Colman Domingo on the ‘hopeful’ message of Oscar-nominated film ‘Sing Sing’
Paula Lobo/ABC
Colman Domingo is opening up about the “hopeful” message of his latest Oscar-nominated film, Sing Sing.
Domingo, whose work in the film earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor, stopped by Good Morning America on Monday to reflect on what this project means to him.
“It’s such an incredibly hopeful film, and I think we need that — especially where we are right now in the world,” Domingo said. “We need stories about people who feel like they can overcome insurmountable odds.”
He continued, “I feel like that’s the message that I want to lead with as a performer, as a producer and a director in the world. I want to give that. The film is a big beating heart.”
Sing Sing is about the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at New York’s Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison, which sees inmates put together theatrical productions as a means to give them a creative outlet behind bars.
Domingo said the film is “very intimate” and “not political at all” in its message.
“It really is about the possibility of what happens when you pour art and love and humanity into someone else,” shared the actor, who plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, a real-life former inmate who went through the RTA program. “They’re holding onto their humanity, holding onto faith and art while on the inside, and it’s really extraordinary.”
He added, “I know I put everything in my heart and soul into it, because I have so many people that I know who have been incarcerated, how it affects Black and brown men, and I feel like it’s really something I wanted to do.”
The Oscars will take place March 2 at 7 p.m. ET, and will air live on ABC and stream live on Hulu.
The 2025 Golden Globes will take place Sunday on CBS. Here’s a preview about what to expect from the awards ceremony.
On the movies side of things, the Brady Corbet-directed drama The Brutalist is expected to walk away with some awards. It’s up for drama film, as well as best director and drama actor for Adrien Brody. The film is currently only available to watch in movie theaters, but will be available to stream on Max after its theatrical run concludes.
Sean Baker‘s Anora, which tells the story of a sex worker who marries the wrong man, is also expected to walk away with a victory. It’s up for comedy film, comedy actress for Mikey Madison and screenplay for Baker. The Neon-distributed film is available for purchase to watch at home.
Over on the TV side, the historical epic Shōgun is predicted to walk away with a trophy. It’s up for best drama series, best drama actor for Hiroyuki Sanada and drama actress for Anna Sawai. The FX show is streaming over on Hulu.
Baby Reindeer is expected to run away with wins in the limited series categories. Its creator, Richard Gadd, is up for limited series best actor, while co-star Jessica Gunning is up for best supporting actress in a limited series. If you still haven’t watched it, you can binge the show on Netflix.
The 82nd Golden Globes Awards, hosted by Nikki Glaser, will take place on Jan. 5 live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in LA.
Blake Lively‘s lawyers have issued a statement amid the ongoing legal feud between her and Justin Baldoni.
In the new statement, released Jan. 7, Lively’s lawyers said, “Ms. Lively’s federal litigation before the Southern District of New York involves serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, backed by concrete facts. This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set.”
The statement, issued on Lively’s behalf, also claimed that Baldoni’s response — his lawsuit filed Dec. 31 against The New York Times — was allegedly meant to “launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.”
The statement continued, “While we go through the legal process, we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry. A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim.”
“These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct,” the statement concluded. “Most importantly, media statements are not a defense to Ms. Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”
The statement from Lively’s camp comes after Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy for publishing a story detailing Lively’s initial claims against him, including sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against Lively during the production of the film It Ends with Us, which Baldoni also directed and starred in with Lively. The lawsuit came after Lively’s initial complaint, filed Dec. 20, and subsequent lawsuit, filed Dec. 31, against Baldoni.
In a statement to Good Morning America addressing Lively’s latest comments, Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said, “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending the New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint. We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie. None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”
Read more about the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni below.
Lively’s initial complaint
Lively first filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in late December, alleging “severe emotional distress” after she said Baldoni and key stakeholders in the film sexually harassed her and attempted, along with Baldoni’s production company, to orchestrate a smear campaign against her.
The complaint was detailed in a New York Times article titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” Included in the report were details surrounding a January 2024 “all hands” meeting — held “prior to resuming filming of It Ends With Us,” according to the complaint — that was held to address Lively’s workplace concerns, adding that it was attended by key stakeholders in the film and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
According to the complaint, Lively said she laid out specific demands at that meeting to ensure a safe and professional working environment.
Lively claimed Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, which produced It Ends With Us, then engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation, according to the complaint. The complaint included alleged texts from Baldoni’s publicist to a Wayfarer publicist, who allegedly wrote that Baldoni “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried,” and “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Freedman, the attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, denied the allegations.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman said in a statement to ABC News at the time, in response to Lively’s initial complaint. He claimed Lively’s complaint was “yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film […].”
Lively was criticized during the It Ends with Us tour for her conduct during press interviews and from some who felt she did not highlight the film’s focus of domestic violence enough.
Baldoni’s lawsuit against The New York Times
On Dec. 31, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy, after it published the article about Lively’s complaint.
The lawsuit claimed the Times, which included the alleged text messages and email exchanges between Baldoni’s publicists Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, had relied on “cherry-picked” and altered communications, with details “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced” to “mislead.”
Baldoni is seeking $250 million in damages in his suit against the Times and also listed nine other co-plaintiffs, including Wayfarer Studios LLC and his publicists, Abel and Nathan.
Freedman claimed in a statement to GMA that the Times “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
A Times spokesperson told GMA that they “plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported,” the spokesperson continued. “It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”
“To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error,” the spokesperson claimed. “We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.”
Lively files lawsuit against Baldoni and other defendants for sexual harassment
Also on Dec. 31, Lively formalized her initial California Civil Rights Department complaint into a lawsuit, which reiterated details she previously presented in her complaint.
Attorneys for Lively said in a statement that the actress’s “decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”
“As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns,” Lively’s attorneys claimed. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
Both Baldoni and Lively are seeking a jury trial.
GMA has reached out to Baldoni’s rep for comment about Lively’s lawsuit.
Tom Cruise pushed the limits while doing his own stunts for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
In an interview with Empire magazine, Cruise said he breathed in his own carbon dioxide while filming a scene for the eighth Mission: Impossible movie.
During the sequence, Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, is underwater exploring the wreckage of a submarine. To film it, Cruise wore a specially designed suit and mask, but it is something he could only wear for 10 minutes at a time before suffering from hypoxia, or an absence of oxygen in body tissue.
“I’m breathing in my own carbon dioxide,” Cruise said. “It builds up in the body and affects the muscles. You have to overcome all of that while you’re doing it, and be present.”
The film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie, said shooting the sequence was “so challenging and so terrifying” and “really physically punishing” for Cruise.
“He’s in a rotating structure filled with debris, and you had to find a way to make that environment look as chaotic and unhinged as humanly possible,” McQuarrie said. “But in a way that you could repeat, and that Tom could navigate, and survive.”
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning comes to theaters on May 23.
