Casting What-Ifs
Vanessa Williams as Lisa McDowell; Sidney Poitier as King Jaffe Joffer; Paul Gleason as Clarence Beeks
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:54Read transcript
- Vanessa Williams was originally considered for Lisa McDowell; her first album came out that year and she was staggeringly beautiful.
- The most desired woman is the lightest-skinned woman in the movie, an eternal problem; casting Williams would make that scream louder.
- Shari Headley sounds like she is from New York, and her sweetness makes her falling for a janitor believable.
- Sidney Poitier was originally sought for King Jaffe Joffer and turned it down, doing Shoot to Kill instead; he would have pushed the movie up a level, though James Earl Jones is regal.
- Paul Gleason was asked to reprise Clarence Beeks from Trading Places in the Duke brothers scene but was filming Die Hard.