'The Four Seasons' cast calls Colman Domingo's directing 'perfection'

Yahoo

01-05-2025

Created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, The Four Seasons Netflix series is based on the 1981 Alan Alda film. It follows six friends, three couples, as they go on vacations together throughout each season.
Stars Marco Calvani, Kerri Kenney and Colman Domingo spoke to Yahoo Canada about the show, including Domingo stepping in to director Episode 6 of the show. Domingo's cast were quick to praise his directing as "perfection."
Where should we go for our next trip?
I want to go someplace warm.
Vacation has a fish eye started.
I hate this place.
You want to get a drink?
What happened in dry fall?
Dry fall.
Colin, you actually directed Episode 6, which, you know, as someone who can wear multiple hats and you are so talented, what was it like to direct that?
So because it is a particularly juicy one in the series.
I think so too, and I feel like I was very blessed to get that episode because I felt like it had even more depth for the characters, you know, that where things are, people are unpacking deeper emotions, things that they didn't know was there, and I knew that I just wanted to attack it in a way of like really sort of like a sleight of hand and really letting The comedy happened but also let people slide into these deeply emotional moments and so for me it was really about the character study because it was written that way so I wanted to lean into that and not sort of like impress upon a directorial style but really just really framed the work to make sure that the character and story was paramount and they they trusted me so beautifully because by then, you know, we've been working together in an extraordinary way and I, and I was really happy that they, they were able to embrace me.
To help guide performance and and the aesthetics of it.
So it was a real blessing and it was a blessing to be directed by him, I mean.
You think he's an amazing actor.
His directing is just perfection, especially feeling like, oh, do I deserve to be in this space, and then having him right there, trusting him because I know the kind of acting work he would be doing in this scene and him just going, come on, just try this, try this, and just, I just melted in his arms like like.
I'll do whatever you want me to do because I know you're gonna take me in the in the right direction.
Yeah, thank you.
There's one scene in particular that your expression has stuck with me since I watched the episode.
It's when you are singing the song at the vow renewal and you realize that it was not.
And we and the look you give Coleman in that moment is like just one of my favorites of realization.
Can you tell me a little bit about being able to, to film that moment?
First of all, I, I was terrified of singing it was the first scene that we shot with so many other extras, so it wasn't just in front of my cast members but in front of a lot of people I've never seen before and I don't sing normally.
I mean besides in the shower when I'm extremely happy, um, so there was that that element.
And then it's such a beautiful moment for the character because that is the confirmation that my husband is keeping things away from me.
We went through, I'm sorry it's true, so there've been seats in the episodes and but then it's, it's, it's pretty huge although.
The nature of the lie is kind of silly if you may just a song for a wedding, but it's just like the final confirmation and it's keeping things away from me and it's the beginning when you start seeing the crack and when I accept that there is one.
So it was, it was really a dance.
It was really a dance to keep being happy for this for Ann and Nick.
I'm the only one also that doesn't know that this couple is not is not gonna last long, um, and so I had to balance that joy with the revelation while I was singing.
It was in the end it was.
In a way it was uh funnier and easier than I thought.
The song itself helped me navigate all those emotions.
Um, yeah, and it's only my face, it's true.
But the second I got to the end of the season, I was like, I need to know what happens to Anne.
I need to know what Anne's next step is after this amazing cliffhanger.
Anything that you'd like to see happen.
Well, I think it's a really beautiful connection that she ends up making at the end, and it's not an obvious one.
But I think Anne at her core wants to be needed.
And I think once she wasn't needed by her daughter anymore because she's an empty nester, then she turns to her husband and realizes he's not there either.
So all of these decades spent caretaking and helping to build the scaffolding for everyone else's life when no when they're not there anymore, what does that mean?
And now I look in the mirror and And I have this body and I'm looked at this way by society, and I have these skills that don't equal the skills I had going in.
Um, I think it's terrifying.
So I think, I think for me in that moment when she's told, it's like, oh no, you're still in the family, and it can look all different ways and I think once she realized that Ginny is, is not a threat, that Ginny really truly did love him too, and that did not negate your 25 years of marriage.
It's Justin also, um, maybe I'll be needed there and maybe I can be, be part of, uh, just intrinsically by the nature of it's all in the family.
Um, I think that's what she's thinking and um maybe now that her 25 year marriage has been given some validity.
She has more confidence to go on and find her, her next partner.