Colman Domingo classifies Euphoria set as “normal”
Colman Domingo encourages anyone who has a problem with Euphoria's working conditions to "Be a professional"
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Twitter may have it out for Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, but his defenders are just as passionate. The writer-director (and son of director Barry Levinson) is “joyful, and collaborative, and could not be a bigger advocate for his actors,” according to Colman Domingo in a new interview with The Independent. Further, “There’s no one that’s going to mistreat you on the set of Euphoria,” he says, denying that 2022 Daily Beast report about chaos behind the scenes of the hit HBO show.
“I’m not gonna invalidate [anyone’s] experience. But working in television is long hours. Sometimes you work up to 14 hours a day. And then you have to go home and prep,” the Rustin star explains. “You have to really live and work in a very methodical way. A lot of young actors may not be up for the task, or have that same work ethic.”
Domingo, on the other hand, has “been in this business for 32 years” and knows “what hard work is.” When news of Euphoria messiness broke, “I thought, ‘where is this coming from? That’s just a normal work day.’ Be a professional,” says.
Given that he’s one of the older, more seasoned professionals on the Euphoria set, there’s a sense that his response is a little bit dismissive of making the workplace better—“if my generation had to deal with tough conditions, yours can too” kind of attitude. But Domingo is unafraid to push for better workplace conditions if he feels the situation calls for it. He did so on Fear The Walking Dead, where he rose to become a director and producer: “On a long-running show, some things can get messy, some things you have to advocate for,” he shares. “You have to advocate for time, making sure things are working in an efficient way. Or good food. I can’t do my job unless I’m healthy and warm. I like to show up and know that I’m gonna have a good day. I don’t wanna fight many fights.” Ipso facto, Euphoria must be keeping him healthy and warm—sorry to all the haters out there.
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““I’m not gonna invalidate [anyone’s] experience. But” I already did, so who gives a fuck?
How about instead of adding “but”, you just shut the fuck up?
You didn’t have the experience that others had? GREAT. Good for fucking you, but now you absolutely *ARE* invalidating the experience of others.
The generational divide here is a fairly telling one. Whatever we may think about young people advocating for better working conditions (I’m for it), budget and funding and contracts for talent and locations and sets and set construction are all based on the older model. I don’t work in this sphere, but I have worked and continue to be involved in a sphere facing a similar reckoning, for the work model, but also for the new generation of professionals who want the new model now. Advocating for a change in the middle of project is counterproductive. It might be impossible to change things that have hard limits, and if you are unwilling to make it work on this project, this project isn’t for you. Advocacy has to use examples from the inside, but it can’t actually happen on the inside unless you’re willing to scuttle projects, or more likely your own work and reputation, for your advocacy. I know people who have and who are, and they are the ones who are making actual change happen, but it’s happening at the cost of work. At least actors and creatives have unions to advocate for these things. Some fields don’t.But, and I say this for the outrage…. What’s really strange is the number of people who were strong advocates for more reasonable work conditions when they were the worker, showing up and demanding old work model behaviour once they become the lead.
I’m sorry, but this doesn’t make any sense. For example, if you sign up for a project with sex scenes only on the condition that there is an intimacy coordinator, and you’re promised there will be one, and you show up and there isn’t, the solution isn’t to throw your hands and up say “oh well, better try even harder to get one next time,” it’s to refuse to do the scene. Like you will never get change done if your only option is to advocate when you’re not in the moment. If your only option when they fuck with you is to do what they want until it’s over, and then advocate for change, then they will never stop fucking with you.
Is that an example of something that happened on Euphoria? Because if so, then that really is fucked up and would totally understand the actor holding up production (though they’ll undoubtedly receive a lot of pressure to just “be a team player” and go through with the scene).Otherwise, I think Spessartine is referring to things like 14-hour days, which Colman Domingo cites in this article. No one likes them, but they are very common in television. I don’t know how to discuss them without sounding like I’m defending them, but if you’re in the middle of an episode, standing up for yourself and demanding shorter days is just going to fall on deaf ears. The time to advocate for changing that is while TPTB are scheduling the shoot.
The allegations I had read were: 18 hour work days, lack of meals and being refused the bathroom. The allegations also came primarily from background actors and crew, which could also just suggest that the stars and leads aren’t having that kind of experience.There were reports of Sydney Sweeney and Minka Kelley both pushing back on topless scenes, but allegedly the scenes were removed after they brought up their concerns.
Just an example, not specific to this story.
Is the intimacy coordinator example a concrete one? If you take a job that promises to have one and they don’t, yes, refuse, and make a hell of a lot of noise on your way out and in protest outaide the set. And I admit (with extremely limited, pop culture based knowledge) that intimacy coordinators are probably something you should be able to expect these days, becoming the norm and not the exception.But the 14 hour days are something you have to expect. If you aren’t willing to do that, then yes, say so loudly and proudly, but do so beforehand and refuse the job if you won’t make it work. If you expect to work an 8-4 day you can’t take the project that is going to be all nights. You can’t walk on to the we-only-have-seven-days jobsite and ask for days 3 and 4 off, or say that you can’t do more than 5 days without a break.