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Julia Roberts was suggested to play Harriet Tubman by studio exec, says Harriet screenwriter

Ummmm.

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by Anonymousreply 81November 21, 2019 6:27 PM

With bronzer it could work.

by Anonymousreply 1November 20, 2019 2:17 AM

Studio execs really are just cockroaches.

by Anonymousreply 2November 20, 2019 2:18 AM

It depends on how big a budget the makeup department has. With a big budget Oscar bait film, the budget would be huge and they can do wonders with makeup and make you look like anything. They would probably win an Oscar for Best Makeup too.

by Anonymousreply 3November 20, 2019 2:22 AM

Is it because they are both old?

by Anonymousreply 4November 20, 2019 2:23 AM

r4 No, it's the lips, I think.

by Anonymousreply 5November 20, 2019 2:30 AM

Same asshole who probably suggested Johansson for Ghost in the Shell.

by Anonymousreply 6November 20, 2019 2:34 AM

Few of us knew that Harriet Tubman was fond of push-up bras, lip gloss, and giggling.

by Anonymousreply 7November 20, 2019 2:37 AM

There is no way, I believe this. There can't a studio exec that is that stupid in today's day and age.

by Anonymousreply 8November 20, 2019 2:39 AM

Wholly untrue. They DID, however, let a black brit play Tubman which is also idiotic.

by Anonymousreply 9November 20, 2019 2:42 AM

Harriet was famous for wearing miniskirts and laughing loudly at men she wanted to fuck.

by Anonymousreply 10November 20, 2019 2:43 AM

They're both wrong.

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by Anonymousreply 11November 20, 2019 2:44 AM

God I loved that episode R11

by Anonymousreply 12November 20, 2019 2:47 AM

Are we sure they didn't mean Harriet Olsen in a movie version of Little House on the Prairie? Certainly got the cunt part down

by Anonymousreply 13November 20, 2019 2:49 AM

Huh. She’s a musty white woman

by Anonymousreply 14November 20, 2019 2:50 AM

"And can the underground railroad, be, like, a Gulfstream jet or something? Poor is depressing."

by Anonymousreply 15November 20, 2019 2:57 AM

[quote]There is no way, I believe this. There can't a studio exec that is that stupid in today's day and age.

The President is just this stupid so believing a studio exec who has probably spent the past few years in some cushy bubble is, isn't really that far fetched.

by Anonymousreply 16November 20, 2019 2:59 AM

r14 what do you mean

by Anonymousreply 17November 20, 2019 3:01 AM

Haha! This could maybe have worked as comedy with a delusional Erin Brockovich believing she's Harriet Tubman while she rescues victims of human trafficking.

by Anonymousreply 18November 20, 2019 3:01 AM

I’d fucking punch in the face whoever suggested that.

by Anonymousreply 19November 20, 2019 3:06 AM

If you didn't read the article, its worth mentioning that this happened 25 years ago in less enlightened time, at the height of Julia Roberts career. Still ridiculous though.

It's more sad to me that it took 25 years, plus Black Panther and Twelve Years A Slave being successes for a studio to green-light a movie about Harriet Tubman, one of the most interesting and critically important figures in American history.

by Anonymousreply 20November 20, 2019 3:12 AM

She was suggested to play Harriet's horse!

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by Anonymousreply 21November 20, 2019 3:14 AM

Scandalous. How was I overlooked?

by Anonymousreply 22November 20, 2019 3:15 AM

Harriet's favorite colors were Blush and Bashful

by Anonymousreply 23November 20, 2019 3:16 AM

This is obviously untrue and you’re all idiots. No wonder everybody’s so scared of Fake News nowadays, some people believe anything they read.

by Anonymousreply 24November 20, 2019 3:32 AM

r24 it doesn't seem like something the screenwriter would lie about. For 25 years ago, its really not that surprising. This kind of stuff happens all the time entertainment industry.

by Anonymousreply 25November 20, 2019 3:42 AM

Hollywood should be color blind....what's the problem?

by Anonymousreply 26November 20, 2019 3:45 AM

R25 Really? You thinks screenwriter would never tell a headline-making lie about their project just as it’s being released to attract more attention and curiosity? You must be new to Hollywood.

