‘It Ain’t That Deep’: Colman Domingo Defends Drag Role in Sabrina Carpenter Collab

Actor Colman Domingo has dressed up in drag, and he’s owning every wig, heel, and stiletto-powered beat. In Sabrina Carpenter’s new music video for “Tears,” the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actor shows up in full Rocky Horror-meets-disco realness, playing a flamboyant, magnetic character. Carpenter herself has publicly hyped Domingo’s contribution, calling him “incomparable, magnetic, and fantastic.” 

The video — directed by Bardia Zeinali and serving as a chapter in Carpenter’s visual narrative for her album “Man’s Best Friend” — leans hard into camp. Domingo channels an energy reminiscent of Dr. Frank-N-Furter from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” teetering between spooky and sexy. When the video dropped, fans saw something joyful and celebratory. However, critics online tried to make it a thing. Domingo has since fired back, and he’s standing ten toes down on his decision to dress up in drag. 

Colman Domingo defended his decision to appear in drag.

Social media has a say about everything, and when questions bubbled up — asking why an openly gay actor would take on a drag role — Domingo fired back. Hollywood ain’t shit. Colman Domingo is a solid actor. He’s also gay, so I figured he’d be highly backed. But nope! Guess he was too manly even for a gay man. Had to put him in drag in Sabrina Carpenter’s video, huh? Bullsh*t,” one netizen tweeted.

Domingo wasted no time responding to the X user and did not mince words. “It’s a character. Like all the characters I play. Calm down, brother. Enjoy the video and the fun that it possesses. Dance it out! It ain’t that deep. “We are born naked and everything else is drag,” Suits, t-shirts, dresses. All drag,” the actor replied.

This isn’t Domingo’s first rodeo with queer performance spaces. Earlier this year, he guest-judged on “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars,” an appearance that had him already dipping his toes even closer to drag culture on television. 

Colman Domingo is open about his LGBTQIA+ identity. 

Domingo is openly gay, and he’s long been visible about his life offscreen as much as on. He met his husband, Raúl, in 2005 via a serendipitous “missed connections” moment that played out like a rom-com — one of them posted on Craigslist, the other answered, and a love story began. The couple married in 2014 in an intimate celebration and have been a steady red-carpet duo ever since. 

Domingo has been explicit about how he sees both his sexuality and his work. He’s spoken about being gay as one aspect of a layered life and career — not the headline for everything he does. In an interview with GQ, he pushed back on being boxed in. He noted that the industry repeatedly funnels him scripts about Black oppression or queerness. “The two things that I constantly get sent are about slavery and being queer,” he says. “And I always think, So why are you sending me this, if this isn’t even any of my interests, really?” The stories he’s most concerned with writing and producing “have a lot of light in them,” he said.

How does seeing a Black, openly gay actor in drag on a pop star’s video make you feel? Comment below!

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