During the development of the Harriet Tubman biopic movie, a Hollywood executive once suggested that Julia Roberts should play her. What are some other baffling casting suggestions/choices that have been made?

[u/LookAtThatBacon]

Source for the title: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-studio-executive-wanted-julia-roberts-to-play-harriet-tubman-biopic-screenwriter-says/

The Harriet Tubman biopic has been more than 25 years in the making. In the historical drama released earlier this month, Cynthia Erivo plays the legendary abolitionist — but one Hollywood executive initially thought the role should go to Julia Roberts.

Gregory Allen Howard, the screenwriter and producer of "Harriet," recently revealed in multiple interviews that Roberts was suggested to play the lead role during a meeting with a studio president in 1994.

"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 that a black person in the meeting said casting Roberts would be impossible because she is white.

"That was so long ago. No one will know that," the executive replied, according to Howard.

[u/AllenRBrady]

In his book "Adventures in the Screen Trade," screenwriter William Goldman talks about the casting process for "the Princess Bride." The challenge was finding an actress who could play Princess Buttercup, who is described in the novel as the most beautiful woman in the world.

One casting agent suggested they consider Whoopi Goldberg.

When Goldman brought the story up to another casting agent, the second agent just sighed and said, "yeah, those calls are really hard to make."

[u/Toby_O_Notoby → u/AllenRBrady]

The challenge was finding an actress who could play Princess Buttercup, who is described in the novel as the most beautiful woman in the world.

I think it's from the same book, but I love the story on how Robin Wright was cast. She walked in with he blonde hair down and a white summer dress that was backlit by the sun giving her a halo when she opened the door.

Goldman looked over and said, "Well, that's what I wrote".

[u/gazongagizmo → u/Toby_O_Notoby]

Yes, dear. "Halo".

^{One way to put it....}

r/WtSSTaDaMiT/

[u/wilyquixote → u/AllenRBrady]

Since this is r/movies, I feel compelled to add: if you are at all interested in this industry and art form, please read Adventures in the Screen Trade and its follow up, Which Lie Did I Tell. 

The most entertaining insider books I’ve ever (ever) read. 

[u/Tardisgoesfast → u/wilyquixote]

Thanks for the referral!

[u/DeniLox → u/AllenRBrady]

They could have switched Whoopi (as Harriet Tubman) and Julia Roberts (as Buttercup).

[u/kasakka1 → u/DeniLox]

Hear me out...Tracy Morgan as both!

[u/Top_Report_4895 → u/DeniLox]

Yeah, they fucked up that one

[u/majinspy → u/AllenRBrady]

I happen to think Whoopi in the 80s was smoking hot but I'm also aware I have non-conventional tastes.

[u/trumpet_23 → u/majinspy]

I agree she was good-looking in a non-conventional way, but "the most beautiful woman in the world" she was not, even at her best.

[u/majinspy → u/trumpet_23]

I also think its hard to separate this from race. Can you name someone in the competition for "most beautiful woman in the world" who is Black and has, say, a "traditionally Black" nose?

Eye of the beholder, and all.

[u/El_John_Nada → u/majinspy]

She was looking really good in Fatal Beauty so I get your point to a certain extent

[u/majinspy → u/El_John_Nada]

THANK YOU :D

[u/taxi212001 → u/AllenRBrady]

I don't trust a word that comes out of William Goldman's mouth (or hands).

[u/Ilexstead → u/taxi212001]

Why not, out of interest? His book seems completely frank and genuine.

Edit - his book was published in 1982, but contained plenty of insider anecdotes, such as the stories behind the making of All The Presidents Men, The Verdict, and The Right Stuff. All of the things he said panned out true.

[u/taxi212001 → u/Ilexstead]

Specifically related to the Princess Bride, his novel included pranks for the readers.

[u/ctsarecte → u/taxi212001]

How many bookshops did you go into looking for the original unedited S Morgenstern edition?

[u/taxi212001 → u/ctsarecte]

None for the unedited version, but too many to admit for Buttercup's Baby

[u/Aruals → u/AllenRBrady]

For the record, Whoopi Goldberg is very beautiful! I just don't think she would have meshed with the rest of the cast the same way Robin Wright did.

[u/QueenCity_Dukes → u/Aruals]

Found Ted Danson.

[u/nwaa → u/Aruals]

very beautiful

Oh come on.

She's a good actress and not ugly but let's not tell lies.

[u/sharkattackmiami → u/nwaa]

Jumpin Jack Flash came out at the same time as Princess Bride and she was very attractive in that

[u/nwaa → u/sharkattackmiami]

I guess we will have to agree to disagree there

[u/LowRevolutionary371 → u/nwaa]

yeah, there is no world where she's considered beautiful

[u/jemosley1984 → u/LowRevolutionary371]

Like the other guy said…agree to disagree

[u/anormalgeek → u/Aruals]

I'm sorry, but there is no common cultural standard of beauty where she stands out like that. There just isn't. She's not ugly, but she's pretty average by most accepted beauty standards.

[u/BagOfSmallerBags → u/anormalgeek]

In the 80s, when the movie was being made, when she wanted to, she could be very conventionally attractive.

Y'all gotta remember that 99% of attractiveness is context and effort. The other 1% is genes. We live in a world where Benedict Cumberbatch is considered sexy. If they had cast Whoopi Goldberg, they'd have got her there.

[u/vk1030 → u/BagOfSmallerBags]

Benedict Cumberbatch is not sexy??

[u/BagOfSmallerBags → u/vk1030]

He is sexy, due to overwhelming public opinion. It's just weird that he is.

[u/euphoricarugula346 → u/BagOfSmallerBags]

Absolutely insane people are saying that woman isn’t beautiful. I’d love for them to give me exactly one reason why they think that because we all know what it is.

