Why did you want to be involved in "Guess Who?"
The reason I wanted to do this movie is because when I was a little boy, everybody used to call me Little Sidney. And there were only four blacks that ever took the time, meant anything to minority, especially black. And that was Diahann Carroll, Sammy, Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. And Sidney Poitier to me was extreme. At that time, you all have to understand, Sidney Poitier got beat up. NAACP beat Sidney Poitier up. Sidney said NAACP lost more jobs for blacks than they helped. And if you say that, you get in trouble. Don’t say that. Is it true? Yeah. He opened the door. In the scene when he opened the door when they were at the airport, and they said, “How dare he open the door for a white woman? What the heck is wrong with him? Son of a bitch.” They beat Sidney up. But you look at Sidney, Sidney is the smartest man at that particular time. He never said a word. He never moaned.
I mean, he started doing “Buck and the Preacher.” He was coming to us because we beat him up. You know, sometimes you get scared. You do. You get scared. Because, you know, blacks [are] hard. I’ve been black a long time, you know what I’m saying? Blacks hard. You know, “You ain’t nothing, you ain’t nothing,” and all that kind of stuff. So that was for us.
The best comedy in the world for me is “Uptown Saturday Night,” “Let’s Do It Again.” “Uptown Saturday Night,” you cannot put nothing in front of that for me. But Sidney was selective. He was selective in terms of what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it. And that respect for Sidney, I don’t want to disappoint. When I came into doing this, when they asked me, I told them. I said, “I will not make this movie buffoonish.” That speech, I hate to do that damn speech Spencer Tracey did with Katharine Hepburn. I hate to do that damn speech where Sidney Poitier told his father I ain’t that good. That was deep. “I owe you nothing, man.” “Dad.” “I love you, man.” Sidney was deep. Katharine Hepburn said nothing but said it all. I mean, certain things you just don’t mess with and we went back and forth on that.
Hollywood just looks at numbers. If you’re hot, “Okay, we got somebody hot. Let’s do it.” You got to have the strength to say no. And I wasn’t going to make this movie, man, out of respect to Katharine, Spencer, Sidney, and Katharine Houghton was her name. And the nosey neighbor. That shows you how much I’ve watched this film. I studied it, man.
What did you think of Ashton Kutcher’s impression of you?
I think that’s flattery. Those [things don’t] bother me. We’re here so short a time, man. There’s so much other stuff that’s going on that I think - he probably did it wrong. He probably did it wrong but that’s okay. Just the fact that he chose me.
Who’s a better dancer between you and Ashton?
Oh, me. I can dance. I can dance.
Are things changing with racial issues?
I think it’s us that’s talking about it. I go by playgrounds and stuff all the time and those kids ain’t paying us no damn attention. Little kids play together so much and laugh and joke and rub snot on each other, and they ain’t paying us no attention. It’s us.
At some point though it becomes an issue.
It’s always the issue. As long as we have life, we’re going to have issues.