Also, 25 years ago was not that long ago. You’re all acting like people were walking around with slaves and harmlessly dropping the N-Word in everyday conversation until the mid-2010’s. The 90’s might not have been as “woke” as today but they weren’t the 1800’s, blackface was as looked down upon back then as it is today. As was white washing an abolitionist ex-slave.

by Anonymousreply 27November 20, 2019 3:47 AM

After Andy Warhol's death and the publication of his diaries in 1989, there was a renewed interest in him and his circle, particularly Edie Sedgwick. I recall hearing that there were a number of high-profile film and TV biopic projects in development, including a made-for-network miniseries (back when those were still a thing)....

...all of them prominently featuring a heterosexual Andy Warhol, in at least one version, dying of unrequited love for Edie. He wasn't gay or anything, he was just SHY.

Never underestimate the levels of idiocy in Hollywood.

by Anonymousreply 28November 20, 2019 3:50 AM

[quote]Julia Roberts was suggested to play Harriet Tubman by studio exec, says Harriet screenwriter

I think you're all giving too much credit to the studio exec that he knew who Harriet Tubman even was.

by Anonymousreply 29November 20, 2019 3:53 AM

[quote]I think you're all giving too much credit to the studio exec that he knew who Harriet Tubman even was.

That's the main takeaway here. The story hinges on the fact that he didn't know who Harriet Tubman was. Presumably he just read the script and liked the story and... well, actually now that I think about it, if he read the script surely he'd know that it at least centers around a black woman. I don't know... I'm not going to get worked up over whether or not it's true. Harriet's not worth it.

by Anonymousreply 30November 20, 2019 3:58 AM

I don't think that would have been a good casting choice

by Anonymousreply 31November 20, 2019 4:00 AM

“Big mistake. Big. Huge!”

by Anonymousreply 32November 20, 2019 4:04 AM

[quote]This is obviously untrue and you’re all idiots. No wonder everybody’s so scared of Fake News nowadays, some people believe anything they read.

Sure, moron. I mean it's not like there hasn't already been ample examples of that type of ridiculous casting over the years. It's so unbelievable for something that has already been done...to be done.

by Anonymousreply 33November 20, 2019 4:07 AM

R32 🤣🤣🤣

by Anonymousreply 34November 20, 2019 7:18 AM

Took some time, but both Julia Roberts and Harriet Tubman are now trending on Twitter. People are mostly defending her, saying she had nothing to do with all this.

by Anonymousreply 35November 20, 2019 10:49 AM

R35, I thought that was a given. Only a moron would blame her for the idiocy of an exec.

by Anonymousreply 36November 20, 2019 12:19 PM

I bet they could have worked that water line into the Harriet script and it would have won her another Oscar.

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by Anonymousreply 37November 20, 2019 12:28 PM

R28 We’re different to the world than blacks though. Hollywood can bulldoze, erase, make fun of, and more to the gays and mass audiences won’t think anything of it. It wouldn’t be the same if a major motion picture that aired in the 1990’s had a white actress portraying a civil rights hero in blackface. There’d be leagues of outrage. Remember all the riots when OJ got arrested? I do.

You can’t compare gays to black people when it comes to being portrayed in media. Nobody thinks twice when a gay guy is portrayed in a demeaning light, but everybody notices when a black person is portrayed in a demeaning light. Straight people still openly use the word faggot as if it’s no big deal and can say it in public or on stage and nobody thinks twice. White people could never use the n-word willy nilly and not face consequences from anybody who isn’t also white and racist.

Gay people and black people in media have two very different fights as far as representation goes, because at the end of the day the world is okay with homophobia in a way that it isn’t okay with racism.

by Anonymousreply 38November 20, 2019 12:31 PM

R30 It’s obviously not true, it’s a publicity stunt designed to give the movie more traction, because most people know nothing about this film’s existence. I see viral marketing tricks like this all the time and it pisses me off watching the masses fall for it again and again and again. I worked in marketing for a while when I was younger, and tactics like these are used all the time, due to being ruthlessly effective and not costing a penny. Anybody with a working brain and nose can smell that this is bullshit.

by Anonymousreply 39November 20, 2019 12:37 PM

Well, tubs are white.....

by Anonymousreply 40November 20, 2019 12:39 PM

This seems like a joke straight out of Robert Altman's THE PLAYER.

by Anonymousreply 41November 20, 2019 1:30 PM

I don't believe this story for a second. Just looking for publicity. No one is talking about this movie before so they needed something.

by Anonymousreply 42November 20, 2019 1:34 PM

You mean they passed on the chance to reunite her with Richard Gere as the rich but sympathetic plantation owner?

