to feel effortlessly

luxurious and to always feel relaxed and listen,

I have this conversation with my publicist, Anique.

Every time she sees me, she will put one button up in

my, and somebody must have talked to Anique, because

this only goes in here.

So they put a, I can't Alex li.

This never would've happened at Har and Hot Springs, man.

Come on.

Who's your dream eulogize at your funeral?

Dead or alive?

Dead or alive, it would be Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou.

I mean you, when you, Colman was such a

wonderful human being.

I would've loved that.

That would be great.

I wanna, I think Eagle's gonna repeat his Super

Bowl champions this year.

Yeah, baby.

That's what I'm talking about, bro.

Bro, come on.

Go.

Come on, go get your, we're broke.

Don't grease that pole.

I'm climbing it anyways.

Oh, up on Twisted Tee.

Out on South Street, bro.

Oh God.

We gotta grease those poles again.

It's just really, what's your biggest fear?

I think to be alone at the end of my life, to be alone.

I would not want that.

I don't think you're in any current danger

of being that so.

Who's one actor you'd love to direct that you

haven't worked with yet?

I would like to see what it's like to direct Robert De Niro.

I would like that.

I would love to see that too.

I like that I'm watching.

Mm-hmm.

What's your greatest regret in life?

I didn't go to my junior prom because I felt too

awkward to go, you know what we have to do now?

I would go and I was stunned like a mother.

Finally, Colman, are you happy?

I am.

Wild with happy.

I'm wild with happy as well.

Truly.

Thank you so much you, this was incredible,

an absolute treat.

If you wanna deliver your last words to that camera

right there, my last words have a. Good time, and I'm

having a bleep good time giving up for calling Domingo.

Everyone watch Four Seasons on Netflix.

Truly, so much comedy, so much heart.

You're fantastic.

I hope you win the Emmy.

I'll vote for you or I'll go intimidate the other

judges into voting for you.

Whatever works.

Then check out our last Meals hat and [email protected].

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