‘Harriet’ Writer Claims Studio Head Pitched Julia Roberts to Star: ‘No One Will Know the Difference’
Kasi Lemmons’ “Harriet” has proven to be a box office hit for Focus Features with $32 million and counting after opening in theaters November 1. The movie was decades in development, and it appears that before the project went into production there was at least one shocking casting suggestion. According to “Harriet” screenwriter and producer Gregory Allen Howard, a studio executive once pitched Julia Roberts to play the iconic abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
“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 said in a Focus Features interview published this month (via the Los Angeles Times). “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.’”
The Julia Roberts-led “Harriet” pitch happened in 1994. Flash forward 25 years and the film has been...
“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 said in a Focus Features interview published this month (via the Los Angeles Times). “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.’”
The Julia Roberts-led “Harriet” pitch happened in 1994. Flash forward 25 years and the film has been...
- 11/20/2019
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
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