Colman Domingo is a proud West Philly underdog

In his new film Sing Sing, West Philly native Colman Domingo’s character, Divine G, is not a Philadelphian, but the actor gets to deliver a monologue about his fondness for the most Philadelphia of all treats: water ice.

In the scene, a group of incarcerated men sit around reminiscing about summer days spent on the outside.

“I wanted to find the Divine G — that part of me that lives in Divine G, as well as the Divine G that lives in me,” Domingo said to The Inquirer. So, when the actors were asked to improvise on the scene, he wanted to “make it specific to my experiences.”

“I felt like, ‘You know what, I’m going to talk about a water ice story,’ because that’s a true story. I’m sure Divine G had a snow cone, some cold summer beverage, but I have water ice. So for me, that was honoring who I am as well.”

Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar, with Domingo serving as an executive producer, is based on the true story of a group of incarcerated men at the titular prison in New York who participate in a theatrical production through a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts.

With the exception of those portrayed by Domingo and Paul Raci, all of the film’s major characters are played by formerly incarcerated men.

Kwedar and his cowriter, Clint Bentley, had been discussing the idea of a movie about Rehabilitation Through the Arts for six or seven years but had struggled to find the right story for it. Eventually, they approached the Rustin star. At that point, the project had no script, so Kwedar and Bentley sent Domingo an Esquire article about the program.

“When I found out about just how important the arts were when it came to rehabilitation, in this container of a prison, I thought it was incredible,” Domingo said. “And then finding out it had [only] a 3% recidivism rate among the community that’s gone through this program, I thought that was outstanding. And I thought they were right, there was some story there.”

The film was produced independently and was acquired for distribution by A24 at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

“We looked at the themes of brotherhood, of smashing tropes about Black and brown men as well, and we really wanted to create a film about our humanity — not a prison film, but a film about the possibility of what we can be, if love is afforded to us, or care, or grace, is extended,” the actor said.

Domingo’s character, John “Divine G” Whitfield, is a leader of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing, and is a man trying to clear his name of the murder for which he was convicted. He’s introduced as the mostly levelheaded authority figure for the program but later gets put through an emotional wringer.

“I think the film is absolutely doing the work that the RTA program did which is smashing tropes of exactly who we are as Black and brown men,” Domingo said. “The thing in particular that I was interested in, and my way into this film, was that I want to see more tenderness on screen when it comes to men and male relationships. And I’m not talking about sexually, I’m talking about tenderness, plain and simple.”

Domingo was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in last year’s Netflix film Rustin, in which he portrayed the West Chester-born 1960s civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. His other prominent credits include the movies Zola and If Beale Street Could Talk, the TV series Euphoria, and the Broadway musical The Scottsboro Boys.

The actor is quick to credit his Philadelphia upbringing for helping shape his performing career.

“I always say people in Philly are ‘what you see is what you get,’” he said. “I come from a very blue-collar neighborhood, and people are very salt of the earth … I think it sort of grounded me in a sense of who I am. I think [in] Philly we pride ourselves on being underdogs, and I know that’s sort of where I pull from. ‘Oh, you don’t think I can do it? You just wait, you just watch. Because I believe in myself.’”

Domingo’s father sanded hardwood floors and his mother worked in a bank. “We ate around the table and had dinner at 6:00 every night … it wasn’t rare, which is why I always like to say it, because I feel like there’s many ideas about growing up in inner-city West Philadelphia.”

Domingo attended Temple, where he majored in journalism. A professor, he recalled, “was very frustrated with me as a writer. I was too colorful in my writing, I was too creative in my writing. She said, ‘You had to stick to the points,’ ‘You have to stick to just the facts.’ And it was hard for me … But the thing that I knew for sure was that I had a journalistic heart.”

Later in life, the actor “realized that it’s all about archiving who we are and where we are. You have to have a journalistic heart and have that interrogating mind to do a deep dive into character and story and history.”

When he makes it back to his hometown, Domingo’s favorite haunts include everywhere from the Four Seasons Hotel to Ishkabibble’s, where he likes to get “a nice messy cheesesteak.”

“I like going down South Street,” he said. “Even though it wasn’t as busy as I remember when I was a kid … it takes me back to my youth, when I was a teenager, going down there, and sort of watching the counterculture of Philly.”

“Sing Sing,” which had a local premiere in April at the PFS SpringFest film festival, with several cast members present, opens locally on Friday, Aug. 16.