WTH? Did the studio exec realize that having Julia Roberts playing the iconic abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman in a biopic would have been EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE to the black community???
In a recent interview, Gregory Allen Howard said that when challenged on the casting, the Hollywood exec who allegedly floated the idea said, “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.” Is he an F’n idiot? OMG! Read on about Julia Roberts Harriet Tubman in biopic…
CelebNMovies247.com has the latest coming from Hollywood that a studio executive once suggested the idea of Julia Roberts playing the iconic abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman in a biopic.
Harriet screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard spilled the tea on the Hollywood studio executive in a recent interview, that has gone viral on social media.
Howard was asked about the production history of the long-gestating Tubman biopic which became Harriet. It had been in development for 26 years.
Gregory Allen Howard reveals:
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. I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, “This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.”
Howard adds:
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.”
Howard says that the production of Harriet was helped by the recent success of films with black themes and black actors:
Two films really changed the climate in Hollywood to allow Harriet to be made. When 12 Years a Slave became a hit and did a couple hundred million dollars worldwide, I told my agent, “You can’t say this kind of story won’t make money now.” Then Black Panther really blew the doors open.
Directed by Kasi Lemmons, Harriet stars British actress Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman, Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, Clarke Peters, and Vanessa Bell Calloway.
It’s execs like that the RUIN movies because they’re basically arrogant idiots that think the public is stupid.
