EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: WINSTON DUKE TALKS PERSON OF INTEREST AND THE MESSENGERS

To Person of Interest fans, Winston Duke is definitely no stranger. The up-and-coming actor has garnered many fans this season with his portrayal of Dominic, a meticulous and extremely ruthless criminal mastermind who finds himself in near constant conflict with Team Machine. With season 4 of the series wrapping up on April 28^th and May 5th, it seems like a perfect time to get to know the actor who has made Dominic such a memorable character this season.

I caught up with Winston by phone recently at the end of a long weekend of late-night shoots for PoI. His confessed sleep deprivation didn’t seem to dampen his infectious enthusiasm, however. In stark contrast to his laconic Dominic, Winston’s an easy guy to talk with – after a few minutes, the call started to feel more like a conversation with a friend than an interview. We talked about his first roles, cooking, feminism, and anime, and of course, Dominic and Person of Interest. It was clear by the end of the call that 1) Winston is a definitely a Nice Boy 2) He’s got a very bright career ahead of him 3) You are not going to want to miss the final two episodes of PoI this season!

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One of the things that struck me about your bio is that education is obviously very important to you – you opted to get a graduate degree which is not the typical path for young actors these days.
WD: I wanted to work more on my craft and be more competitive. When I looked at my favorite actors, who had distinguished careers and were getting great roles, I noticed that they were all trained and had gone to some of these schools.

Right after I graduated [with a Masters in Fine Arts in Acting from Yale], I did some play workshops and then went to work at Portland Stage performing in August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. I then got an understudy role at Yale Repertory Theater, then did a theatre festival in New York called the Fire This Time festival, and then I got the role on Law & Order: SVU. Not long after that, I got the role of Dominic on POI.

Who are your favorite actors and who would you most want to work with in the future?
WD: Denzel Washington, right off the bat. I would love to work with him. I’m a huge fan of Gina Rodriguez from Jane the Virgin, she’s fantastic, I would love to work with her as well!

Kevin Spacey, Rami Malek, Michael Fassbender, …Kevin Costner is another one – his movies almost all have deeper societal messages to them – they bring up topics and messages that need to be talked about. I’m also a big fan of Matthew McConaughey.

Dominic has a meeting with Reese (Jim Caviezel)

On set for POI, I have enjoyed all the scenes that I have had with Jim Caviezel [Reese/Riley]. There are so many great, seasoned actors on set – like Michael Emerson [Finch] and Enrico Colantoni [Elias] – I learn so much working with them!

You have worked with Veronica Mars’ dad, how cool is that?
WD: Enrico’s the coolest guy on the planet! We both went to Yale so we have that connection, too.

What kinds of things do you like to do when you’re not on set?
WD: I’m on a big health kick. I’ve been doing Soulcycle a lot (not trying to promote it, it’s just what I enjoy). I’ve been cooking a lot of my own food, studying food and watching tons of documentaries about food. It’s made me think about how much I’m consuming and what I’m eating. I’m trying to eat more green leafy vegetables and healthier foods. It can be a challenge on set. Cooking is one of my favorite past times, but it’s hard to find time to cook my own meals on the road. Cooking is a daily treat you can give yourself – it’s kind of like a meditation.

What shows do you follow?
WD: I’ve recently gotten back into TV in a big way, been bingeing on a number of shows – Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Marco Polo on Netflix, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Arrow, although I’m not caught up yet on all of them. Also Person of Interest, of course!

What do you think people would be the most surprised to hear about you?
WD: I’m addicted to anime! I love manga and read Naruto and Attack on Titan. It’s really soothing for me. When I’m really stressed out, I kind of isolate myself and watch or read anime.

You’re pretty active on social media – Twitter (@Winston_Duke) and Facebook. I love that you put up a post on your public Facebook page for International Women’s Day, thanking your mother and sister and they both commented on it. You’re obviously very close!
WD: I seem to get into conversations [about what it means to be a woman] all the time now and have found out that apparently I am an ally for feminism. I never really thought about it.  My mother and sister raised me and through them I’ve seen many facets of womanhood – I’ve seen them cry and I’ve seen them be strong at times that I would cry. I wouldn’t be who I am without them…

[Back to Facebook] Actually, a lot of my family jumps on my fan page to make comments, and I’m like “I just spoke to you yesterday!”

You have over 7,000 fans on Facebook, they can’t all be your family!
WD: It’s surreal being connected to so many people and them following you. Strangers telling you how much they like your work, how much it means to them. Sometimes they shed light on things that [they saw in your character that] you never even intended. Positive things that I never always intended to communicate.

The fan base for POI is very specific and intellectual – they break the episodes down, they get the references to other genres. It’s really interesting to chat with them. I like engaging them in more literary ways – what are episode motifs, what do things mean?

POI manages to bring in so many current events. I remember [POI creator] Jonah Nolan at San Diego Comic Con after season 1 saying in the pressroom “this is not that far off”. And then we get Wikileaks, the Boston Marathon bombers caught by surveillance video, etc. The show has proved remarkably prescient.
WD: Some of the things are scary to think of! The show makes things theatrical and therefore more palatable to think about– in real life these things don’t happen so dramatically, they just happen. Real life has a wider lens. The show telescopes down to the specific levels and you think “it’s not real”, but on a broader view, a lot of it is.

What does Dominic suspect about the whole Samaritan-Machine situation? Finch gave Elias a rather cryptic warning in that scene on the subway, but we haven’t seen it really addressed with Dominic, other than the fact that he developed the off-the-grid cell network that Finch has stolen/piggybacked their communications on.
WD: Elias, from his discussion with Finch, knows a game is being played, that something has changed, but he doesn’t have any more details. He just knows that Finch is more than he appears. Dominic is in the same place – he knows there is more to the world. Detective Riley shows up too many places at all the wrong times, in his business – it can’t be coincidence, so why does it happen? Dominic is not a dummy; what’s powerful about this character is that he’s one of the most real characters in the show in my opinion because he has the logic of the viewer. He is the audience but he possesses the ability to get involved in a different way than the audience; this is why I think Dominic is so impactful!

