Sing Sing (Courtesy A24) A24’s Sing Sing follows a bunch of inmates taking part within the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program, which gives incarcerated males the possibility to supply theatrical productions whereas in jail. A real story developed by co-writers and producers Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (who additionally directed) and RTA alumni Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield, the movie stars Oscar nominees Colman Domingo and Paul Raci alongside an ensemble of previously incarcerated males who participated within the RTA program, together with Maclin, who performs himself together with different RTA alumni.
With unimaginable performances from Domingo (who earned his second consecutive Oscar nomination for greatest actor, following 2023’s Rustin) and Maclin (additionally Oscar-nominated for greatest tailored screenplay with Bentley, Kedar and Whitfield), the movie is as a lot of a shocking portrait of life in jail as it’s a testomony to the facility of the humanities (theater specifically) as a option to expose vulnerabilities and tenderness amongst a bunch of males.
Domingo, who additionally served as an govt producer on the movie, spoke with me about his onscreen collaboration with Maclin, how he immersed himself into an ensemble of actors enjoying themselves and why Sing Sing ranks as essentially the most significant and rewarding challenge he’s been part of in his profession.
Filmmaker: I used to be fortunate to see you, Clarence and some of your co-stars take part in a Q&A after a Sing Sing screening in November. I used to be actually greatly surprised by how emotional everybody within the room was—not simply the viewers who had watched the movie, but in addition you and your collaborators. I’ve heard that tears have been the norm all through this marketing campaign. Have you ever skilled a challenge like this, that’s nonetheless such an emotional punch for you so lengthy after you accomplished it?
Domingo: I believe it begins with the viewers, as a result of we’re responding to the room. It has the identical feeling, no less than in my expertise, as theater. There have been many screenings the place persons are so moved by what they’ve skilled, and so they’re sitting there awestruck. We should go on the market and be the place the viewers is, to soak up their hearts and emotions and be one with them. I believe that’s why it’s extra emotional for us, due to how the movie hits an individual’s coronary heart. We should deal with them; we simply invited individuals into this extraordinary circle.
Filmmaker: When did you first meet the ensemble you’d be becoming a member of, a lot of whom are enjoying themselves?
Domingo: It was all fairly natural. We first began by assembly Clarence Maclin. First it was simply me, Greg [Kwedar, director, producer and co-writer] and Clint [Bentley, producer and co-writer) talking about ideas of what we can make and what was important to us. They suggested that Clarence would be an interesting candidate to actually play Clarence Maclin. We got on a Zoom and struck up a real, down-to-earth conversation about what was important to us in the making of this film. The next person I met was [my character] John “Divine G” Whitfield, very briefly on a Zoom. I didn’t meet everybody else till the primary day of capturing. We knew we had a fairly restricted timeline, as a result of we have been solely capturing over the course of 18 days, however any theater practitioner is aware of which you can go fairly deep fairly rapidly on the subject of workouts and sharing of your self, when you have got that protected area of a theater. I wish to suppose that due to the self-esteem of the theater that was within the middle of the movie, we have been fairly susceptible with one another to do that work.
Filmmaker: Did that casting choice of getting the RTA alumni enjoying themselves within the movie elevate the stakes for you as an actor?
Domingo: I’ve by no means completed something like that. It was all an excellent experiment, in a approach, with some actually deep and detailed intentions, however I believe [none of us had ever] skilled that. I by no means labored with fellow actors who’ve had coaching as an actor, but in addition have been individuals who had lived this expertise and challenged me to ensure that I wasn’t too performative, to fold myself in with these males and their expertise. They have been the true deal proper there—I needed to satisfy them the place they have been. Just as they have been enjoying a model of themselves on the within, I felt like I needed to faucet right into a model of myself and discover the Divine G in me. It was extra uncooked and genuine and just a little bit extra strict.
Filmmaker: Do you suppose their experiences benefitted your efficiency? Were you capable of flip to them for steering by way of the way you approached the character?
Domingo: I by no means had a second of interrogating them about their expertise. They’ve gone by way of that; I didn’t suppose that that was crucial for me. What was necessary was to share and actually lean into the work we’re making an attempt to construct, attending to know one another after which letting that inform the work. And, truthfully, I really feel like it might be too invasive to ask what their expertise was like in jail. Whatever we had conversations about, it was all the time very natural. I by no means needed to look like an outsider or have a look at them as an anthropological research. I needed to get to know them as males to create one thing distinctive collectively.
Filmmaker: I recall Sean “Dino” Johnson saying within the Q&A how traumatic it was to return to a jail to movie this film. I can not think about how susceptible that will need to have been for a few of your forged mates. Is that one thing you witnessed on set?
