Oprah Winfrey spent her Valentine’s Day celebrating a different type of love — the kind between longtime friends and creative partners — as she saluted Colman Domingo for his acclaimed performance in “Sing Sing.”
“This is an invitation I could not pass up,” Winfrey said as she strutted onto the stage at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara to present Domingo with the Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday night.
And Winfrey didn’t have to travel far. The broadcast legend is a longtime Montecito resident, so the festival practically takes place in her backyard. Plus, Winfrey is also a previous recipient of same prize, awarded in 2014 for her work in “The Butler,” which is where her friendship with Domingo began.
“I’m here by divine order,” Winfrey told the crowd about the full-circle circumstances. “Because his mother, Edith, knew that her son was gifted. She didn’t just tell him that; she knew it inside her soul. She knew that he had talent, and that talent deserved attention — so much so that, during the years of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ Edith Bowles used to watch faithfully every day and she would write me letters telling me how talented her son was.”
Though Bowles’ letters didn’t reach Winfrey at the time, and Bowles passed away in 2006, “Edith Bowles is still working it on the other side, and has brought us together for such a time as this,” Winfrey said, as an tearful Domingo looked on.
Winfrey and Domingo have since collaborated a handful of times — as co-stars in “The Butler” and 2014’s “Selma,” then with Winfrey as producer and Domingo playing the abusive Mister in the 2023 musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” They also teamed for Audible’s adaptation of Domingo’s play “Wild With Happy.” But his work in “Sing Sing” blew her away.
“I am personally familiar with his abilities, and yet, when I saw what he did in ‘Sing, Sing,’ I just thought I have never seen anything like that,” Winfrey said about Domingo’s portrayal of John “Divine G” Whitfield, who was a member of a real-life theater troupe for incarcerated men and whose story is the basis for the A24 film. “This hopeful story of human connection shows us that there is always still a chance to heal. I was blown away by such courageous and raw and authentic storytelling.”
Winfrey’s tender remarks capped an emotional evening where Domingo looked back on his career in a nearly two-hour conversation with SBIFF executive director Roger Durling. The special event marked another key stop on the awards season circuit, as Domingo is nominated for best actor at the Academy Awards. It’s his second consecutive best actor nod, following recognition for portraying Bayard Rustin in Netflix’s “Rustin,” making him the first person since Denzel Washington to garner back-to-back nominations in the category.
“The thing that I love so much about Colman, he’s just always in pursuit of the work,” Winfrey told Variety moments after stepping offstage. “What’s so wonderful about this moment — every time he steps out and bedazzles us with another fantastic outfit or we see him in another fantastic scene — is that the goal wasn’t to get to this. The goal was just to be in service to the work. And now we get to see that all of that energy and effort and love and passion put into that pays off years later. It doesn’t always come when you want to, it doesn’t come how you think it’s going to come.”
Winfrey can relate, because it happened to her too — at the height of her talk show. “I know what this feels like to be in the center — literally in the seat of your rising. And to be able to receive it, to be mature enough and open enough to receive it with love, and to be able to use it to bless other people, that’s why it’s just so bedazzling to see.”
Winfrey and Domingo are settled onto a small couch in the backstage dressing room. He’s beaming just a bit as Winfrey elaborates on what she found so extraordinary about his performance in “Sing Sing.”
“I thought I was looking at part of his own soul up there. There was a rawness and a vulnerability and a peeling back of the layers,” Winfrey said.
A few moments stand out in her mind: when Domingo’s Divine G explains that the inmates don’t call each other the N-word, but instead refer to one another as “beloved”; or when he, the steadfast leader of the troupe, suffers a breakdown on stage; and in a quiet moment at the film’s end, where, Winfrey said, “he owns his manhood and his personhood in a way that is so hopeful and inspiring that it feels like it’s [Domingo], as well as that character.” Turning toward Domingo, she continued: “You were able to feel that in the depths of your own being. And that is coming from such a real place. Then they have that hug and I’m on the floor [crying].”
“It’s funny,” Domingo then chimed in, mentioning a recent conversation with his “Color Purple” co-star Taraji P. Henson about the timing of the projects. Domingo did triple duty in 2023 — shooting “Sing Sing” in the 18 days between “The Color Purple” and “Rustin.”
“The day after we wrapped, I flew to New York. I had one day off, and then I started production,” he explained. “So I’d like to believe that ‘The Color Purple’ prepared me. I went there already having that part of myself that was embattled and just really raw and open.” Knowing that he’d be acting opposite men who have real-life experience on the inside, Domingo explained, “I knew I had to bring a part of me. I had to bring more me than I’ve ever brought in any film.”
Everything is connected, Winfrey concurred: “There’s not one single thing that’s happening to you that actually you cannot use another time in your life. That is true, whether you’re an actor or whatever you’re doing in your life, everything is building on everything else.”
Colman Domingo and SBIFF’s Roger Durling speak onstage at the Montecito Award ceremony during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for Santa Barbara International Film Festival
On stage, Domingo referred to “Sing Sing” as a “quiet act of revolution” because of its depiction of vulnerability and emotional intimacy between Black men — something rarely seen on screen. Bearing that in mind, what concerns does Domingo have about Hollywood’s recent rollbacks of DEI initiatives, particularly in terms of getting a movie like this made in the future?
“The strange thing is — and I’ll tell you this as I look at my producing partner, Raúl [Domingo, who is also his husband] — that I don’t have those fears,” Domingo said. “I have faith and belief that we will find the partners and the people. We just keep rolling up our sleeves. Maybe I’ve been prepared from like playing Rustin — you just roll up your sleeves and you get to work.”
Domingo points to the way they made “Sing Sing” as an example: the film was independently funded, with a low budget, so they didn’t have to ask permission to have a cast made up primarily of formerly incarcerated men. “There’s four professional actors up there,” he said. “That’s not sexy to the usual people who are funding [films], but we’re like, ‘No, we’re going to make a difference in the way we make a difference.’”
He’s had conversations about the state of the industry with his comrades and their takeaway is the same. “You have to take ownership. You have to believe that, as my friend David Oyelowo says, we can become our studios,” Domingo continued. “We can do the work that we believe in, and then offer it up and find platforms for it, find partners, build bridges. I think that’s the way to do it. I don’t have those fears. Things are going to happen the way they’re going to happen, but I’m going to put my nose down and get to work.”
How does Winfrey see it? “Exactly the way he sees it,” she replied with a smile, as the pair rose to stand, then floated from the room to continue the celebration.
Oprah Winfrey presents Colman Domingo with the Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images for Santa Barbara International Film Festival
