The Madness' Colman Domingo On Pragmatic Paranoid Character, Slow-Burn Thriller & Fear The Walking Dead Finale

Colman Domingo is a political pundit whose life becomes a paranoid mess in The Madness. Having originally found success on the stage, including his Tony Award-nominated turn in The Scottsboro Boys and having supporting roles in everything from Chadwick Boseman's 42 to Ava DuVernay's Selma, Domingo found his breakout role on screen as Fear the Walking Dead's Victor Strand. The years since have seen him garner further acclaim, including his Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated turn in Rustin and Emmy-winning performance in HBO's Euphoria, among others.

Domingo stars in The Madness as Muncie Daniels, a former social rights activist now working as a media pundit for CNN. In the midst of his star profile growing, and a pending divorce from his wife, Muncie goes for a weekend getaway to a cabin in the woods, only to discover his neighbor's dismembered body, and narrowly escapes from the two in the process of cleaning up the body. As his efforts to report the crime fail to be believed, Muncie begins to suspect something larger is at play and someone is conspiring against him, taking him down a rabbit hole of paranoia to find the truth.

Alongside Domingo, the ensemble Madness cast includes The Last Day of Ptolemy Grey's Marsha Stephanie Blake, Twenties' Gabrielle Graham, Bad Monkey's John Ortiz, Slow Horses' Tamsin Topolski, Reasonable Doubt's Thaddeus J. Mixson and The Color Purple's Deon Cole. Hailing from O.G.'s Stephen Belber and Justified veteran VJ Boyd, the show proves to be a gripping mix of psychological thrills and character drama in the same vein of David Fincher's The Game.

Ahead of the show's premiere, Screen Rant interviewed Colman Domingo to discuss The Madness, how Muncie Daniels is far more of a pragmatic character than many others in the conspiracy thriller genre, training in jujutsu for the show and how that further influenced his performance, as well as a reflection on Fear the Walking Dead's series finale and thoughts on a potential return to the post-apocalyptic franchise.

Domingo Worked Closely With The Showrunners & Director To Make Muncie "A Very Measured Guy"

"It really is the psychology of where Muncie is right now..."

Screen Rant: I'm three episodes into The Madness, and I'm hooked. I love your character, I love the world and this rabbit hole it takes us down. In talking about Muncie, I love how he's not quite the skittish paranoia that we might see from someone like Michael Douglas in the '80s, but you can always tell the gears are turning in his head at every moment. What is it like, not only achieving that energy, but maintaining it for an eight-episode production?

Colman Domingo: I would say it started with my director and my showrunners, Steven Belber, V.J. Boyd and Clément Virgo. We were very clear about how we were going to set Muncie up and really make sure that he's a very measured guy. He's more pragmatic. I think part of his evolution is to go to the place to actually let something affect his heart and be triggered by it, and make a decision. But he's always thinking and slow moving, in a way. So that's what I love about the series. I think episode 1 is a bit of a slow burn, but then it starts to ramp up.

It really is the psychology of where Muncie is right now, he's sort of in this really nebulous place where he's ery centrist in his views, he's not truly active, but his discovery is going to take him down a rabbit hole that I'm sure he would never want to go down, but he has to, because it's also going to liberate him. He's going to liberate himself from the madness in many ways. So, I think that that was a very conscious thing, he is the eye of the audience, and he is the narrator that you can depend on. But now, it's just looking at all sides of the world and how they're perceiving him.

Domingo Was Surprised To Learn The Nature Of Jujutsu

"I love that that was underneath his core..."

So in talking about becoming more active, though, you do have to get quite physical in this show, as well, even in episode 1, right out the gate, and I'm sure in the episodes to come. What was it like getting into that side of things, and again, having the sort of consciousness of who this character is, versus someone like Victor sSrand, where they're a survivor and used to that kind of fighting?

Colman Domingo: Yeah, it's funny you mentioned Victor Strand, because Victor Strand was always very scrappy. He wasn't really like the most athletic person, but he would just do what he needed to do to survive, to pick up anything. And now, I had to actually go into some jujutsu training for Muncie Daniels, because that was something that he did as a hobby. I love that that was underneath his core, and he was doing things like that, trying to stay fit, going for runs, being physically astute. But he didn't know that he would need this, to actually be active with it and save his own life and his family's life. So, I think that's just really cool.

I loved the training, I did some training for three weeks with jujutsu masters in Toronto, and I didn't realize [the intricacies of it]. I would drive by jujutsu places thinking, "Ooh, that's intense, I would never do that." And then suddenly, I have to, and I was like, "Oh, I understand." It's all about energy and using your body in different ways. So, I love it. I understood why they made a choice that Muncie does jujutsu, because you have to think ahead, and you have to actually think and use someone else's body, and manipulate that in order for you to succeed. So, I thought that was interesting, that he was learning those skills, but he didn't know he would need those skills.

Domingo Has A Unique Condition For His Potential Walking Dead Return

"...I never say never..."

I see I'm coming up on time. I did just mention Victor a moment ago, but it's crazy to think that a year ago today was when the series finale of Fear the Walking Dead came out. I'm curious if you ever look back on Victor and sort of think about a potential future for him in that universe.

Colman Domingo: First of all, that's wild, because literally, I was with Kim Dickens and Alicia Debnam-Carey last night, and we had no idea that it was one year ago that it aired. That's wild, it was an unconscious celebration. I think that I never say never, but I think that, after eight seasons in the arc of Victor Strand, I sort of squeezed everything out of him that I could. I think the only way Victor Strand could exist would have to be in his own universe.

That's what I think. He couldn't be a part of the franchise. It would have to be solely about the world that he's building, because Victor is someone who can keep transforming, and that's what I really loved about him. But right now, he sort of transformed into his cousin, [The Madness'] Muncie Daniels, and I'm cool with that. [Laughs]

About The Madness

Muncie Daniels is a political consultant-turned-TV pundit who may have lost his way in life. While on a work sabbatical in the Poconos to write the great American novel, Muncie finds himself the only witness to the murder of a well-known white supremacist, and now he's being framed for the crime. Muncie is forced to go on the run in a desperate fight to clear his name and unravel a global conspiracy before time runs out. Along the way, he'll reconnect with his family, find unlikely allies, and fight against disinformation in a post-truth age.