Colman Domingo stars in two big films this year, in very different roles. In "Rustin," he plays the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. In the new musical adaptation of "The Color Purple" he plays Mister, a cruel and abusive husband. "I think as artists, as actors, we are always watching," Domingo tells Terry Gross. "We're watching heroes. We're watching ordinary people do extraordinary things every single day. We're watching horrible people do terrible things and be committed to it. ... For me, I didn't build outside of myself, modeling on somebody who did some vicious things or abusers. I have to look within." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people.
Where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
Two of the big holiday film releases star my guest Colman Domingo film adaptation of the Color Purple.
He plays mister, the cruel, abusive husband who treats his wife like his personal slave.
Domingo also plays the title role in Rustin, the biopic about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin.
If youre not familiar with Bayard Rustin or you know his name, but not much else, the reason is explained in the film.
Rustin was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King gave his famous I have a dream speech.
The march drew 250,000 people from around the country, and it was Rustin who oversaw the planning and logistics.
It was Rustin who introduced the idea of passive resistance to Martin Luther King.
But Rustin was gay, and in 1963, several civil rights leaders feared that could discredit Ruston, the march and the larger movement.
Adding to their concern was that he'd briefly been a member of the Young Communist League, and later, during World War Two, he was jailed for resisting the draft as a conscientious objector.
Consequently, he was forced to remain in the background behind the scenes.
President Obama did his part to credit Rustin by posthumously awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the march.
This year is the 60th anniversary.