Colman Domingo Nearly Quit Acting After Losing Out on This Role

Colman Domingo is a celebrated superstar in Hollywood, but we almost never got to see his talent.

During an interview with the New York Times, the 54-year-old Rustin star revealed that he was auditioning in New York City for roles following his Tony-nominated run in The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway.

He wanted to go for a role in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.

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At the time, he thought the small part as a maître d’ at a Black-owned nightclub was “the one that’s going to finally be my big break,” he said.

After the audition, the actor’s agent told him that a historical researcher on the HBO series informed producers that maître d’s employed in nightclubs at the time were usually light-skinned, and Colman did not get the part.

“That’s when I lost my mind,” he said, revealing he was in the middle of a Manhattan Equinox gym when he got the news and couldn’t stop himself from screaming and sliding to the floor.

He said he told his agent: “I can’t take it anymore. I think this is going to kill me.”

And even though he considered leaving acting, he kept going.

“I’ve had many moments where I just needed that little shine or that little push or that extra scene that I know we shot, but decisions were made. It happens. You can shoot a film and do some of the best work of your career, and they leave out three incredible scenes, and you’re like, ‘That could have made me. That could have changed everything,’” he went on to say.

He won his first Emmy last year for HBO’s Euphoria, and stars in Netflix’s Rustin, as well as the film adaptation of the Broadway musical iteration of The Color Purple, which recently earned the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time.

Find out what he said to Jacob Elordi about barely crossing paths on Euphoria!