." >> guest: yes, a friend of mind was a big fan of sidney poitier, and we went to his home, and anik was relatively new to the country. she just arrived for her first semester abroad, and we watched the movie and afterwards she approached me and wanted to know what the fuss was all about because the movie talks about sidney portray bosh portier with a black fiancee, and it talk beside civil right is one thing and this is entirely different, and you get a lot of that even today, but she didn't understand it, and that was so refreshing to me. not only did it give collapse to act like i was an expert on american race relations. it was really great to know that from her perspective, she wasn't looking at me from that -- through that prism of race, and i told people in college there's lat of tension about the issue of interracial dating, and i proved i'm an equal opportunity dating and we have been married 28 years this july so clear live i must be doing something right or she must be much more tolerant. >> host: in conclusion, let's go back to the -- where we started. can we have an hone

. >> reporter: underwood, who keeps a photo of his friend and mentor, the actor sidney poitier in hislong dreamed of playing stanley. >> there's so much to mine and excavate all the riches in these words. >> i rarely touch it. >> some people rarely touch it but it touches them often. >> reporter: and he's about to make theater history. it's the first predominantly black production of streetcar to run on broadway. and along with the usual class distinctions, there's another stark contrast here between stanley and the two main female characters, his wife stella and her sister blanch dubois, the fated southern vamp. >> so you have that aesthetic on the stage. this dark come plekted man stanley and there's a sense of looking down on this man just based on that, purely based on that. >> what queen do you think you are. >> reporter: underwood says that doesn't excuse but helps explain stanley's violent side. is it more fun for you to play a good guy or a bad guy? >> oh, a bad guy is always better to play. >> reporter: but blair underwood was a good buy growing up. so beloved in peters burg,