The new film “Sing Sing” is hitting theaters now to a lot of rave reviews.
The movie, which is directed and produced by Texans, tells the story of a theater program at a New York prison – and its star, Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo, also has ties to the Lone Star State.
He spoke with the Texas Standard about that, why he doesn’t consider “Sing Sing” a prison movie, and why he thinks it sends a message the world needs right now.
Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: You don’t have Texas ties, do you?
Colman Domingo: I actually do. I lived in Texas for four years filming “Fear the Walking Dead” all over the Austin area.
I have cowboy boots. I have hung out on South Congress. You know, I’ve rented an apartment there. I feel like I have Texas in my heart.
I should have realized! So, do you miss the Texas summers?
Right now, when I hear it’s 100 and f*** degrees, no. And excuse my French, but you know what I do love? I love Texas because I also I love, like, going down by the river. And I would just take my scooter and go all over Austin. I don’t know. People are very warm and friendly there. It still has its sense of weird Austin, which is what I love as well.
So I still have a lot of all my great friends and colleagues in the crew that worked in Texas. They’re still very close and near and dear to me.
I’m so excited to talk to you about “Sing Sing.” It’s a true story about a prison-based theater group at the Sing Sing prison in New York. You play Divine G, who is essentially the leader of this group. And you got to know the real Divine G. How did that influence your performance?
Oh in a great way.
I think when I got to know him, I just met him where he lived, which was, you know, he had been incarcerated for 25 years and he was on the outside. And he was doing work in communities. And he’s just a really incredible guy.
But I got to know who he was on the inside just by when he would just say, “I was sort of a jailhouse lawyer. I was always in the law library and advocating for fellow inmates. You know, when their parole board hearings came up and things like that, helping to make sure that they were liberated.” And he was working on his own liberation, and he was someone who attached himself to this RTA program, this rehabilitation of the arts program that did plays. He’s one of the founding members.
So I thought, just based on that, I was like, what an incredibly hopeful human being. He was wrongly accused of a crime and still found the light in his heart and really was trying to make a difference in the world. That that didn’t stop him while he was inside and sort of looked at as being a certain way.
From left, Paul Raci, Sean San José, Colman Domingo, Sean “Dino” Johnson, Mosi Eagle in “Sing Sing.” (Courtesy A24)
A large percentage of the cast is made up of these people who are playing versions of themselves – formerly incarcerated men. Did the set feel like a typical film set, or was it more dynamic, more flexible because of that?
It didn’t feel like a typical film set because we filmed at actual decommissioned prisons as well, in upstate New York, which adds a whole other layer of authenticity, and performance, because you don’t have to pretend anything. It’s all right there.
The way the hallways are created so you can’t even find your way out. And the way the air feels like it’s stale and doesn’t move. Where the light sources are coming from – or lack of light sources. The way the jail cells are – looking at these containers that are supposed to house humans. And it doesn’t seem that humane.
So that lends itself to performance in every single way. You can download all of that information and make decisions of action based on the environment you’re in.
But we did also because, you know, I was not only a producer, but also the central actor with a lot of people who had hadn’t done film before. I knew I had to have an impact and let them know how to do this, how to actually create a film like this. And I try to create from a space of love and grace and a great work ethic and having a good time at the same time.
So I know I needed to rally these guys to help them do this work. And they helped me do my work as well. I think they helped me get to a level of truth because they have had the real lived-in lives. And so I needed to sort of fold myself into that in a way that is not dynamic in a performative way but dynamic in a very sort of grounded, vulnerable, realistic way.
There are some very famous prison movies out there. The first ones that come to my head are “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile.” Did you ever worry about comparisons or cliches in telling this story?
You know what? No. Because I’ve always thought that it wasn’t a prison movie.
I thought the container was prison because it really just – it does go up against any trope people have ever imagined about prison.
So it’s not a prison movie to me. It’s a movie about our humanity. It’s about human beings that are in the container of a prison that are advocating and fighting for their humanity and to feel again. It’s about how art transforms and heals. So it’s more about that.
So I feel like, in comparison, it sort of like, it pulls the rug out. And I think the film naturally keeps doing that as it’s working on its audience. At the moment you feel like we’re about to hit one of those tropes, something that we’ve seen before, it transforms. So we’re transforming your mind about this and the people inside, not the institution, but the people inside. As the film is delivering its messages.
From left, Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin in the film “Sing Sing.” (Courtesy A24)
You kind of answered my next question already with that beautiful description. But if someone’s on the fence like, why should I go watch “Sing Sing,” what do you tell them?
I tell them because, if you want a story about hope, you want a story about the possibility of the human spirit. I think it’s about who we can become.
I think it’s a bit more hopeful, especially in this world right now where things are so polarized or things are so sized up when it comes to our media and you’re looking for something real, you’re looking to feel, you’re looking to see or put yourself in someone else’s shoes and go into a world that you thought you had nothing to do with and realize it’s more about all of us.
I feel like the fact that we’re more alike than unalike, and I think we need more messages like that. And I think that’s what I know I need. And so I think it’s something joyful and it’s something heartful. And why not? Get a ticket for you and the whole family.
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