A screening of the hotly anticipated biopic Rustin had two unexpected guests Friday night, and we’re not just talking about its actors, who are freshly allowed to promote the project. Instead, the stars of the show were former US president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama, who took the stage to celebrate the end of the actors’ strike and to celebrate the end of the writers' and actors' strikes.

The couple’s production company, Higher Ground, is behind the movie about Bayard Rustin, the Black, openly gay activist who organized the ground-breaking 1963 March on Washington—the event perhaps best known as the site of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In 2013, then-president Obama posthumously awarded Rustin with the Presidential Medal of Freedom; a decade later, the power couple backed a dramatic adaptation of Rustin’s life. 

Speaking with CBS Sunday Morning, the former president explained their involvement, saying “The reason that we were interested in this story – was this reminds us that the fight for justice is typically not just about one group of people or another group of people. It’s often in tandem. We have to figure out how do we lift up all people?”

Actor Colman Domingo plays the title role in the film, which also stars Chris Rock, CCH Pounder, and Jeffrey Wright. The movie was the opening night feature for the first-ever HBCU First Look Film Festival, which kicked off at the Oprah Winfrey Theater at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC on Friday.

Attendees of the screening were shocked, The Hollywood Reporter notes, when Michelle Obama strode onto the stage. “You all are the giants whose shoulders the rest of us are standing on,” she said, addressing the civil rights leaders in the audience. 

“Now I hope we all know about the March on Washington,” she continued. “Can’t be sure nowadays with what they’re doing with history,” she said, alluding to the efforts in some states to quash learning and stifle inclusion.

She then welcomed her husband to the stage, another surprise for the audience. “It’s great to see even more of you since the strikes are over,” the former president said in a video captured by Fox 5. “As somebody who cares a lot about the power of workers in this country and as the father of somebody who writes in film, I am glad that both the actors and the writers came to an agreement that recognizes their worth and their work.”

Turning to the topic of the film, Obama said that Rustin “is one of the seminal figures that changed the course of American history. Without him, I might not have been president,” THR reports.

“These days, we’re so obsessed with that 15 minutes of fame. Everybody wants to be an influencer. Everybody wants to be liked. But it turns out that’s not where change happens. We can honor the legacy of Rustin and others by taking our place in this long march towards true equality.”

Rustin is available in select theaters as of Nov. 3. It will be released on Netflix on Nov. 17.