Colman Domingo Champions Inclusivity In AAFCA Acceptance Speech
Source: Kevin Winter / Getty
If there are a few things you can count on Colman Domingo to do, it’s to stunt fashion-wise on any red carpet he steps foot on and use his influence to uplift the marginalized.
So while he did get a (full Amiri) fit off at the 2025 African American Film Critics Association Awards (AAFCA), hosted in Beverly Hills last week, he used his time on stage after winning Best Actor for his role in A24’s Sing Sing, to speak on his decades-long career in Hollywood and just now realizing the type of projects he wants to shed light on. Plus, he’s aware of the environment he wants to create while on set.
“For me, [it’s been] 34 years. And when it culminates in a film like Sing Sing, I start to realize what I’ve been trying to do. With all the projects that I’ve been doing, it’s starting to crystalize now that [my goal in this industry is] to be love. I want to be love on every set. I want to empower my fellow actors to play with joy and respect,” he said, according to Deadline. “I want to build rooms that are equitable for everyone. I want to bring the light in all these dark places. We’re in these rooms for 14 to 16 hours a day, away from our family. So why not make it the most joyful and most loving? I invite you all to do that because I know that’s what I was invited to be with Sing Sing.”
He credits Sing Sing for this realization because he plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, an inmate in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the New York State prison who finds himself after participating in theatre productions. Adding to the film’s authenticity, Domingo worked alongside former inmates who were actually part of the rehabilitation program.
“Greg [Kwedar] gave me that responsibility to put myself in the center with these men who had never been on a film set. They have this lived experience, and they found this light in the darkness of theater and it transformed their lives,” he added. “Especially my brother, Clarence Maclin. There’s a bit of light and darkness that we have. And I’ll tell you to hold on because these brothers did the work to hold on to their humanity and their light and their love and their creativity in a very dark space. If they can do it, imagine what we can do.”
