A Hollywood executive wanted Julia Roberts to portray Harriet Tubman in the leading abolitionist’s biopic, the screenwriter of the new film “Harriet” said.
After studying Tubman’s life in college, where she helped lead enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard was determined to adapt Tubman’s story into a feature film, he told Focus Features, the distributor of “Harriet,” in an interview.
When he met with a studio president about the idea in 1994, his script garnered praise, Howard wrote in an essay in the Los Angeles Times. It also received a casting suggestion.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
“Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman,” the executive told Howard.
Howard said the one other black person in the meeting said that would be impossible, as Julia Roberts is white.
The president replied, “That was so long ago. No one will know that,” Howard wrote.
It took 25 more years for Howard to get “Harriet,” which he also helped produce, to theaters. The film was released in the U.S. in November, and stars Cynthia Erivo, who is black, as Tubman, in a performance that has garnered Oscar buzz.
Howard, who did not immediately return a request to comment, said the climate has changed in Hollywood since he went to that meeting in the 90s.
“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.’” he told Focus Features. “Then Black Panther really blew the doors open.”
Julia Roberts did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the casting suggestion.
“Harriet” is distributed by Focus Features, an independent film label owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.”
