Last year, Colman Domingo learned about his Emmy nomination for Netflix’s The Four Seasons from the set of Euphoria, where he was reprising his role as Rue’s (Zendaya) sponsor Ali one final time for the HBO series’ conclusion.
It’s a bit of kismet, then, that this year he’s nominated for both. Domingo earned two Emmy nominations on Wednesday morning: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the second installment of The Four Seasons and another Outstanding Guest Actor nod for his turn in Euphoria Season 3.
Speaking with Deadline on Wednesday, he called the outsize recognition from his peers, particularly for two incredibly different roles that illustrate his range, a “great joy.”
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“I think the diversity of work is what I’ve always hoped for, to have these opportunities to flex very different muscles,” he said. “I feel like Danny [in The Four Seasons], he lives in the zeitgeist in a very sort of pop culture way. He’s just kind of fun and and sharp, and I’m glad I get to flex that. I love how Ali fits into the whole arc of Euphoria and was really the grace note of the entire season and series. I think he’s the conscience. He is the prayer for the world, I think, in many ways. So I was able to lean into those things that are very deeply important to me, about, how do we heal? How do we sort of like redefine ourselves?”
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Domingo’s nomination is specifically for the series finale, “In God We Trust.” In the episode, Ali finds Rue dead of an overdose and takes vengeance into his own hands by going after the man who slipped her the fentanyl-laced pills, Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).
Those final scenes were “deeply emotional” for Domingo, he tells us, particularly after an earlier episode gave audiences a taste of Ali’s past, which included many other drug-related losses.
“He’s been on the journey with many people that he lost and then, for this loss to happen, to find out where he lives emotionally…we leaned into the fact that he sort of goes cold, because I think it’s all too overwhelming for him. He’s someone who needs to take action and actually feels like he has to be in greater service in a new way, which is, I think, for his salvation, for redemption,” he added. “So it felt like a real sort of biblical story in many ways. I love leaning into that. Some of the work that Zendaya and Sam and I did together in that episode, I feel personally, is some of my best work. I can look objectively and say, because I know it was tapping into so many things — things that were familiar and [also] very foreign to me — but it stretched me, and it challenged me, and I knew it was going to be a definitive button to the season. So I gave it everything I had.”
Domingo has already won an Emmy for his Euphoria performance, so it is not a surprise that he would secure another nomination even after a multi-year hiatus from the role. Of the show’s seven nominations, he and Zendaya are the only two acting nods that the series’ third and final season managed at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson was one of the first to speak with Domingo about his nomination on Wednesday, the actor told Deadline, adding that was “really beautiful to get [that call].” Coincidentally, both of them are enjoying vacations in Europe, which Domingo admits is not a bad place to find out he has two more nods from the Television Academy under his belt.
As for what he’ll do to celebrate?
“I’ve been taking it easy, which is great. I’ll probably get a good meal. Maybe I’ll just go for a swim,” he mused. “It’s a nice time to…just to drop my shoulders and to take in the year’s work, because this is a rare time. Although I travel a lot, I never have a lot of time for vacation, but this summer has been a time to just really kick back. So, I’m doing that in a good way, and I’m just restoring and really taking in this moment.”
