Sidney

656 00:38:19,508 --> 00:38:20,509 Yeah. 657 00:38:22,302 --> 00:38:23,929 Defiant Ones was the movie 658 00:38:24,012 --> 00:38:26,849 that would help to define Sidney Poitier as we know him, right, 659 00:38:26,932 --> 00:38:28,851 as this incredibly powerful actor. 660 00:38:28,934 --> 00:38:32,312 Alongside Tony Curtis, their names appeared above the name of the film, 661 00:38:32,396 --> 00:38:35,649 which was the symbol of becoming a genuine Hollywood leading man. 662 00:38:36,108 --> 00:38:39,987 My dad and Tony Curtis were both nominated for Oscars. 663 00:38:40,070 --> 00:38:43,156 It was the first time a Black person had been nominated for an Oscar 664 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:44,491 since Hattie McDaniel. 665 00:38:44,575 --> 00:38:46,910 The fact that my dad came home with this plaque 666 00:38:46,994 --> 00:38:50,581 that said he was nominated, that he could put up on the wall, 667 00:38:50,664 --> 00:38:51,957 was a big deal for him. 668 00:38:53,041 --> 00:38:55,002 The amount of media attention, 669 00:38:55,085 --> 00:38:57,671 the profiles, magazine covers… 670 00:38:57,754 --> 00:39:00,716 He's on the cover of Ebony magazine. He's clearly emerged as a star. 671 00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,388 He was beautiful in many ways. 672 00:39:06,471 --> 00:39:08,640 First of all, what smile is like that? 673 00:39:08,724 --> 00:39:11,560 Maybe only Brando's. Come on. 674 00:39:15,856 --> 00:39:18,483 I mean, part of Sidney's beauty 675 00:39:18,567 --> 00:39:21,987 is he's like a walking Yoruba mask. 676 00:39:22,070 --> 00:39:24,114 You know what I mean? Like Benin bronze. 677 00:39:24,698 --> 00:39:25,908 He's so sculptural. 678 00:39:25,991 --> 00:39:28,827 He was, like, this gorgeous creature. 679 00:39:28,911 --> 00:39:32,497 I wanted to marry Sidney Poitier. You know what I mean? 680 00:39:32,581 --> 00:39:37,920 He was definitely my idea of what a perfect Black man would be. 681 00:39:38,003 --> 00:39:39,546 Sidney had conviction. 682 00:39:40,047 --> 00:39:45,010 And he understood what imagery is about, the power of imagery. 683 00:39:45,677 --> 00:39:47,804 I have seen people cry. 684 00:39:47,888 --> 00:39:49,723 I have seen women swoon. 685 00:39:49,806 --> 00:39:51,892 I've seen their husbands swoon. 686 00:39:51,975 --> 00:39:56,438 I've seen everybody sort of melt in his presence. 687 00:39:57,022 --> 00:40:00,817 He was so elegant, so statuesque. 688 00:40:00,901 --> 00:40:04,780 He was, like, "wow." Movie stars should be "wow." 689 00:40:08,867 --> 00:40:12,412 I did Raisin in the Sun in 1959. So I got to know Sidney pretty well. 690 00:40:12,496 --> 00:40:14,748 We got to know one another very well. 691 00:40:18,961 --> 00:40:20,879 Every Black person had read Raisin in the Sun 692 00:40:20,963 --> 00:40:23,257 because that was one of those plays you read 693 00:40:23,340 --> 00:40:25,551 when they started letting us read Black stuff at school. 694 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:37,312 Sidney had bought me a mink coat or something. 695 00:40:37,813 --> 00:40:40,107 And I said, "I don't need a mink coat. 696 00:40:40,190 --> 00:40:41,650 I just want to…". 697 00:40:42,192 --> 00:40:45,028 So I took it back to the store, and I got the money 698 00:40:45,112 --> 00:40:48,240 and invested it in Raisin in the Sun. 699 00:40:48,323 --> 00:40:50,492 And I was the largest investor 700 00:40:50,576 --> 00:40:53,620 in the play that he was doing on Broadway. 701 00:40:54,246 --> 00:40:55,831 I had done Broadway before. 702 00:40:55,914 --> 00:40:57,794 Didn't know whether it was gonna be good or bad. 703 00:40:57,875 --> 00:40:58,709 It felt good. 704 00:40:58,792 --> 00:41:01,378 The first act intermission, when the curtain went down, 705 00:41:01,461 --> 00:41:02,629 you could hear a pin drop. 706 00:41:03,213 --> 00:41:05,090 We thought it was a failure. 707 00:41:05,174 --> 00:41:07,384 By the time we got to the second intermission, 708 00:41:07,926 --> 00:41:12,431 that audience was so involved with us that by the time the play was over, 709 00:41:13,098 --> 00:41:14,349 there was a... 710 00:41:14,433 --> 00:41:18,145 A breath of fresh air, a scream, a "Bravo!" 711 00:41:18,228 --> 00:41:19,313 It was amazing. 712 00:41:20,063 --> 00:41:22,774 I knew for certain that I was meant to be an actor 713 00:41:22,858 --> 00:41:25,736 when the curtain came down on opening night in New York. 714 00:41:25,819 --> 00:41:28,155 After all the doubts that had accumulated 715 00:41:28,238 --> 00:41:29,948 since that serendipitous meeting 716 00:41:30,032 --> 00:41:33,202 between myself and that gentleman at the American Negro Theatre, 717 00:41:33,285 --> 00:41:35,412 when he threw me out and slammed the door, 718 00:41:35,996 --> 00:41:38,123 that night I knew for certain 719 00:41:38,207 --> 00:41