Colman Domingo came out as gay to his brother Derek at a strip club in the early 1990s. Photo / Getty Images
Colman Domingo came out as gay to his brother Derek at a strip club in the early 1990s. Photo / Getty Images
Colman Domingo came out as gay after his brother took him to a strip club.
The Michael actor – who has two older siblings, Derek and Averie, and one younger, Philip Bowles – recalled how his older sibling was the first person he disclosed his sexuality to in the early1990s, and he will never forget his loving reaction.
The brothers were at a strip club, and Colman, now 56, asked Derek to step outside with him.
He recalled to the new issue of Men’s Health UK magazine: “[I knew I] came from love.
“I told him that I was gay. He looked at me and was just like, ‘What?’ He just couldn’t believe it.
“Eventually, he said, ‘I don’t care, man. I love you anyway.’ And he just hugged me. Then he said, ‘Have you told anyone else?’ I said, no. He said, ‘Alright, this stays between you and me’.”
But two days later, Colman received a call from his sister, who was “p**** off” about the news – because he hadn’t turned to her first.
Domingo, now 56, says he lives without apology and recently played Joe Jackson in the biopic Michael. Photo / Getty Images
He said of Averie’s call: “She was p***** off. I said, ‘Look, yes, it was really hard for me to tell him.’ She said, ‘No, no, no. Why didn’t you tell me first?’.
“She was p***** off because she didn’t get the information first.”
Not long afterwards, the Four Seasons actor broke the news to his mom Edith, who took it in her stride and pledged to keep the news quiet.
He added: “Twenty minutes later, the phone rings and she says, ‘I talked to your stepfather.’
“She puts him on and he says, in his blue-collar masculine way, ‘You’re a good boy and there’s nothing you can tell me that would make me stop loving you’.”
Both Colman’s mother and his stepdad, Clarence Bowles, died in 2006, and their deaths had a profound effect on his life.
He said: “Now I live without apology. What I feel is what I feel. What I say is what I say. How I love is how I love”.
Colman could recently be seen playing Joe Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic Michael and despite accusations the patriarch was violent and tough towards his children, the actor tried not to see him as a villain.
He said: “I looked at him as a blue-collar man who was raised at a certain time.
“It was his job to put food on the table and to be the provider and to make sure his children were safe and they were the best that they could be, and even took it a step further, to be better than who they were. And so that’s the way I tapped into Joe Jackson.”
Colman has known men like Joe who were the family disciplinarians and admitted his own stepfather could be tough, though they had a loving relationship.
He said: “He was the one that when he came home from work, the energy changed in the house and he was checking, ‘Are your chores done? Is your homework done? Are things in order?’ That’s what he required”.
