Interesting. I didn't know that. I think he would have been wrong for the role. If she wanted to make the film about an interracial relationship, as had been done in the original production, Louise Gossett or Al Freeman would have made sense for the role, but of course they weren't stars at that time. (Gossett later became something of a star, but he certainly wasn't a star at that time.) Isn't the character supposed to be a bit of a nerd? Hard for me to see Poitier doing that.
