You can see Colman Domingo right now in two different movies. He’s a hero in one, and a villain in another.
Those would be, respectively, “Rustin,” and “The Color Purple.”
In the latter he plays Mister, the abusive man who takes Celie from her family, beats her and uses her for menial work.
Now Domingo has signed up to play Joseph Jackson in the movie about Michael Jackson. Michael’s nephew, Jaafar, is playing the King of Pop. Antoine Fuqua is directing. No other casting has been announced, although key roles will include Jaafar’s real life father, Jermaine, who was at odds with Michael his whole life. Another big part will be Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother.
Joseph Jackson is one of the great villains in music history. He worked his boys to exhaustion and was particularly abusive to Michael. After “Thriller” it it big, Joseph spent the next 30 years trading off of Michael’s good name, getting him involved with con men and charlatans, and constantly looking for handouts. Michael avoided him like the plague. A few days after Michael died, Joseph brought a Michael impersonator to the BET Awards in Los Angeles and did press interviews.
Now that this movie is coming together, I’ll be interested to see how all of the underhanded and shady stuff I reported on for years will be portrayed. Joseph was a philanderer with an illegitimate child. Katherine filed for divorce a couple of times. When she finally got him out of her house, he kept returning to ask for a slice of her allowance. Just before he died, Joseph went to Brazil to party with call girls. (He really needs his own movie.)
Another Oscar nom for Colman Domingo? Maybe. This guy was the bane of Michael’s existence, locking him in closets, beating him hair brushes. That’s a lot of backstory.
