The compassionate and thought-provoking Sing Sing is a “prison drama” unlike any other.

Based on the experiences of real men who went through Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA) programs while incarcerated, it follows the wrongfully imprisoned Divine G—out actor Colman Domingo, following up his Oscar-nominated work in Rustin—and his cohorts as they stage an ambitious comedy play inside the Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

The sensitive and artistic Divine G is usually the star of the show, but this time around he’s sharing the stage with the more hardened prison-yard hustler Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, played by the real-life Maclin himself in a stunning debut screen role.

Filmmaker Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing is both a stirring testament to the healing powers of art (much of its cast is comprised of RTA alum, and they’re all fantastic), and a welcome antidote to toxic masculinity, shining a spotlight on the tenderness that can be shared between men—particularly Black and brown men.

Image Credit: ‘Sing Sing,’ A24

And while neither Maclin nor Domingo’s character is gay, the film makes a point to demonstrate how a rigid perspective on masculinity is weaponized against those who don’t fit those stereotypical standards, whether because of their sexuality or because they have interests in things like art, theater, and dance.

Sing Sing has received great acclaim since premiering last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and now, as it expands to even more theaters across the country on August 23, Queerty sat down with its phenomenal stars to discuss brotherhood, self-expression, and liberation.

You can watch our full interview with the stars of Sing Sing above, and read some highlights from the conversation below.

Colman Domingo on the importance of seeing expressions of platonic male love on screen:

“I feel like seeing more images of men, brothers, fathers, sons being vulnerable with one another, holding on to one another—I think it smashes ideas and tropes about who we are out in the world, thinking that we don’t feel, that we are hardened, that we don’t love each other or care for each other, that we’re just busy killing each other.

For me, [Sing Sing] was about deconstructing all of that. So, if I can do that even with a small gesture… You know, it’s not all hugs and kisses and stuff like that, but it’s just gestures that can say, ‘I got you, I see you, you can be vulnerable with me.’ You don’t have to hold on to all these things that society [makes you] feels like you need to hold on to, but you can be free and liberate yourself.”

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Clarence Maclin on what the RTA program taught him about masculinity:

“On this, road it began to make more and more sense to me that, to be a complete human being, to be whole, you can’t be this toxic masculine person all the time because then you deny certain qualities in yourself. You’re going to deny yourself the ability to grow—you won’t recognize empathy, you won’t recognize sympathy. You won’t recognize these things because you want to bleed them out of yourself.

Society taught you this: to not care, to not cry, to not show any type of softer emotions, because ‘that’s not a man, that’s not masculine.’ If we cling onto that and we don’t change that, we’re going to we’re going to slowly deconstruct our own selves and become something that that’s less than a human being, less than men. We need completeness. We need wholeness.”

Sing Sing is now playing in select theaters across the country.

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