Colman Domingo Explains Why He Attended the SXSW Premiere of ‘Sing Sing’ the Same Weekend as the Oscars (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer When Colman Domingo steps to the stage to introduce the SXSW premiere of his new film “Sing Sing” — a deeply affecting depiction of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the titular maximum security prison in New York — he gets a standing ovation before a second of the film has screened.

That might be in part because, less than 48 hours later, Domingo will be stepping inside the Dolby Theater for the 96th Academy Awards, nominated for his performance as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in “Rustin.” This wasn’t even the world premiere for “Sing Sing” — that was at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, where A24 scooped it up for a theatrical release this July.

But as Domingo explains to Variety following the film’s screening at SXSW — where the film received another, much longer standing ovation — there was never any question for him about whether he would attend. “The funny thing is, I’m shooting a movie in L.A., I’m shooting a series in Toronto, and even my publicist asked me the other day, ‘Are you sure you want to go to Texas?’” he says with a smile. “I said, ‘I have to be there.’ It’s just instinctual.” Domingo plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, who channels his roiling frustration at his wrongful murder conviction into his work as an actor, writer and founding member of the RTA program at Sing Sing.

Other than Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”), as the group’s civilian director, and theater actor Sean San Jose, as Divine G’s best friend and fellow inmate Mike Mike, the rest of the film’s core cast consists of former Sing Sing inmates and alumni of the RTA program, playing versions of themselves.