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‘Harriet’ Screenwriter Says Hollywood Exec Suggested Julia Roberts to Play Harriet Tubman in Biopic

“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.’”

Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard has said a Hollywood executive once suggested Julia Roberts to play the part of Harriet Tubman in a biopic. Howard described the origins of the recently released film, Harriet, in an interview with Focus Features, where he said the idea had been in development for 26 years. “I wanted to turn Harriet Tubman’s life, which I’d studied in college, into an action-adventure movie. The climate in Hollywood, however, was very different back then. 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. “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 biopic stars Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman, a woman who escaped from slavery and went on to help over 70 slaves escape using the Underground Railroad.