Domingo: It was very personal for each—nobody absolutely expressed it. I all the time noticed them as actors, my co-stars, and that’s it. It was by no means about taking a look at their psychology or how they have been approaching the work. I simply knew that they have been recreation. We had so many moments of pleasure and nice camaraderie, and issues that we did off-screen that ended up on-screen, just like the breakdancing second. Those are natural moments taking place as a result of we do have a shared historical past of being males from the inside metropolis. I’m all the time singing songs [on set], and any person would catch onto the tune I used to be singing [and it became a game of] guess that tune. Who sang it? What yr was it? That was a part of that shared historical past, so there was by no means any otherness.
Filmmaker: The onscreen relationship between your self and Clarence Maclin was actually stunning. How did that develop?
Domingo: In our early discussions, we talked about what was necessary to us, and the factor that was crucial to me was displaying tenderness between these males. Whether or not they might say it absolutely, that’s what I imagine that they shared on this very harmful area of a jail. They held an area for one another to be susceptible and do the work of theater, utilizing their creativeness, analysis, historical past and play. Similarly, I needed to arrange an atmosphere to assist what these guys have really achieved, then they leaned into it. It by no means appeared like a activity that they weren’t up for. For Clarence, I don’t suppose it’s in his DNA to really feel like he’s less than the duty. He was joyful and able to create. What he didn’t know, he would ask or simply observe. These males have gone by way of experiences that I can’t even think about, however they know easy methods to present up independently to get the work completed. Through the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program [they did] extraordinary work on and for themselves, a lot in order that there’s a lower than 3% recidivism price amongst those that undergo that program, in comparison with 60% nationwide. I simply needed to arrange an atmosphere to assist all the attractive, tender, joyful, considerate, humanistic work that they did.
Filmmaker: The vulnerability and tenderness on display screen was actually highly effective to witness, as a result of it’s so uncommon to see actual and genuine moments through which males are emotional, letting their guards down. Was that one thing you acknowledged as crucial for the movie?
Domingo: I assumed that was a key a part of the story. How can we re-examine these relationships that males have? I by no means see these relationships on display screen, the place males might be tender and susceptible and open to one another, and has nothing to do with sexuality in any respect. There’s an energetic revolution to point out that males might be that approach. We can have areas that assist that, it’s good for our psychological well being, households and societies. That’s what they have been doing in [this program]: They have been holding area the place individuals could be as tender and as susceptible as they wanted to be, as a result of it was the important thing to liberate their souls.
Filmmaker: So a lot of Sing Sing is about how appearing, as a craft, builds empathy for others whereas additionally permitting somebody to faucet into their very own vulnerabilities. It could even permit audiences to completely grasp the mysteries of your vocation. Did the movie help you look at your relationship to appearing? Were there ever moments if you thought, “Oh God, I love being an actor”?
Domingo: Hmm… [Laughs]
Filmmaker: That’s form of a presumptuous query, so if the reply isn’t any, that’s additionally fantastic! [Laughs]
Domingo: I’ve been a working artist for over 30 years, and I take my work gently and severely. It’s one thing that I like to interrogate, and I wouldn’t wish to make a flat assertion that diminishes all the opposite elements of it. My job and profession are stunning and irritating. It makes you wish to scream, it makes you so proud. It makes you wish to stop, it may be fairly rewarding. When you have got a activity, like the concept of being a producer and actor to inform a narrative that’s actually significant and might transfer the needle on our humanity, and [that includes] teams of males doing unimaginable work to alter their lives… It’s rewarding. If something, this movie has given me a stronger voice as a producer and as a lead actor, to say, “I can help make films like this that really does shift the culture in some way, shape or form.” It makes me proud and helpful.
Filmmaker: You talked about the statistics in regards to the RTA program’s success. But I believe this movie additionally proves how entry to the humanities is so important. Why do you suppose arts schooling must be not simply inspired, but in addition protected?
Domingo: Art teaches you many various issues. It’s not flagrant. It helps set up empathy, provides you objective, builds character and neighborhood. Art is vital to our survival. And once we take arts away from individuals—particularly poor, Brown and Black individuals—you create pathways to destruction in our society. When individuals don’t have that entry, they’ll’t have locations the place they’ll put a sense, to precise or give phrases to it. That’s why I can completely see a pathway from lack of entry to artwork to the prison-industrial complicated. Sing Sing just isn’t inherently a political movie in any approach, or telling anybody easy methods to really feel in regards to the jail system—it’s telling you that there are individuals in there.
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