Colman Domingo and Chris Rock Look Incredible In ‘Rustin’ Teaser Trailer

September 5, 2023
TOMMY

If you're unfamiliar with Bayard Rustin, you're about to be in for a real treat. We did a piece on the Civil Rights icon earlier this year, but the TL;DR version is that in addition to being Martin Luther King's right-hand man, Bayard Rustin was the person responsible for organizing the historic March on Washington where Dr. King gave his famous "I have a dream..." speech. And perhaps most notably, the West Chester, PA-born Rustin was also very gay (a fact MLK knew well). Now, Netflix has a biopic coming out about the American hero, and from the looks of the teaser trailer that just dropped, it's going to be incredible.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Netflix Film (@netflixfilm)

From Executive Producers President Barack and Michelle Obama and their Higher Ground Productions, and directed by George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), the biopic stars Broadway and screen star Colman Domingo as the eponymous figure. Rustin will tell the story of the man behind the March, with a particular lean towards the fact that he was also gay. It was no small thing to be gay in the mid-20th century in America. And to be Black and gay? Whew. And Rustin the film leans into the fact that Rustin the man was unapologetically gay. He was a limp-wristed, fashionable, witty homo. "On the day that I was born Black... I was also born a homosexual," Domingo's Rustin says in the teaser trailer. His ability to navigate those dynamics inarguably helped him to change the course of human history with his work.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Colman Domingo (@kingofbingo)

It will also co-star Chris Rock as Civil Rights activist Roy Wilkins, Jeffrey Wright as Adam Clayton Powell, Audra McDonald as Ella Baker, and Bill Irwin as A.J. Muste. From just the trailer alone, Rustin also looks incredibly beautiful simply from a visual perspective. This is no surprise as the movie is in the astoundingly capable hands of George C. Wolfe. A record-holding Tony Award-winning stage director, Wolfe's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom received critical acclaim, winning Academy Awards for Costume Design (Ann Roth) and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Sergio López-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson), and also earned Best Actor/Actress nominations for Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis, as well as one for Best Production Design.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bayard Rustin (@bayardrustinoffical)

Right now, we could use a good dose of strong Queer history, and to have this film about this incredible Black, Queer hero is the shot in the arm we need as we enter this next chapter of fighting for our lives in this country. As the trailer says: "We are committed to the cause of altering the trajectory of this country towards freedom. They either believe in freedom and justice for all... or they do not." The movie hits select theatres on November 17th, followed by Netflix shortly thereafter. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the teaser trailer below.