It wasn’t fake news. The headlines splattered all over social media about actress Julia Roberts being considered for the role of Harriet Tubman were true. It was 1994 when a studio executive suggested Roberts play Tubman as a serious suggestion, and not at all a joke.
“Harriet” screenwriter and producer, Gregory Allen Howard shared, “I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, ‘This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.'” When Howard spoke up and assured the executive that Roberts could not play Tubman, he said the executive responded, ‘It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.'”
We would have absolutely known the difference. There’s no part of history that suggests that Harriet Tubman could have remotely been a white woman. Check out the video above, of The OverExplainer reacting to the news.