A Hollywood studio executive once suggested that Julia Roberts should play iconic African-American activist Harriet Tubman in a biopic. In a recent Q&A, screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard talked about the “Harriet” biopic. Apparently, it took 26 years to get to production.
At the time the effort started, he said, Hollywood was not the same. He said, “I wanted to turn Harriet Tubman’s life into an action-adventure movie. However, the climate in Hollywood was very different back then,” Howard said.
“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 said someone suggested Roberts could not play the role. To that, the executive responded, “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.'”
Eventually, Cynthia Erivo starred as Harriet in the biopic. Unfortunately, African-Americans did not approve, but that is another story. The cast also includes Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Jennifer Nettles, Joe Alwyn, and Clarke Peters.
The American film industry is a reflection of the socio-political conditions. Society has marginalized black people from politics and economic development. In the same way, Hollywood has been quite unkind. This includes filmmakers trying to whitewash films that should centre them.
The entitlement of white filmmakers is palpable. It is the epitome of tone deafness. They assume that they could simply erase coloured people by casting white people to tell their stories.
Tubman escaped from slavery and helped hundreds of slaves find freedom during the US Civil War era through the Underground Railroad, changing the course of American history. Her blackness, her mission, and her legacy were so tightly intertwined that it would be criminal to whitewash her
