Colman Domingo is unrecognizable in his latest role as Bayard Rustin, an openly gay civil rights activist who organized the infamous March on Washington in 1963.
In this chat with Colman, the actor spills on how the team worked magic to bring a real, flawed, and skillful human to life on screen. He also breaks down how intersectionality plays a significant role in the film and why they thought digging into Rustin's dating adventures was super important. Trust me, it's a deep dive into showing the real deal of being a person, flaws and all.
In this chat with Colman, the actor spills on how the team worked magic to bring a real, flawed, and skillful human to life on screen. He also breaks down how intersectionality plays a significant role in the film and why they thought digging into Rustin's dating adventures was super important. Trust me, it's a deep dive into showing the real deal of being a person, flaws and all.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00 It's wonderful to meet you. I'm so excited that we were able to be here face to face with each other and chat about this film.
00:06 How are you feeling about everything?
00:08 It feels surreal to be honest. I think I'm starting to get my sea legs back.
00:12 Yeah, it's been a minute.
00:14 Because it was gestating for a while. The film started to get out there and you want to get out there and talk about this thing that you love so much.
00:21 You want to talk about Bayard Rustin. You want to talk about his impact and the way we created this film.
00:25 But then we were waiting. We were waiting until everything was well in our industry and now we're back.
00:31 Yeah, the right time. It came along finally.
00:33 So I wanted to ask, when did it start to feel real for you that you were going to be playing Rustin?
00:38 I know you were familiar with him way before this film. So when did it finally start to set in?
00:43 Day one of shooting actually. I think even when you're prepping a film, you don't know if it doesn't feel real.
00:50 Because I think you get your head down and you're in the research stage and you're getting all the details of I have to play the lute and find his voice and costume and all that stuff and find where he lives in my body.
01:03 Then it doesn't become real until it's animated with other people.
01:07 When the moments are so crystallized in a beautiful way and our director has created the palette for you to live in, then it feels real.
01:16 Then you feel like, oh. And then there's that little part of yourself you start to bring in because you have to.
01:22 Because that's the alchemy that makes that magic and makes it lift up and rise.
01:27 And so that's when it feels real.
01:29 And there are so many amazing scenes in this film. I especially love Rustin's connection with Elias throughout the movie.
01:36 And I was so happy to get to see so much of it.
01:38 So what did it mean to you to be bringing this part of Rustin's story to life, apart from just the march?
01:45 You know what I think? I think a not so good writer would write just the things about Rustin of what he did and his organizational skills.
01:56 But they would be afraid to delve into his personal and his private, which is very complicated.
02:02 Which is complicated. He was a bit messy at times, I think, to be very honest.
02:07 No, for sure.
02:08 And, you know, I didn't want to judge him in any way. I think when you play a character like that, you have to find out what makes them tick and what makes them feel human.
02:16 And their longing and their want and their needs. And I'm glad that was a part of it, too.
02:21 I think the physical is very important. And to show that he had love and/or and sex and lots of it.
02:29 And I think it's important. So it gives you a fullness of a human being and takes them out of sort of the Wikipedia version of just like, oh, this is what they did, what they were trying to do and succeed with.
02:42 Oh, you get the fragile, personal, weird stuff as well. And that's what makes it a real human character.
02:49 It definitely really brings that idea of human life. And just, you know, there's different compartments of us.
02:55 You can't put us into little boxes. And I especially love how it really centers on intersectionality.
03:01 And he even brings that up in the movie. When I was born black, I was also born homosexual.
03:05 So what do you say to people that might insist that you're queer before you're black or you're black before you're queer?
03:11 And I love that Baye Russell said that I was born both.
03:14 Right.
03:15 And that is the truth. I believe that, you know, it's all a part of who we are. I can say that for myself as well.
03:21 I think you can't separate it. I think one doesn't. Does one leave the other one is more obvious than the other, I think.
03:28 I think there's even more. There's many more slashes to us, you know, but it's but I think I think he likes the idea.
03:35 I think Bayard like the idea, understanding that it's about my thoughts and about the fullness of who I am as a human being.
03:42 You can't just, you know, separate them out because they're convenient for you. You know, they're all one.
03:49 And if you could take one thing away from being Bayard Rustin, from really learning about his life as much as you could, what would it be?
03:56 Oh, man, it would be his spirit about the way the way he inspired young people to believe that they had a voice, that they could do the impossible.
04:07 You know, this march was organized by 19 and 20 year old people.
04:12 People go back in the history books to think it was done by stodgy older men or something like, no, they were young people.
04:18 Organizing the March on Washington, you know, set up to run.
04:22 You'll be running transportation, not having any clue how to run transportation.
04:26 But Bayard believed that you can do it because he knows the skill set that you have.
04:30 And so you rose to the occasion. That's what Bayard did.
04:34 And I hope that I'm able to do that because I know that I have an impact on young people.
04:40 And I would like that because I think that's a that's a tremendous legacy.
04:44 Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. Congratulations on.
04:48 Congratulations on the film.