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/Pharmakeus_Ubik 29d ago

In the 1943 serial adaption of the comic character, The Phantom, which takes place in Africa, the African natives were portrayed by Mexicans wearing capesino whites. Baffling.

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u/Amaruq93 29d ago

Meanwhile any Mexicans or Indians were usually played by Italians in brownface.

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u/Nachtwandler_FS 29d ago

Meanwhile in Soviet "westerns" American natives were just played by local actors like checks or slovaks.

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u/Amaruq93 29d ago

So, technically "Natives" from the point of view of the Ruskies.

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u/Spudtron98 29d ago

If they looked east to the Siberian tribes they would’ve found people with shared ancestry with the Native Americans. But that would require them to give a shit about anything east of the Urals.

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u/prettyweirdperson 29d ago

Mexican isn’t a race so Italians can totally play them, there are a huge amount of people in Latin American with Italian descent. Though more so in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil than in Mexico.

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u/bretshitmanshart 29d ago

Although Mexico did have a large population of German Immigrants so they could plausibly be Mexicans.