So if, like me, you're very excited to watch the highly anticipated Harriet Tubman biopic directed by Kasi Lemmons, it's worth acknowledging that this project has been decades in the making and hasn't been easy to get to this point.
To begin with, a section of people weren't particularly happy with the casting of British actor Cynthia Erivo.
Erivo has won praise for her performance but according to the film’s screenwriter and producer, Gregory Allen Howard, a studio executive had a different actor in mind when he first began working on the project in 1994. That actor, he said, was Julia Roberts.
Yes, Julia Roberts.
Eat, Pray, Love Julia Roberts. Notting Hill Julia Robert. Pretty Woman Julia Roberts. Erin Brockovich Julia Roberts.
In an interview published by Harriet studio Focus Features, Howard described the 26-year journey it took to get the biopic to film screens.
"The climate in Hollywood, however, was very different back then," Howard said. "I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, 'This script is fantastic. Let's get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.'"
Revisiting the story in an essay for the LA Times, Howard added that "fortunately, there was a single black person in that studio meeting 25 years ago who told him that Harriet Tubman was a black woman. The president replied, 'That was so long ago. No one will know that.'"
Naturally people found the suggestion beyond wild.
Gonna tell my kids this is Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts is Harriet Tubman in the major motion picture about the woman who risked it all to free the slaves.
Where there's a conversation around casting choices, you can always count on a Scarlett Johansson reference.
they wanted Julia Roberts to play fuckin Harriet Tubman... first of all, no. now, that being said- i'd like to suggest Scarlett Johansson for the role.
Scar Jo when she realizes they asked Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman
While an offer was not formally made, the general belief is that Oscar-winner Roberts would never. And we can take her longstanding, formidable, and largely unproblematic career as evidence.
I’m sure Julia Roberts would have turned it down but can you imagine someone trying to pitch her a starring role in a Harriet Tubman biopic? 😭
I like to believe Julia Roberts would have told a movie studio to go jump in a river if they asked her to play Harriet Tubman but STILL.
Julia Roberts when her agent handed her the #Harriet Tubman script.
But many people felt annoyed by a culture in Hollywood where minority stories and figures can be whitewashed or erased altogether.
Imagine being so determined to exclude PoC from films that you suggest that JULIA ROBERTS should play Harriet Tubman. Make it make sense!! https://t.co/yGO3C0TImj
Julia Roberts was suggested to star HARRIET, recent movie. How offensive to the countless talented & successful women of color 🎥 Such a bizarre believe that Julia Roberts could pull off such a historic recreation of Harriet Tubman
JULIA ROBERTS AS HARRIET TUBMAN??? yall wanna erase black history so bad
Julia Roberts? "No one will know the difference"? As Black children - there are three historical figures we learn about early on. MLK, Emmett Till, and Harriet Tubman. The level of disrespect... Why am I surprised??...smh.