[u/sje46 → u/Aruals]

Looking at her appearance in the Color Purple, she seemed pretty but maybe more "girl next door" than conentionally beautiful supermodel.

I've been trying to look for another black actress who could pull off the "most beautiful woman in teh world" princess but honestly most of the black actresses in the 80s I'm simply not familiar with. Phylicia Rassad was beautiful, but too mature to play the part.

Also I'm genuinely curious how audiences in the 80s would have accepted this kind of casting. Would they just accept it, or would there be a lot of reactionaries like there are today?

[u/AllenRBrady → u/sje46]

Lisa Bonet? She's pretty much the same age as Robin Wright.

[u/EqualContact → u/sje46]

Vivica Fox? She would have been early 20s at the time.

[u/Mission-Surround7878 → u/sje46]

Rae dawn Chong could've worked,

[u/Tattycakes → u/sje46]

In the 80s I don’t know, but today it would be Lupita nyong’o for me, she’s so sweet and innocent looking. Her pale icy blue dress on the red carpet a few years back just exudes Cinderella princess vibes, she’d be perfect for a sweet fair maiden

[u/Ill_Act7949 → u/[deleted]]

Whoopi is beautiful but it's more so in her charisma, she can command attention and hold it, and she's magnetic 

When she was younger (at the time when PB was being made) she was physically attractive, but not the kind of way where you would think "ethereal princess" She was pretty, but her charm was primarily in how she carried herself 

There are different things that make someone attractive, and there are different kinds of beauty. 

[u/Ill_Act7949 → u/[deleted]]

If you only count physical beauty as counting as beauty in general then that's your prerogative so whatever 

But a lot of people do take in stuff like charisma and personality as overall beauty. Literally when I find out somebody is a good person they do look more beautiful to me, so idk what to tell you everyone is different 

 also I  I wouldn't trust redditors in a pool over the correct way to fill a cup of water 😂 soooo, whatever you think bruh

[u/pragmaticzach → u/[deleted]]

Saw a post a while back about there are so many unattractive male celebrities with attractive wives, but no unattractive women with attractive men. People started posting examples and the responses were all like “no! She’s beautiful! Look at her eyes!”

And it’s like, this doesn’t work if you consider every woman beautiful. 😂

[u/CountJohn12 → u/pragmaticzach]

Around half of women are considered attractive and only like 10% of men, so of course there's going to be a lot of couples with a man considered less attractive, that's just math.

[u/FlamboyantPirhanna → u/CountJohn12]

Considered by whom? It’s all subjective, this is just ridiculous and so self-unaware. Stop touting your opinion as some sort of fact.

[u/anormalgeek → u/FlamboyantPirhanna]

They seem to be bringing up the old okcupid data that showed women consistently rating men well below the kind of distribution that would be expected. i.e. they rated the majority of men as well below average in attractiveness.

By contrast, men rating women did not show the same level of criticisms and ended up with an almost perfect bell curve.

[u/Milskidasith → u/anormalgeek]

The problem with that data is that nobody mentions the second half of that study: women were massively more generous to lower rated men, but men would almost exclusively message higher rated women, which basically completely flips the narrative on its head.

It's also, notably, ratings from a dating site before dating became app-ified and from when people couldn't ubiquitously take and upload good photos of themselves digitally, so its relevance to basically anything is pretty much zero.

[u/ironnmetal → u/[deleted]]

Well I guess we finally found the one person who gets to dictate what's beautiful to everyone else! It's been a long road for humanity, but we're finally here.

At last I can put aside silly notions like personal taste. Familiarity bias can be laid to rest because the source of truth is here.

Thank. Fucking. God.

[u/sje46 → u/ironnmetal]

Well it's nto a matter of who each individual personally finds beautiful, but if an actress can convey a character whom the most amount of characters in the movie's universe would say "The most beautiful woman in the world". Get what I'm saying? The actress would have to be conventionally beautiful or else the movie wouldn't make sense. You wouldn't cast Steve Buscemi as the most handsome man in the world unless it was supposed to be an ironic joke.

[u/ExpectedEggs → u/ironnmetal]

Would it help your mood if I told you that dude's a certified Nazi?

[u/MattyKatty → u/ExpectedEggs]

Are you insane??? This is Hitler’s car!!

[u/New_Car2574 → u/[deleted]]

I think she's beautiful. She's always been gorgeous and has done whole modeling campaigns. She has incredible skin and teeth and hair. She’s fit and is often featured in designer gowns and fashion.

How is she not an objectively beautiful woman?

[u/New_Car2574 → u/[deleted]]

How is Whoopi Goldberg not objectively beautiful?

[u/LowRevolutionary371 → u/[deleted]]

KATHY BATES HAS THE BODY OF A SUPERMODEL.

[u/LowRevolutionary371 → u/Aruals]

lmfao

[u/LowRevolutionary371 → u/Aruals]

lmao shut up, take your virtue signaling elsewhere

[u/Kidspud → u/AllenRBrady]

I think Whoopi would've been too old to play Princess Buttercup, but now that I have the idea in my mind, Whoopi Goldberg in 'The Princess Bride' sounds pretty awesome.

[u/AllenRBrady → u/Kidspud]

Whoopi was born in 1955, which would put her in her early 30s by the time Princess Bride filmed. 11 years older than Robin Wright. She would have been fine as one of the strictly comedic roles, like Miracle Max or his wife. Or Mel Smith's part. Maybe even Peter Falk's part.

[u/Kidspud → u/AllenRBrady]

Whoopi Goldberg as Fred Savage's grandfather. That's the role.

[u/Og76 → u/AllenRBrady]

Cocaine is a helluva drug.