Rustin True Story: All About Bayard Rustin, the Real-Life Activist Portrayed in Netflix Film

Colman Domingo stars as real-life activist Bayard Rustin in a new Netflix biopic.

Movie Rustinaccording to the synopsis from the studio, it “shines long-awaited attention” on the man who played a strategic role in organizing the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” “speech.

According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Rustin was “one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest advisers, particularly on techniques of nonviolent resistance.”

Rustin was also an openly gay leader of the civil rights movement. Actor Domingo, who is also gay, told Netflix’s Queue that he was shocked he didn’t know this part of LGBTQ history in school.

“I thought, ‘Wait, what? So this openly gay man organized the March on Washington and inspired Dr. King to learn about passive resistance and the teachings of Gandhi… Why don’t I know that?’ ” said Domingo, 53. “I felt cheated out of my whole education.”

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Rustin.

Parrish Lewis/Netflix

Domingo explained why he felt he was “the only one who can play Bayard Rustin.”

He told Queue that he told the film crew, “I have everything I need, and all the tools I can borrow, to give this man his full humanity, his humor, his sexuality, his joy. I’m not afraid to go into any its spaces.”

Rustin died in 1987 at the age of 75 in New York. His real life partner Walter Naegle was in attendance Rustin Special screening in New York held on October 30.

Rustin.

David Lee/Netflix

The cast also includes: Chris Rock as Roy Wilkins; Glynn Turman as A. Philip Randolph; Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King Jr.; Jeffrey Wright as Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; Gus Halper as Tom Kahn; CCH Pounder as Dr. Anna Hedgeman; Audra McDonald as Ella Baker.

According to Netflix’s Tudum, Johnny Ramey plays “one of the few fictional characters” in the film, named Elias, who serves as “a composite of the closeted lovers Rustin has encountered.”

Domingo told MovieWeb that during his research, he found many connections between himself and Rustin.

Rustin.

David Lee/Netflix

“First of all, we’re both left-handed. We’re both from Pennsylvania; he’s from West Chester and I’m from Philadelphia. A lot of my nephews and nieces went to Quaker schools, and he was a Quaker. We’re both openly gay. I think it’s he was about 6 feet tall, I’m 6 feet 2 inches tall. There’s a lot of similarities.”

“The more I begin to understand him and the way he operated in the world, I find that there are things that may have inspired me to become a little more like him in a way,” Euphoria the actor continued.

“The idea that he was a great civic leader and that he really cared about people. I mean his life’s work, how he rolled up his sleeves, it was our humanity and ensuring justice and righting wrongs.”

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Bayard Rustin.

Patrick A. Burns/New York Times Co./Getty

Directed by George C. Wolfe, Rustin has, among its executive producers, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, through his company Higher Ground.

At the screening Rustin in Washington, DC earlier this month, former President Obama, 62, spoke about Rustin’s legacy and why it deserves to be more widely known.

He said, according to Diversitythat Rustin “is one of the seminal figures who changed the course of American history. Without him, I might not be president and you might not be sitting where you are today.”

Rustin now streaming on Netflix.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education