Abe Friedtanzer
Martin Luther King Jr. is such a towering historical figure that, in cinematic adaptations of pieces of his life, he’s usually at the center (see David Oyelowo’s excellent interpretation in Selma). But in George C. Wolfe’s Rustin, King takes a backseat in favor of the idea man, Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), who doesn’t get nearly as much credit for his work in the civil rights movement as he deserves due to his sexual orientation.
Awards Radar had the chance to speak with actor Aml Ameen, who adds just the right amount of gravity and poise to King opposite Domingo. He expressed his own relationship with King and what he felt was necessary to put into his performance, as well as his preexisting knowledge of the subject of this film:
“I knew nothing of Rustin. I didn’t know who Rustin was. I remember, I was in Canada in 2021 finishing up my directorial debut and working on something, and I strangely had a dream, no pun intended, about playing Martin Luther King. It was July 15th, 2021, and then a month later, August 17th, this role to play Martin Luther King in Rustin came up and I was like, who’s Rustin? Who’s that? And then I started researching him and I quickly realized that Colman, who I had worked with a couple times before and we have a great friendship relationship, we worked together on Lee Daniels’ The Butler, on one of Ava DuVernay’s pilots. I was like, oh my god, C’s playing Rustin. Who’s Rustin? And then slowly learning about Rustin and his influence on King, the fact that he led him into this idea of non-violence, putting the guns away. It was profound.”
He shared his outlook on what King means to non-Americans:
“I always like to say that he’s like a father to Americans, especially African-Americans, but I think Americans in general, but he’s like our favorite uncle. He’s the guy that most certainly influences culture and is a beacon for Black people around the world for sure. But that’s been American culture. I grew up, being an actor, my heroes were the African-American actors, and the American white actors. But where I could see myself, it was, oh, there’s Washington, there’s Sidney Poitier. There’s Don Cheadle. There’s Forest Whitaker. And it’s very similar when it comes to civil rights.”
Watch the full conversation below.
Rustin is streaming exclusively on Netflix.
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