Colman Domingo is playing Joe Jackson in “Michael” biopic to 'find out what's underneath the hat'

"There's many public opinions about Joe Jackson that are in conflict of what maybe family members or people who knew him think or believe," Colman explains to EW of the polarizing figure.

Colman Domingo is in a celebratory mood.

Not only is the Euphoria Emmy winner a first-time Oscar nominee for his remarkable portrayal of gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who orchestrated the 1963 March on Washington, but he's announced his feature directorial debut, a Nat King Cole biopic which he is also writing and will star in.

"I'm focusing around 1957 when he had his talk show, his variety show," Domingo tells EW's The Awardist. "My approach to this film is sort of like a Trojan horse. It has all the beautiful trappings of the 1950s that I'm interested in deconstructing. By deconstructing Nat King Cole, I believe I'm deconstructing America,"

Domingo, whose movie does not yet have a distributor, says he's been trying to figure out "for a long time" what his directorial debut would be. This one, he says, "just made sense" having already explored a bit of Cole's life with Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole, the 2019 musical he co-wrote with Patricia McGregor. "This is sort of a kissing cousin to the musical version of it," Domingo says, "but it lives in its own space in a cinematic way."

Before that, though, Domingo will play Joe Jackson, patriarch and career architect of the famous Jackson family, in the Lionsgate biopic Michael. The late superstar's nephew, Jaafar, will play him in the movie, slated to hit theaters on April 18, 2025, while Nia Long will play family matriarch Katherine.

Domingo admits that the thought of portraying the polarizing patriarch of the family — accused by some of his children of abuse — didn't weigh on him so much as present an interesting challenge as an actor. "I wanted to take it on because I know that there's many public opinions about Joe Jackson that are in conflict of what maybe family members or people who knew him think or believe. And even that is very complicated," Domingo explains, adding that he's drawn to characters like that. "I want to figure him out and find out what made him tick. How did he create these magnificent artists, these world-acclaimed artists? Because it was a lot through Joe, what Joe did and his impact. Whether good, bad, or ugly, I'm not sure. But I know that I'm curious to find out, and I want to find out what's underneath the hat and the earrings and the gold chains and all. I want to find out. So I think that's why I was drawn to it more than anything."

If it seems like — between Rustin, Michael, and his Nat King Cole biopic — Domingo is enjoying playing real-life people recently, he won't disagree. "There's a lot of muscling to do when you are depicting someone who really lived and breathed on this earth and that you are responsible to in some way, to craft their soul in some way, to not lean into mimicry," he says. "So I think maybe it feels like the triple axle of work for an actor. You're like, okay, I'm really going to try to land this triple axle, like, five times and then lean into a double lutz. That's what it feels like. You're like, it's kind of impossible to do yet what a thrill to try to figure out. It does feel daring. It feels like you can fail, you can mess it all up. But I think if you have a curiosity in the way you want to unpack and find the soul of this character, you lead with that heart in that mind and find some gold."

And yet, he almost didn't get to do that with Rustin, because, as he says, "there was at one time" other actors who almost got the role, "before it was in the hands of [director] George C. Wolfe." But Domingo says, despite "another name or two... swirling around," he was convinced he was the only person would could play Rustin: "I understood what he needed in this moment for his story to be told. And I had everything that I felt I needed to do it, whether it's my experience as an artist, as a director, or a writer, producer. I knew I had all the tools to attack this role."

You can listen to the full interview with Domingo on the Awardist podcast, below.

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