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by Anonymousreply 43November 20, 2019 1:41 PM

R43 Would that have been the movie Pretty Slave Women?

by Anonymousreply 44November 20, 2019 1:45 PM

Why didn't they consider me? I've played a black lady before!

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by Anonymousreply 45November 20, 2019 2:13 PM

R44 - just think about this scene reimagined for a Harriet Tubman biopic!

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by Anonymousreply 46November 20, 2019 2:19 PM

This story is hardly going to generate enough publicity to get more butts in the seats. In 2019 it takes way more than that. Even Cynthia's tweets about black Americans didn't generate that much controversy. Stop finding reasons cover up for some ignorant studio producer's comments.

by Anonymousreply 47November 20, 2019 2:40 PM

Come on, this can't be serious.

That wouldn't happen in the 70's much less nowadays.

But hey, it's hw and some of them live in a parallel reality

by Anonymousreply 48November 20, 2019 2:43 PM

R33: Yes, with asians (Aloha, Ghost in the shell) but not with blacks, in fact the tendency is exactly the opposite, black actors playing white characters (from novels or even historical, even if doesn't make any sense).

And we are talking about Harriet Tubman, she is an iconic historic character nobody is so dumb to cast a white actress to portray such important historical figure.

Come one, Zendaya was bashed relentlessly because she was not black enough to portray Aliyah on the biopic

by Anonymousreply 49November 20, 2019 2:48 PM

Too bad it didn’t happen . Interested to see how Julia look like blackfaced.

by Anonymousreply 50November 20, 2019 2:53 PM

[quote]nobody is so dumb to cast a white actress to portray such important historical figure.

The producer that made these comments was, because he had no education in black history. Hell, Porsha Stewart didn't even know the Underground Railroad wasn't an actual railroad.

by Anonymousreply 51November 20, 2019 2:55 PM

[quote]There can't a studio exec that is that stupid in today's day and age.

It was in the 1990s and the guy apparently didn't know Harriet Tubman was black. He read the treatment and thought she was a white lady, which probably means he didn't actually read the treatment.

When he was told Tubman was black he reportedly said who cares, it was so long ago no one will remember what she looks like anyway.

by Anonymousreply 52November 20, 2019 2:55 PM

Oh I absolutely believe it. I doubt it was anyone important but I fully believe someone on the studio team (who got the job because he was someone's son or nephew or something) was so dumb that he didn't know Tubman was a black woman. And I'd bet everyone else from the studio just gritted their teeth and put up with it.

by Anonymousreply 53November 20, 2019 2:57 PM

R51: Maybe she just read Colson Whitehead's novel and thought it was literal (even when he explained that he change some historial facts, at least the period on what happened, and of course he used a literal railroad on his story).

I'm not american, so i don't know much about black history but i supposed Harriet Tubman is a very well known historical character

by Anonymousreply 54November 20, 2019 3:14 PM

Remember when a studio wanted to cast Robbie Benson and Brooke Shields in El Norte?

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by Anonymousreply 55November 20, 2019 3:32 PM

R28, that's hilarious

Like the Cary Grant Cole Porter biopic which portrayed him as a straight guy

by Anonymousreply 56November 20, 2019 6:13 PM

Haaaaaa haaaaaa

by Anonymousreply 57November 20, 2019 6:34 PM

I worked on a project about a historical figure who was probably gay - he never had a female love interest that anyone knew about, but in this project he was given a fictional girlfriend, I guess because straight people need some sort of a love plot in every movie

by Anonymousreply 58November 20, 2019 6:36 PM

Absolutely believable if it was 25 years ago. But again, it was an offhanded comment by an executive whose main job was to ask himself in every single pitch meeting "could this work for Julia Roberts?" And it might have been a 50+ year old guy, meaning he'd started in Hollywood during the 1960's or earlier. But its a fun reminder of how things used to work. There is a reason a Harriet Tubman biopic took so long for a major studio to produce.....

by Anonymousreply 59November 20, 2019 7:03 PM

It's that big, wide toothy smile they both have...a pair that could be the same woman! I had to do a double take

by Anonymousreply 60November 20, 2019 7:14 PM

This story gets the biggest SURE JAN of all time.

by Anonymousreply 61November 20, 2019 7:17 PM

Are we talking blackface here?

by Anonymousreply 62November 20, 2019 7:21 PM

[quote]Remember all the riots when OJ got arrested?

