Colman Domingo Would’ve Starred in Scrapped PORGY AND BESS Film Directed by Steven Spielberg

Colman Domingo almost starred in a Steven Spielberg-directed film project about the making of Porgy and Bess. 

During the June 9 episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, the Oscar-winning filmmaker joined host Poehler to talk about that episode’s guest, who stars in Spielberg’s new film Disclosure Day.

When asked how he met Domingo, 56, Spielberg explained that it was during an audition for a project that never came to fruition. 

“I was going to make a movie about Ira and George Gershwin, and I was going to make a movie about the process of writing and staging Porgy and Bess,” said Spielberg, 79. 

“I had a script, and I was excited, and I was casting it, and I was looking for Todd Duncan, who played Porgy [in the 1935 original Broadway production],” Spielberg explained. 

“I met a lot of actors, and when Colman came into the meeting, that was the first time I met Colman,” he said. “I intended, after that meeting, to cast him as Todd Duncan.”

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess premiered at the Colonial Theatre in Boston on September 30, 1935, before opening at the Alvin Theatre in New York City on October 10, 1935. Duncan and Anne Brown starred in the titular roles. 

Spielberg revealed that the film about the opera’s creation never materialized. 

“What happened was I had actually cast a lot of the movie, and then I had something that doesn’t often happen when I’m that far down the line,” Spielberg revealed. “I had a kind of second thought about the project, and I decided not to continue making it. That’s the only reason Colman and I didn't work together then.” 

However, that wasn’t the end of their Hollywood relationship. 

“Remembering Colman as well as I did, I cast him in Lincoln playing Private Green,” said Spielberg. “And that was the first time we actually professionally worked together.” 

That wouldn’t be the only time the two would collaborate. Domingo costars in Disclosure Day alongside Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell and Colin Firth. The sci-fi thriller film hit theaters June 12. 

Calling Domingo a “dream” to work with, Spielberg explained, “When he graces your set, he brings kindness, and he brings collaboration, and he brings love, and he brings a real sense of ‘Let’s have fun while we’re working hard.’” 

“He makes a director look forward to going to work the next morning,” Spielberg concluded. 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride