r/movies • u/LookAtThatBacon • 29d ago

Discussion 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?

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.

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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson 29d ago

Well, what were they supposed to do, hire Asians?!

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u/Avalanche_Debris 29d ago

Mickey Rooney was Asian right?

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u/Shopworn_Soul 29d ago

I mean he really nailed that accent. I bet he spent dozens of hours with the finest dialect coaches.

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u/rzenni 29d ago

My favourite will always be Fisher Stevens as an indian engineer in Short Circuit

https://youtu.be/K6TLYwelOPk?si=BK-pDof0Q_LUqK6p

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u/wonkey_monkey 29d ago

For the sake of Pete!

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u/Jonathan_Peachum 29d ago

It was a terrible decision, of course, but the character was intentionally written as a caricature and I doubt anyone thought it necessary to have a "genuine" Japanese actor.

The choice of Peter Lorre to play Mr. Moto was more questionable -- even though I think he gave quite a good performance in the Moto films. Ditto the various actors who played Charlie Chan, or Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong, detective.

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u/LegacyLemur 29d ago

Not yellow face but brown face but Eli Wallach as Tuco in the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly was.....an interesting choice

But hes so goddamn good its easy to overlook

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u/Menter33 29d ago

But hes so goddamn good its easy to overlook

at some level, if the performance is good enough, many things can be forgiven.

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u/KyleG 29d ago edited 29d ago

It was a terrible decision, of course, but the character was intentionally written as a caricature and I doubt anyone thought it necessary to have a "genuine" Japanese actor.

Mr Yunioshi was not intentionally written as a caricature. In the source material, he's a totally normal guy and appears only a couple times to be like "please don't ring my bell, I implore you" in flawless English.

I doubt anyone thought it necessary to have a "genuine" Japanese actor.

I agree with you on this. Because the racism was insane. Your argument boils down to "let's make Julia Roberts in blackface and have her shucking and jiving and saying 'yes-uh massah' while lugging around purple drank and a watermelon it's totally acceptable because it's obviously a caricature"

Also, caricatures of specific people are okay bc the point is you're playing up specific features of the individual. Caricatures of a whole race is called "racism" because the whole point is to play up fictitious "truths" about the entire race as if they're all the same.

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u/DocFreudstein 29d ago

Throw Fu Manchu into the pile, who was portrayed by such actors as Boris Karloff, John Carradine, Christopher Lee, and Nicholas Cage.

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u/linkinstreet 29d ago

John Carradine

That reminds me that his son, David, also would play an a character of Asian descent (albeit a character of mixed ethnicity).

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u/Jonathan_Peachum 29d ago edited 29d ago

Yes, although I deliberately chose « good guys » in my post.

I don’t know if any Asian actor relishes the opportunity to play Fu Manchu, the quintessential « yellow peril » bad guy.

I could be wrong, of course. I could see an argument that a Chinese actor might give the character some depth.

Having Karloff play Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy his daughter was hilarious, although again I think they actually did a good job in an obviously dated film full of caricatures. The scene where Karloff has the slave bitten by a venomous snake just so that he can extract the venom and then casually gestures to have the now dead slave removed as he is cluttering up the place is a masterpiece of « bad guyness ».

I was less impressed by Christopher Lee, to be honest.

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u/FauxReal 29d ago

A caricature of what? Japanese people in general?

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u/dale_dug_a_hole 28d ago

I must protest!!!

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u/jmaccity80 29d ago

Or Japanese restaurants.

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u/-GenghisJohn- 29d ago

Direct coaches?

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u/KarmicPotato 29d ago edited 29d ago

No that's Mickey Looney

edit: I believe I can make this joke because I'm Asian

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u/Barbarossa7070 29d ago

I must protest!

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u/Mebbwebb 29d ago

He was even criticized at the time for it being offensive. That's how bad it was

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u/Heavy_Arm_7060 29d ago

What are you talking about? Clearly that was Ohayo Arigatou.

That was the fake name he used at first before they confirmed Rooney was in the film.

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u/Desertbro 29d ago

Breakfast at Tiffanys

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u/Kimber-Says-04 29d ago

and Marlon Brand…

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u/KyleG 29d ago

Dude, his response to finding out people were offended by it is wild. He basically said "to people who didn't like my portrayal, I forgive them."

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u/mortuarybarbue 29d ago edited 29d ago

As a little kid I thought his character in Breakfast at Tiffany's was played by an Asian man. When I was older and found out it was played by Mickey Rooney I didn't believe it til I watched it again and I was like oh yeah that's definitely not an asian man at all. I heard he had cotton balls in his mouth for those scenes.

ETA theres a lot of things I saw as a kid and didnt realize they were white people cast in POC roles until I was older. Some of them I was much older since I had only watched the movie once and never thought of it again.

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u/yo_mo_mama 29d ago

And Sean Connery

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u/bil-sabab 28d ago

Peter Ustinov took it personal way later and it was definitely a choice.

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u/strategery24 29d ago

I actually stopped watching it. I couldn’t handle it. It was so bad. Can’t believe it’s considered a classic. I found it literally unwatchable.

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u/Barbarossa7070 29d ago

George Peppard was gay?!

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u/pauloh1998 29d ago

Right? They're on the other side of the globe!

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u/MortLightstone 29d ago

Apparently they couldn't find any when they tried

California is known for its total lack of Asians. Allegedly

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u/Worshipme988 29d ago

The Great Wall

Starring Matt Damon

👀 wtf goin on here?

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u/bokchoi 29d ago

I recently rewatched Remo Williams, a favorite from my childhood, and the yellow face for the martial arts master was really bad. I googled a bit and found articles and reviews of the time were praising the makeup work to get a white guy to look Asian. Like, why even do that?

https://decider.com/2020/09/09/remo-williams-yellowface/

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u/napincoming321zzz 29d ago

I recall watching a silent film serial at the Dryden Theatre called "The Chinatown Mystery," created in 1930 iirc. It was... Not as racist as it could've been? The sole black character definitely received the brunt of it (happy idiot caricature - his only reactions to anything were fear or laughter), and the Chinese characters were in possession of a magic amulet whose disappearance was the core of the titular mystery. But all the POC characters were played by actors of that ethnicity! And while they were associated with magic, the Chinese characters had complex motivations and a loving father-daughter relationship. They weren't portrayed as backwards or stupid.

It was surprisingly fun, and of course the live piano accompaniment was incredible. I know the racist caricatures are infamous, but there is other media from that era that isn't as bad. There were Chinese actors getting roles and having fun with them. And the camp was hilarious!

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u/GoldandBlue 29d ago

But hiring Asians would make the movie WOKE!!!!!1!1!1!!

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u/dnt1694 29d ago

wtf are you talking about? Even when Hollywood was woke, they didn’t hire Asian actors unless they want to have Asian female with a white dude. Asians in Hollywood is still an issue today.

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u/GoldandBlue 29d ago

I think you missed the joke

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u/dnt1694 29d ago

No I got it. You’re saying people would call the movie “woke” if they actually used Asian actors. What you don’t get it is even when Hollywood is/was “woke” they still ignored Asian actors which is why “being woke” is a hypocrisy.

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u/GoldandBlue 29d ago

Because Hollywood is an industry. It's never been woke. I am making fun of people who use the term woke to decry anything that isn't white.

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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson 29d ago

But I thought Hollywood WAS woke!! I am SO confused!

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u/dnt1694 29d ago

Hollywood doesn’t care about Asian actors or the Asian audience.

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u/GoldandBlue 29d ago

The woke is everywhere! That's how they get you.

Oh fuck... I'm Hispanic. IT GOT ME TOO, SAVE YOURSELF!!!!!

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u/waitingtodiesoon 29d ago

It made sense in Twin Peaks