Nope.

by Anonymousreply 63November 20, 2019 8:43 PM

Aw, hell no!

by Anonymousreply 64November 20, 2019 11:22 PM

Wait, did Harriet steal some other woman's husband and then try to humiliate her in public too?

by Anonymousreply 65November 20, 2019 11:23 PM

I know my memory is bad now but what riot is r38 talking about?

by Anonymousreply 66November 20, 2019 11:38 PM

But Hamilton?!? Isn’t race-bending Woke?

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by Anonymousreply 67November 21, 2019 12:08 PM

R67: Hamilton is a musical and it's obvious that don't look for realism. I find ridiculous when they add black characters to periods when they could not be in that position no matter what.

HW just don't understand diversity. Diversity doesn't mean the change some established character's race it's to create characters of different races. It's not making changes on the race of a literary character it's adapting novels with asian, latinos, native americans and black characters.

I remember some uproar on twitter because they wanted to hire a black or asian actress to Geralt the Rivia, which is based on nordic tales. If you want a diverse cast with multiple non white characters adapt the Fifth season of N K Jemisin which is a fantastic novel (in all the senses of the word) and you don't have to make any change to have your diverse cast

by Anonymousreply 68November 21, 2019 1:50 PM

This never happened. Its just an old piece of baseless gossip and a myth being perpatrated . There is not a shred of evidence . Its just a great talking point for those who want to continue to "Hollywood is run by racists" agenda. There is no way in hell that anybody would have seriously suggested this.

by Anonymousreply 69November 21, 2019 2:42 PM

She would be great as Harriet Hilliard in a big screen remake of "Ozzie and Harriet."

Matthew Perry would be a great Ozzie. Cinema magic!

by Anonymousreply 70November 21, 2019 2:50 PM

Too bad Gary and Lucy have been dead for decades so he couldn't talk her out of the role.

by Anonymousreply 71November 21, 2019 2:52 PM

Little known fact: Once Tubman made it up North, she partied with Richard Gere, his gerbels and became his wife.

by Anonymousreply 72November 21, 2019 3:04 PM

[quote]Remember all the riots when OJ got arrested?

No, you moron. WTF are you even talking about?

by Anonymousreply 73November 21, 2019 3:12 PM

BTW, I even googled "OJ arrest riots" - nada. Dumbass. You're so desperate to make your very stupid case that you just created fiction to make it more convincing when it was an awful, self-centered diatribe to begin with.

by Anonymousreply 74November 21, 2019 3:14 PM

Hollywood would never cast a role like that. It's a lie!

by Anonymousreply 75November 21, 2019 3:32 PM

R69, you weren't there. You WANT to believe it didn't happen because you're a Republican and you want to pretend racism doesn't exist

by Anonymousreply 76November 21, 2019 4:53 PM

Not exactly equivalent, but Tilda Swinton played The Ancient One in Dr. Strange in 2016. A role in the Marvel comics that had been an old Asian man since the 1960's. So yes, R8, there are execs that are that dumb.

by Anonymousreply 77November 21, 2019 4:59 PM

[quote] "Hollywood is run by racists" agenda.

Then you're willfully blind. There are people who *think* they're liberal, but in reality are of the Harriet "inadequate black man" Christian variety.

We've already seen ludicrous casting of white actors in roles that clearly belong to POC over the years.

Biblical films alone prove it. They can apparently find Middle Eastern people when they need a terrorist because Hollywood is full of people who enjoy portraying them only as that, but none to be found in starring roles for movies based on the fucking bible.

by Anonymousreply 78November 21, 2019 5:08 PM

R28, And they still do it now, like that pile of dogshit Alan Turing film where they downplayed his homosexuality entirely and put the focus on some hetero romance between Keira Knightly and Benedict Cumberbatch, as Turing.

by Anonymousreply 79November 21, 2019 5:31 PM

The relationship between Knightley and Cumberbatch was portrayed as a friendship, not a romance

by Anonymousreply 80November 21, 2019 5:37 PM

R77: False equivalency. We know that happens with asians, there's Aloha and There's Ghost in the shell to prove it, but with blacks is a totally different story.

And even if i'm against changing fictional characters for the sake of it (unless the writer or creator is ok with that), is not the same to change the sex (or gender) of a fictional character than to an historical character as important as Harriet Tubman

by Anonymousreply 81November 21, 2019 6:27 PM
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