For Colman Domingo, Bayard Rustin is 'the Blueprint'

When you think of Civil Rights leaders, activist Bayard Rustin isn't usually the first to come to mind. For Colman Domingo, who portrays the title character in Rustin, his lack of inclusion in many history lessons is because he was openly queer. Domingo says it felt like "someone's actively trying to make sure that I don't know who I am...we were really being gaslit." But once Domingo discovered Rustin's impact, how he was central to organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Rustin "became the North Star. You can be this way if you are true to who you are." Recently, Rustin's contribution to the movement has been gaining recognition. Former President Barack Obama, who produced the film with Michelle Obama, "posthumously gave Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work. He said, [something like] if there was no Bayard Rustin, there would be no Barack Obama. Because Bayard Rustin was the blueprint." Domingo's performance is also garnering award consideration, which the actor credits to his "journeyman" career. "I can look at the body of my work and be very proud."

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Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.

It always amazes me when people don't know the name Bayard Rustin. Like it makes me angry I wasn't taught about him in school, considering how pivotal of a role he played in the Civil Rights movement.

This is the first time someone said that they were angry that they didn't know. Most people feel guilty, and I felt ashamed that I didn't know, but you felt the exact same way that I felt. I felt like I was being duped. And I felt like also, someone's actively trying to make sure that I don't know who I am, or my place in the world, being a queer person as well. Our impact on the world or human rights or civil rights. I thought we were really being gaslit.

What does this role mean to you?

It means everything. He's been one of my personal heroes since I was 19 years old. When I started to unpack this person, understanding he was living fully to every one of his great abilities, being a strategist and organizer, he was really living fully who he was. And at a time when the entire world was set up for him not to exist. He didn't sell themselves short, and he didn't marginalize himself. He wanted to be seen and sat at these tables and demand his space, and he owned his power. I thought that was fascinating. So, the idea of finding out about him when I was about 19 years old, that sort of became the North Star...oh, you can be this way if you are true to who you are and you navigate your spaces; perhaps things are getting a little better. I feel like that's what it meant to me.

Why do you think it's taken so long for people to come to understand who Bayard Rustin was?

I wonder if it's because not only he was queer, but he was Black. And also, he grew up Quaker. There are many things about him, he was an outlier in many ways. So you can't pin him down and no one can really have ownership of him in a way. I think so. I think he didn't go straight down the line, in the middle and playing in a very centrist way. He was very singular. He went into spaces with mostly heterosexual men and he demanded he exist, that he contribute and he was seen fully. It was those people that couldn't stop thinking about him being gay. He was like, that's not what I'm thinking about, what I'm thinking about is Civil Rights, bending this country a little more toward freedom. That's what I'm thinking about.

It does seem symbolic that the first president to really recognize Rustin's work, President Barack Obama, made this film the first film he produces with Michelle Obama.

Because Barack Obama posthumously gave Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work. He said [something like] if there was no Bayard Rustin, there would be no Barack Obama. because Bayard Rustin was the blueprint. He truly was. No one who could get things done like him. No one who interrogated the work from every single angle to get it done. No one who devoted their life to service, since they were teenager. George C. Wolfe, my director, says that Bayard Rustin was the ultimate American. I love that statement. The fact [was] he was the ultimate American, that he was so singular and who he was, and demanding in really moving to make this country better, devoting his life to service.

Was there anything new you learned about Bayard Rustin portraying him?

Oh, everything. Even up to how he spoke. As I was researching him, he had this accent and it kept switching. I was like, what is this accent? It sounded like Katharine Hepburn at times, or Bette Davis, and British. And I was like, what is this? I asked Rachelle Horowitz, who is featured in the film and who was a young person organizing transportation with the March in 1963. She said, "Well, he made that up." She told me one of the reasons why he made it up [was] he had a stutter and it helped him focus on language. But he was also an Anglophile. He loved anything British. I like to think that he used it as a source of having power, how he was able to use it as a tool, as any lover of language knows that they can use language as their ultimate tool. That's their weapon. So knowing that he was a lover of language, that made sense to me.

Between your performance in Rustin and The Color Purple, your name is in the mix a lot this award season. How does that feel?

This is truly a momentous occasion, and I cannot deny it, I'm not going to shy away from it. I know it is. But I also know that there's been a lot of hard work and it's been three decades of work. Just staying in it, building, rebuilding, risking, failing, risking again. And I've said this before, I'm a journeyman, and I've been on this road to create good work, whether it's theater, film, television. I think I've made very heartful and artful choices in my career. I'm very specific, specifically about what I do. I can look at the body of my work and be very proud of exactly what I've done. So for this to be happening at this same time is seismic, it really is, it's like the world sees me the way I see myself, that I can play anything. At the same time I'm not boxed in one role or the other. They can see that. He can play Mister [in The Color Purple] and he can do Bayard Rustin at the same time. And because that's the way I've always seen myself. So it feels really beautiful. It's a beautiful moment. It really is. And I'm very proud and grateful that it's here. I just want to remain as present to all of it as possible.