Did that title make you scratch your head? Don’t worry. You’re not alone.
Harriet, the biopic about the life of Harriet Tubman, was released inside theaters this month.
It is based on the life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
The movie has been in the works for years, decades even. And back when the script was first making the rounds in Hollywood, a studio exec suggested Julia Roberts should play Tubman.
Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard says the ridiculous scene went down more than 25 years ago in a pitch meeting about the Tubman project. Howard says the exec told the room … ‘This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.’
At the time, Roberts was hot stuff in Hollywood, but still, the suggestion is perhaps the stupidest suggestion we’ve ever heard.
Obviously this studio exec didn’t get his way. Someone in the room pointed out that Tubman was black, and the exec responded with this gem, “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.”
Ah, yes. Because that’s how this all works. Let’s just change everything, ’cause who the hell remembers right? I can’t remember what I ate two weeks ago, but I’m just going to say it was a person, ’cause why not? Facts don’t matter!
