Um… A Movie Executive Wanted Julia Roberts to Play Harriet Tubman In The Biopic
We’re shocked and appalled that this happened, but it did…
In a Q&A with Focus Features, screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard, who wrote the biopic Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo, which tells the story of the renowned slavery abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Gregory spilled the beans about what meetings were like in the film’s early development.
Apparently, over 20 years ago, a studio head literally suggested that Julia Roberts play the role.
“I wanted to turn Harriet Tubman’s life, which I’d studied in college, into an action-adventure movie. The climate in Hollywood, however, was very different back then,” Gregory told Focus Features. “I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, ‘This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.’”
The writer said the unnamed executive was met with resistance to the suggestion, but that they responded, “‘It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.’”
WHAT?! This is kinda crazy… but also, it makes us want to see the film so we can support the fabulous Cynthia and celebrate Harriet’s story.
Harriet is in theaters nationwide now.