Colman Domingo doubled his pleasure with a pair of Emmy nominations on Wednesday and revealed how he shared the good news with one of his favorite scene partners: Zendaya.
Shortly after both stars earned nods for HBO‘s Euphoria, Domingo says one of his first congratulatory messages came from his co-star, who “sent me hearts and butterflies and stars and hugs, emojis.”
The actor, who earned bids for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Euphoria and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Netflix‘s The Four Seasons, tells Gold Derby that he and Zendaya share a unique dynamic on screen.
“It means a lot to me because she is the center of our show and a lot of it relied on her. I mean her character went through everything this season and over the course of three seasons. So she does extraordinary work,” Domingo says. “She’s still, to this day, one of my favorite scene partners.”
Domingo was vacationing on Italy’s Tyrrhenian Sea when the nominations were announced.
“To get this news of being a double nominee in this beautiful place where I really came to drop my shoulders and not do any work, but sort of reflect on the work of this past year and to move forward into the next year, it feels beautiful. It feels like it’s the icing on the cake,” he tells Gold Derby.
The dual nominations recognize two very different performances, something Domingo says reflects the range he’s been striving to show. His nomination for The Four Seasons was equally gratifying because it recognized a different side of his career.
“With Four Seasons, I like to say I’m taking one for the team because I know that you can’t do comedy alone,” Domingo explains. “I play off of all these magnificent actors and I love that show and I love that I’ve been able to flex myself in comedy. And it’s something that I think people still find surprising because I’ve been caught up in dramas for so long.”
Domingo says his recent projects have allowed audiences to see him in dramatically different roles.
“My career of late has been a lot about seeing me in polar opposites, whether it’s watching me in The Color Purple and Rustin at the same time, or whether it’s Joe Jackson in Michael, and now people get to see me as someone else in Disclosure Day. I seem to live in that space where I’m able to have this duplicitous sort of career, which is beautiful.”
Besides Zendaya, Domingo says one of the first people to offer congratulations was Euphoria creator Sam Levinson. “Sam Levinson was one of the first who FaceTimed me. He’s also in Italy as well. We just look sun-kissed and relaxed and I don’t think we ever even ever looked that way when we’re back in L.A.,” Domingo says with a laugh.
Meanwhile, the cast text thread for The Four Seasons quickly filled with congratulatory messages, including one from Tina Fey.
“Our text feed has just blown up beautifully,” he says. “Tina just piped in with a joke, something like, ‘And of course a showrunner that lets you live, you get a nomination on that show’ Steve Carell, which that was funny,” he says, referring to Carell’s nomination for Rooster a year after he was killed off of The Four Seasons.
As for celebrating his latest milestone, Domingo plans to keep things simple.
“I think I might just jump into the sea and have a nice swim. I think that’s a perfect way to celebrate today.”
