“He gave me the arc of a lifetime,” the actor said of the show’s creator Sam Levinson
Colman Domingo said being part of Euphoria was the “experience of a lifetime” for him. The actor appeared on The Tonight Show to discuss his role on the HBO drama and reflected on the significance of his role as recovering drug addict Ali Muhammad.
“The season has meant everything,” he told host Jimmy Fallon. “Sam Levinson gave me one of the most critical roles of my entire career. Someone who really is the voice and the conscience of a show. He can hold up the mirror to someone else. He gave me the arc of a lifetime, really.”
He added of his character’s narrative during the tumultuous final season, “I get to have this redemption arc, but also this vengeance arc, really fighting for Rue’s character towards the end. I feel like he gave me some real emotionally complex work. And my scene partner most of the time is Zendaya and we love volleying off each other. It really has been an experience of a lifetime. I love that show and it has an impact on people.”
In 2022, Domingo won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his work on the show. He’s nominated again this year, as well as for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for The Four Seasons.
“It’s been fantastic to be acknowledged in such extraordinary ways with these Emmy nominations or with these very diverse performances,” he told Fallon. “It’s anything an actor would ever want. You wish you could be seen as many different things.”
Euphoria aired its third and final season earlier this year, concluding with the death of Zendaya‘s character Rue from an accidental overdose. Levinson said “it felt like an honest ending” in a behind-the-scenes segment that aired on HBO after the finale.
“The honest ending is people like Rue don’t make it,” he said. “I think in the end, I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction. I also wanted to tell a story about grief and the emotional turmoil that it can create.”
Levinson also told the New York Times that Season 3 is the official ending of the series. “In terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me,” he said.
