Julia Roberts as Harriet Tubman. ☠️. 1994 suggestion

[irisblue]

Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) Tweeted:
Julia Roberts was suggested to play Harriet Tubman by studio exec, says Harriet screenwriter https://t.co/5d3RLKVIB1

Link to tweet

?s=20


Snip--... "But the film’s screenwriter and producer, Gregory Allen Howard, says when he first started working on the movie in 1994 that one studio executive suggested Julia Roberts to portray the legendary slave turned abolitionist. Yes, that Julia Roberts."


Snip--" “I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, ‘This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman,'” Allen explained. “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.'”


Bit more at the EW article...white men , still embarrassing decent people
🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

[demosincebirth]

1. I think there are many good black actresses that can play Ms. Tubman

[Orrex]

3. But can any of them play Julia Roberts?

(I agree with you, of course.)

[BlueMTexpat]

10. ...

[irisblue]

2. From the article

..."the historical drama based on Tubman’s life released earlier this month, stars Cynthia Erivo." She was good in the role

[BlueMTexpat]

12. Here's a recent interview from Variety

with both Cynthia Erivo and Alfre Woodard. https://variety.com/2019/film/actors/actors-of-actors-cynthia-erivo-alfre-woodard-1203405674/

Cynthia Arivo and Alfre Woodard are at the forefront of this year’s awards conversation for two prestige films directed by black women. In Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” a movie that won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Drama category, Woodard plays Bernadine Williams, a steely prison warden damaged by the task of overseeing executions. For Erivo, who catapulted to fame in “The Color Purple” on Broadway, her tour-de-force turn as Harriet Tubman in Kasi Lemmons’ “Harriet” is her debut lead role in a movie. ...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. That's the essential problem with Hollywood.

They don't understand that details actually matter. Like race.

I'm a former airline employee, and I'm often crazed by what they get wrong about airplanes and flights. I long ago came to the conclusion that the underlying problem is that they are too coked up to care.

"Iceberg, Goldberg, what's the difference?"

And if you don't get that reference, look it up.

[unc70]

5. This is the running joke in "The Player". I call BS

In the movie "The Player", every movie idea being pitched would eventually involve Julia Roberts! This in turn became a cliché. I seriously doubt this story is real.

Someone is being punked with this. Go to IMDB, look up "The Player", then look through the trivia.

[irisblue]

6. I'll check your post, if you read this one. OK?

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-19/gregory-allen-howard-hollywood-harriet-tubman-oscars

[unc70]

7. Read the LAT article.

He might be sincere in believing this, but I think it more likely he was an outsider who did not get the "joke". Altman's view of Hollywood is more cynical than almost anyone's.

[Afromania]

8. woooooooooooooow

woooooooooooooow


---Teenage me in 1994 receiving my wow waves from 2019---

"YOOOOOOOOOONOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!????!!!"


Hard to believe anybody is that insane, but seeing what we have for a "president". I've come to reevaluate the capacity for fuckery of certain segments of American society. Sadly, it now puts even the most insane of notions on the table to be believed in regards to race.

[tulipsandroses]

9. Not the Onion?

That would be some serious white washing of history

[BlueMTexpat]

11. Ah yes, the resemblance

is so marked - in every way.

NOT!!!!!!

[qwlauren35]

13. 1994 was a long time ago.

Twenty five years ago.

I know that it's post Civil Rights and people should have a clue, but it was definitely before we had a black president.

Please note, when I read it, I gagged. But 1994. Keep that in mind.

[irisblue]

14. I get your point

There are more BIPOC in entertainment business now,


But WOW, Julia Roberts?


🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

[qwlauren35]

15. Uh huh

It's like someone flunked elementary school.