“Harriet”, the historical drama based on Harriet Tubman’s life released earlier this month, stars Cynthia Erivo. If you know anything about history, than you know Harriet was a legendary slave turned abolitionist. But the film’s screenwriter and producer, Gregory Allen Howard, says when he first started working on the movie in 1994 that one studio executive suggested Julia Roberts to play her. Yes…THAT Julia Roberts.

He said “the climate in Hollywood … was very different” some 25 years ago.

He explained, “I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, ‘This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman’ When someone pointed out that Roberts couldn’t be Harriet, the executive responded, ‘It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.’”

Thankfully, Roberts was not cast as Tubman.

 

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