\n<\/p>\n
For \u201cRustin,\u201d Wolfe needed an actor who was spirited, intelligent and charismatic, a description that suited Domingo down to the bone. \u201cPeople who knew Bayard said that when he walked in a room, heads all turned,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cThat seemed very much like Colman.\u201d And Domingo felt validated to have the director pushing for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got to know me fully as a human being and as a collaborator and someone who could wrestle text with him, and he advocated for me,\u201d Domingo said. \u201cDid he advocate to Netflix? To the Obamas? He advocated to somebody, because he made the decision and it was a direct offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the movie is traditional, the role of Rustin is anything but: The furthest thing from a strait-laced activist, he was a flamboyant, out gay man possessed of a self-certainty so contagious that he could persuade just about anyone to link arms with him. \u201cI think he used his higher-pitched, reedy voice as a tool to disarm people,\u201d Domingo said. \u201cA Black queer man running around the world with his mid-Atlantic standard accent, playing the lute and singing Elizabethan love songs? That\u2019s wild!\u201d<\/p>\n
And Domingo enjoyed the way Rustin owned his sexuality in the same way he was unafraid to occupy space: \u201cHe could still pull men at a bar with three teeth missing.\u201d After Domingo appeared on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d to discuss \u201cRustin\u201d with his shirt unbuttoned to the navel, he received an appreciative text from Rachelle Horowitz, an organizer who worked with Rustin: \u201cI think Bayard would want to be remembered as a sexy Black leader,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n
Domingo\u2019s sexuality is something he had to own, too: Though he\u2019s been out since his 20s, it took him time to build the self-confidence he now exudes in spades. \u201cThere\u2019s a quote that my husband likes to use: \u2018Don\u2019t be born beautiful, be born crafty,\u2019\u201d he said. Once skinny and shy, he\u2019s now a well-built flirt, and he looks for opportunities to invest his characters with the same kinetic energy he learned to summon from within himself: \u201cWhen I directed my play \u2018Dot,\u2019 I remember on the first day I said, \u2018I think all the characters are sexy \u2014 the elderly woman, the gay couple, the single woman.\u2019 Because you can\u2019t leave sexuality out of roles.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n