Did you watch the first Euphoria special episode? Filmed during the pandemic and intended as a sort of stopgap between Seasons 1 and 2 of the hit HBO series, the first special, "Trouble Don't Last Always" (the second special has an even better title), is simply a two-hander between Rue (Zendaya) and Ali (Colman Domingo), the addict and her sponsor talking about any and everything in a diner on Christmas Eve. It's a gripping, unconventional, very theatrical piece of television, feeling like a beautiful one-act play we are lucky enough to watch on a premium streaming service.

I was also lucky enough to speak to Domingo over Zoom as part of our Collider Connected longform interview series, and had to ask him what felt different about making this episode. Domingo, a prolific theater actor, writer, and director, hearkened the experience to rehearsing a play — a play made for these exact 2020 times, with all the loaded connotations that brings up. After creator Sam Levinson sent him the script (which Domingo laughingly asked for "as soon as possible") a month before shooting, Domingo locked himself away and rehearsed at a level normally not afforded on the quick production schedule of television. And if you're a working actor yourself trying to figure out the amount of preparation needed for a particularly juicy piece of text, take Domingo's process to heart:

"The blessing of the pandemic is I had time. So I put myself into a full-time rehearsal like I did in the theater. So I probably rehearsed for about 40 hours a week for three weeks. And I took it very seriously. I got up and I rehearsed myself. I put my lines in a program called Rehearsal App Pro, and I read Zendaya's lines, I read mine, I listened back and forth. The first week I just listened to the lines, to just sort of listen like music and let them just get into my system. And then I would break it down and do my work. I did all the work that I haven't done for a long time in the theater. The way to build character, to build the moment, so therefore hopefully the work doesn't show itself. I just wanted to be available in the room once me and Zendaya were together. So I put myself through a full-time rehearsal, and even when it comes to research and having conversations with people in recovery, examining even the history of Black men and why they become Muslims as well, and what exactly does that offer. Anything that was in our text, I had time to do my research in detail to find out, 'What is the relationship between Nike and the Black community? What is the relationship between all these things and Ali and what he wants in that scene?'"

Once the two actors got to set, Levinson gave them ample room to discover, rehearse, and play, more so than on any other episode of the show.

"Sam gave us five days of shooting, and we knew our schedule, and the beautiful thing is it was just two people in a diner, so it had an ease to it. And because the set was smaller, the production team is smaller, it sort of stripped away the whole circus of a set and made it a bit more graceful, to be honest. So you can do that work that requires such a sense of peace. To just listen and respond. To do that thing that you teach in school, or students are trying to learn, which is actually quite simple... To learn how to listen and respond. And it's actually that simple, and I think what Zendaya and I truly did, and which is why I think the episode is so special, 'cause it is watching two people, at the end of this year, do the thing that we're asking people to do in the world, which is sit across from one another and have a hard talk, and go to some very deep places, and don't be afraid of it, but to put your heart and soul in it because you wanna get closer to that person."

Check out Domingo talking about his special preparation for the first Euphoria special below, and be on the lookout for our full Collider Connected conversation with the multi-talented artist soon.