A Hollywood Exec Wanted Julia Roberts to Play Harriet Tubman in a Biopic
A Hollywood executive suggested Julia Roberts should play Harriet Tubman in the biopic starring Cynthia Erivo.
The screenwriter of Harriet said the exec thought nobody would know the difference.
While you were sleeping, some truly absurd news surfaced involving My Best Friend's Wedding star Julia Roberts and abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. I know, we are all confused as to why these two were even mentioned in the same breath.
So here's the deal: Harriet screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard just gave an interview to Focus Features in which he explained how the biopic came to be. He started off by explaining how he wanted to turn Tubman's life as a former slave who escaped and helped free more than 300 other people into an action-adventure movie. He added that Hollywood was a very different place when he wrote the script 26 years ago, which is where Roberts comes in. He recalled a meeting with a Hollywood executive who said, "This script is fantastic. Let's get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman."
While I'm honestly surprised they didn't suggest notorious Animorph Scarlett Johansson to play Tubman, this is still incredibly f*cked up.
Howard went on to add that when someone told the unnamed exec that having Roberts playing Tubman was highly offensive and inappropriate, the Hollywood honcho responded, "It [slavery] was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference."
If you're racking your brain wondering if there's another Julia Roberts that you forgot about, give yourself a break. This person was indeed talking about THAT Julia Roberts. If this casting suggestion would've actually gone through, we'd all be using this GIF right now:
Luckily, someone put a stop to this, and we get to witness Cynthia Erivo's talent once again.
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