Colman Domingo is such a chameleon when it comes to acting — even appearing on the same show, many times, as totally different characters.

As the Sing Sing Oscar nominee reflects on decades of acting throughout his career, he laughs recalling guest starring on the CBS police procedural Nash Bridges. Throughout the late ’90s, Domingo appeared on the series multiple times in a different role each time. But that’s not the only show he did that on. He also made multiple different appearances throughout the Law & Order franchise and its spinoffs (including Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury).

“The funny thing is, besides the Law & Orders, I was also on Nash Bridges, that great show Nash Bridges, like five different times. Why?” Domingo tells Entertainment Weekly. “Because I always came back, every season, as a very different person, so you couldn’t even recognize me.”

The actor adds that’s “part of the work that I did in the theater” when it comes to fleshing out every single character that he plays.

“I’m like, ‘Now I’m going to build a whole character,’ and drop my voice deeper,” Domingo says. “I’ll pitch my voice higher. I will gain weight, I’ll lose weight. I’ll shave, I’ll change my haircut. But I was on these shows as very different people, from a schizophrenic heroin addict, to a bartender at a gay bar, to a jazz musician, so they always knew I was game.”

But he laughs as he reveals that “casting directors would bring me back in to do different things,” almost as if he hadn’t appeared on the show before. “Usually you do one of those shows, you’re not on the other for a while,” Domingo says. “But that wasn’t my case because I always came back as somebody different.”

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Domingo made his TV debut on Nash Bridges — the series starring Don Johnson and Cheech Marin — in 1997 and then returned to the show another three times (always as a different character) throughout the show’s run during seasons 3, 4, and 5. He can currently be seen in Sing Sing, inspired by the life of John “Diving G” Whitfield and other formerly incarcerated men who found therapy of sorts in their prison’s arts rehabilitation program.

“I feel like it’s a film that really matters, and I say that as someone who has been doing this work for over 30 years,” Domingo says. “Sometimes things are just for entertainment value or to move the needle or big box office or something like that. This really does feel like it cares about making a difference in the world.”

—Additional reporting by Gerrad Hall