Clarence Maclin Knows There’s a First Time for Everything

In the late morning of a gorgeous Sunday in January, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin strolls out of an elevator in West Hollywood’s The London Hotel and into the Boxwood restaurant. Dressed in black—sweatshirt and sneakers from Gucci, plus a pair of crisp Nike pants—his eyes gleam amidst the white tile and plush leather couches. Tucked around his neck is a gold cable that’s anchored by a sun-shaped medallion emblazoned with a star and the number seven, a symbol of the Five Percent Nation. After briefly considering the menu, he chooses both the Sweet Greens and Acai Berry fresh squeezed juices. When they arrive, he appraises the vibrant green and purple liquids in front of him before declaring with a toothy smile, “This is what I need today to put into my body.”

In just a few hours, the 59-year-old will be on his way to the Golden Globes, marking his first time attending the awards show. “Everywhere that I'm going to now, I've never been,” Maclin says. “This is my first time everywhere.”

Maclin is one of the stars of the A24 release Sing Sing. The film follows a theatre production performed by a troupe of actors incarcerated at the titular prison. Maclin portrays a character partially based on himself who is also named Divine Eye. A newcomer to the group, he is at first counseled by the writer and actor John “Divine G” Whitfield (played by Colman Domingo) and later supports Divine G as he endures his own personal crisis. After arriving in theaters this past July, the film will be re-released on January 17.

Like most of the actors in Sing Sing, Maclin joined the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program when he was incarcerated and performed in multiple productions over the years. After his release from prison, he became an ambassador for RTA and a community advocate. “Many of us inside who were studying theatre and using it for the betterment of ourselves knew that this is an art form that's used to heal,” he says. “We wanted to go outside and do a movie, but we thought that it would be more or less something that you take off the bucket list. We had no idea it would be received this way.”

Maclin has made multiple trips to Los Angeles to help promote the film, on which he also shares a “story by” credit. In July, Domingo brought him as his guest to the ESPY Awards, where he sported a jaunty Off-White white suit. In mid-December he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, his first late night talk show. On this trip out west he’s already attended the Palm Springs International Film Festival and W Magazine’s annual Best Performance party at the Chateau Marmont. Despite facing all these new experiences, Maclin says he never gets nervous, though his publicists keep checking in on him to make sure he’s doing OK. “I don't have an expectation,” he says. “I just go to the party. I have a ball.”

While Maclin wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe this year, he is going to the ceremony to support Domingo, who is up for Best Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama. (In the end, Domingo lost to Adrien Brody for The Brutalist.) This awards season, Maclin already won in the Outstanding Supporting Performance category at the Gotham Awards—beating out Kieran Culkin, Natasha Lyonne, and Guy Pearce, among others—and is thought to still be in contention for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards.

Maclin describes his personal style as “a little rough around the edges,” but for the Globes he goes fairly classic with a black tuxedo from Givenchy, cummerbund (another first) from Balenciaga, shoes by Allen Edmonds, and a pair of studs in his ears that his daughter gave to him as a present. “I like something clean, neat and simple,” he says of dressing for these events. “My personality is kind of large, so I don't really need a lot.”

He’s linked up with the stylist EJ Briones, who usually keeps him outfitted in suits from Hermes and Tom Ford. “He understands my taste,” Maclin says. “We sat down and his method is to have a conversation with you, watch what you're wearing when you come through the door to see exactly what your style range is. We bumped heads a few times, but it happens.”

Maclin explains that when he was growing up in Mount Vernon, just north of New York City, kids took their inspiration from the different boroughs, which each had their own distinct style. Some dressed like they were from Harlem, some looked towards Brooklyn, while others picked the nearby Bronx. “I fit somewhere in the middle,” Maclin says. “I will take chances on things that people don't like because I want to wear it.”

Before Sing Sing, Maclin was part of programs that addressed justice-impacted children or children who were at risk of being justice-impacted. He knew how he dressed was a key factor in how they would (or wouldn’t) engage with him. “They're going to do this thing called “drip check,” right?” Maclin says. “So when you're walking up to them, they're assessing you already. This is determining whether they're going to talk to you or not, or exactly how much information you could get out of them. I’ve still got to be approachable to the youth. And the culture of fashion plays a big part of that.”

Maclin says he was an artistic kid who liked to paint, draw, and work with his hands. He recalls his mother taking him to see the musicals Dreamgirls and The Wiz with Stephanie Mills, but he gave up his interest in creative pursuits so he could fit-in with the popular crowd as a teenager. His interest in acting wasn’t activated until decades later when he saw a Rehabilitation Through the Arts production in Sing Sing’s chapel. RTA isn’t considered a job training program, but following the success of the film, Maclin has decided to pursue acting even further. He’s done a few auditions that he can’t publicly discuss and recently got the paperwork to become a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He’s got an idea to do a remake of Buck and the Preacher, the 1972 western starring Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, who also directed the film.

After a quick grooming session in his hotel room to make sure his hair and skin look good, Maclin puts on his tuxedo with little fuss. The room is quiet and relatively tidy—a bulging garment bag laying across the sofa and a rolling clothing rack next to the bed being the few indicators that this is a temporary staging area. After the call goes out to tell the driver to pull the big black Denali to the front of the hotel and take Maclin to the show, one of his publicists does a last minute check to make sure he’s got his ID, ticket, room key, plus a couple sticks of gum and a cough drop.

As a final flourish, Maclin pulls on his Gucci sunglasses and says, “These are called hater blockers in my hood.”