POI trades in moral ambiguity and we’ve seen the past of other characters, such as Elias, through Machine point-of-view flashbacks. We’ve seen what has made other characters who they are. But we haven’t gotten any backstory on Dominic.
WD: I think it’s another commentary on the time we live in. He lives in NYC, he doesn’t seem to have come from a background of wealth and opportunity. He keeps alluding to the fact that “they always underestimate you”. It’s that idea of being in our world, in NYC, juxtaposed most likely to a world of extreme haves and have nots. And saying I will have, and not only have, but have it all. It kind of speaks to a society that breeds that kind of thing. He lives on the fringe – he’s involved in organized crime. He lives outside of society. He’s not a legitimate business man. How do you gain power to bend the world to fit your will? In another interview, I said he was definitely the American story – the American dream. I believe that – he is the ultimate American dream – through hard work and grit, he’s taking over the world, he’s taking over NYC. That’s what I see as the driving force behind Dominic.

One of the things that makes Dominic so fascinating is that he’s not the stereotypical gangster – from day one, before we even knew his name, we knew there was a new powerbroker in town that was known for being as intelligent as he was ruthless. I think it’s a really neat feature of the character that tends to make him more relatable, despite all the horrible things we’ve seen him do or assume he has done.
WD: I was reading the book Native Son by Richard Wright when I was creating the character of Dominic. It helped me create an interesting frame for understanding Dominic. My Dominic is completely self-aware, but Bigger Thomas [the main character in the book, a 20-year-old African-American youth coming of age in poverty in Chicago in the 1930s] is not self-aware, he acts out a lot of frustration. He comes from a place of a lot of instinct and is unaware of himself and his frustrations and why he is the way he is. Where Dominic is influenced by ” Bigger” is that he is a character that you can never feel sorry for, and he doesn’t want it which gives him agency. Also he is a complete product of his environment.  I think that Dominic is part of this world that doesn’t see him. We don’t see Dominic for the first 3 episodes, we just hear about him. No one really sees him until he’s in their face. And then he goes “they always underestimate you”, It’s all about always being told what you aren’t, and having to prove what and who you are. Reading that book and interrogating that character helped me to create this one. I’m not playing that character, but there is some of him in Dominic. Dominic is more self-aware and has more agency – he takes his life into his own hands and other’s lives into his hands and can articulate what he wants.

Don’t mess with Dominic

Dominic is always calm and collected – he gets mad, but he doesn’t lose his outward calm…and then people start dying. Are you Mr. Calm or Mr. Emotional?
WD: [laughing] I am Mr. Emotional! Since I’ve started playing Dominic, I’ve gotten to meet a bunch of people in the industry and they are completely surprised to meet the real me. Winston is all smiles and laughter. He’s a lot louder than Dominic!

Back in 1oth grade, I first realized that I wanted to be an actor and one of my friends was like “no, you can’t do that, you can’t stop laughing”. Dominic, on the other hand, almost never smiles.

You must be doing your job well if you have everyone convinced!
WD: Yeah, no one sees it! I was on set of The Messengers [the show premiered on The CW on April 17th] and one of the drivers on set had been driving me around for about a month. He asked what else I was working on and I said that I’d been on POI all season. He asked me who I played, because he watched the show religiously. I told him Dominic and he nearly stopped the car, he was so shocked! I was shocked that he didn’t recognize me! I mean I’m so tall, [Duke is 6’5”] I’m so recognizable. That was one of the most shocking moments – he spent a lot of time with me, but he couldn’t see the Winston he knew as Dominic.

What’s it like to play a villain?
WD: I’ve never really played a bad guy before, even in all of my time in conservatory [his 3-yr Masters of Fine Art program in Acting at Yale]. My last villain was Menelaus of Sparta (a Spartan King and husband of Helen of Troy). That was about the extent of my bad guy roles. And now…Dominic’s horrible, but he is a very fun character to play!

What is your favorite scene so far? I loved the one with “Mini” being tortured by Shaw…
WD: So hard to choose! The entire Brotherhood episode was a lot of fun. I have different favorites as a viewer versus as an actor. And some of mine as an actor never even make it onto the screen.

We’re really looking forward to the last two episodes of POI, but that won’t be the last we see of you this spring/summer. You mentioned The Messengers earlier. The show just premiered on April 17^th on the CW. Can you tell us about your character? When will we meet him, and what can we expect?
My character is named Zahir Zachariah. He is a charismatic and fiery journalist from Mali who is seeking justice for his community. I really like this character and his beliefs. He’s a man with a strong sense of integrity and willing to risk anything to do what’s right for the people he loves. That’s quite romantic to me. I also find it important to do roles that have some sense of identifiable social consciousness even if it might be very subtle. It means a lot to me in my work!

I will be appearing in the final three episodes of the season with the potential to return in season 2! I can’t wait, Let’s go #MessengerNation!

To wrap things up, I’m going to give you a choice of two options – pick the first one that comes to mind:

Root or Shaw
[laughing] Root all day long!

NY or LA
LA reminds me of a really developed Trinidad

Football or American football?
Football [soccer]

Books or video games?
Books

Dogs or cats?
Dogs. They speak English, cats only understand what and when they feel like it!

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Watch Winston on Person of Interest on Tuesday night at 10/9c on CBS, and soon on The Messengers on Fridays at 9/8c on The CW!

We have a feeling that we’ll all be seeing a lot of Duke in the upcoming years!