Colman Domingo says banning books, plays and drag queens is 'the exact opposite of what America is about'

Colman Domingo, a self-titled “theater nerd,” still can’t believe he’s friends with Audra McDonald.

“It’s beyond nerdy,” the award-winning actor and producer jokes of his unexpected friendship with the Broadway legend. Domingo will be hobnobbing with other theater greats on Sunday, June 11, when he presents at the Tony Awards on CBS (later to stream on Paramount+), a night he’s anticipating to be a full circle moment.

“I feel like I’m amongst my superheroes,” he tells Yahoo Entertainment of the Broadway community.

The showbiz veteran, 53, is having one hell of a year, as a string of passion projects are scheduled to drop in the coming months — including Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June 9), Drive-Away Dolls (Sept. 9) and the highly anticipated film version of the Broadway musical The Color Purple (Christmas Day) where he stars as Mister, originally played by Danny Glover in the 1985 film.

But it's never been about the glitz and glamour for Domingo, who spends more time counting his blessings than reveling in fame.

“I've always been an actor who aspired to just do good work and have it amplified, but this is a whole other level to watch your influence, and to see where you are in the zeitgeist,” says Domingo, who’s also nominated for a Tony this year as co-producer of the Broadway play Fat Ham, a modern take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet that centers on a Black queer lead.

When reflecting upon the indelible mark he’s made in the industry, Domingo can't help but point to the fact that, in some areas, arts education is becoming a battle ground in the culture wars.

“When I was coming into the theater, as a young person in the '90s and touring high schools, there was no arts education. It was lacking,” he recalls. “That’s when I started to understand, Oh, when you take away the arts, you take away constructive thinking, you take away spirit and soul. We have to infuse schools with more art, more drama, more music, more expression, because that’s the way we make change. And I think the ‘status quo’ knows that. They try to abolish that promise, but the thing is… you can’t.”

The roles he chooses to play, such as Ralph Abernathy in the Martin Luther King biopic Selma, or as renowned LGBTQ civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in the upcoming Netflix biopic Rustin, mirror his own activism.

That also goes for the companies he chooses to partner with — including his partnership with Zacapa Rum, the official sponsor of the 2023 Tony Awards.

"They've been a wonderful brand partner, for me," he says of the company, which he's had a relationship with for nearly three years. "They're really in the business of helping me amplify the things that are important to me," such as fighting censorship and empowering marginalized communities.

“Historically, it’s always something artists are up against,” Domingo, a proud gay man, notes of censorship. “We're always fighting a status quo that holds us back from being who we are, and then suddenly feeling like we're a threat. Like, how is it possible that drag is a threat? It’s the most absurd thing in the world, this idea of people feeling like they want to take away people’s personal choices and expression. That’s the exact opposite of what America is about, which is to try and live up to the ideals of being free. Yet, it still seems like it’s just for a few.”

Domingo learned that lesson in real time, after starring in the play Passing Strange, his Broadway debut in 2008, and later in the Susan Stroman musical The Scottsboro Boys, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award in 2011.

“Those were light bulb moments in my life,” he says of those roles. “People were like, 'Oh, Black people like Rock ‘n Roll? Black people are not monolithic?' That taught me how to be an activist in my work, to say, ‘Actually, art is activism.’”

It's also helped him develop unique methods to prepare for roles, especially for characters that are often viewed as dark or menacing, like Mister in The Color Purple, a complex and troubled man who is initially depicted as an abusive husband to Celie (played by Fantasia in the latest iteration). But as the story progresses, he undergoes development and transformation.

“He is a hurt person who hurts people,” he says of Mister. “Even with his abusive nature, you understand that he’s a hurt person, a broken person. He's not just villainous. He didn't wake up one morning and decide to knock Celie over the head. It's from years of his own conditioning.

“It’s an examination of humanity,” he says of this performance. “I recognized that there's darkness in each and every one of us. We all have choices: I choose to live with grace, I choose to live with forgiveness. I have all the same tools that can flip to the other side and be dark, if I didn't have access and if I wasn't loved, if I didn't feel that I was heard. And so, I try to push my characters in that way.”

Even more, adds Domingo, to fully be himself as an out queer man — and still be one of Hollywood’s most sought after talents, often playing straight male characters who have intimate relationships with women — is a testament to how far society has come.

“I never thought of it as a limitation in any way,” he says of his identity. “I've always had a sense of trust and belief in who I was in the world. It's always been important for me to not impose something that the outside world has put on me, whether it's what they see, as a Black man. They might not necessarily know I’m queer, and yet still, I think I like to surprise people with it, to say, ‘Hey, this is who I am.’”

That pride, he says, continues to drive him. It also inspires the message he conveys to young people. “The fight,” as he calls it, is not just on them. “It’s on all of us.”

“It's time for us to get back out there,” he says of turning art into activism. “You can't legislate joy and love and expression. You're not going to silence me. You're not going to cover my mouth up.”