Harriet screenwriter reveals executive suggested Julia Roberts play her
- It is not called Hollywierd for nothing, but this latest revelation from Hollywood is really shocking
- The screenwriter of the newly-released movie Harriet revealed that a studio executive once suggested that Julia Roberts play the icon in the film
- Tubman was African-American, which is what makes the suggestion ludicrous
Harriet Tubman was a political activist who is famous for helping dozens of people escape slavery. The movie Harriet was released on Friday, November 1, and the leading lady is British actress Cynthia Erivo.
However, strangely, a black woman in the lead might not have been the case had the movie been made 25 years ago.
The movie's screenwriter, Gregory Allen Howard, revealed that a studio president suggested Julia Roberts play the human rights hero when the idea for the film was tabled over two decades ago.
Howard told the LA Times: "Fortunately, there was a single black person in that studio meeting 25 years ago who told him that Harriet Tubman was a black woman."
According to Howard, the studio president then replied: "That was so long ago. No one will know that."
First of all, let's give Howard a hand for holding onto his dream until it materialised a whole 25 years later.
Secondly, can you imagine Julia Roberts playing Harriet Tubman, a black woman? Well, many people on social media certainly cannot.
One user pointed out that they were not surprised, and identified multiple times that Hollywood executives had white actors portray characters that were actually people of colour.
In 2016 it was announced that Tubman would be on the $20 currency note in the States, but the Trump administration has delayed that process until 2028.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigerian producer and writer for This Is Us, Kay Oyegun, signed a very important deal with 20th Century Fox TV, the studio that produced the series.
It was gathered that the Nigerian has been working on This Is Us since the series began, doing so as a staff writer before she rose to be a producer-writer.
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Joseph Omotayo (HOD Human-Interest) Joseph Omotayo has been writing for the human interest desk since 2019 and is currently the head of the desk. He graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, with a degree in Literature in English in 2016. He once worked for Afridiaspora, OlisaTV & CLR. He is a 2022/2023 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking fellow. He can be reached via: joseph.omotayo@corp.legit.ng.
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