Viola Davis has responded to the news that a studio executive once suggested Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman in a movie about her life. Davis called the idea “ridiculous” and questioned why the decision-makers in Hollywood would not see it as important to cast a Black woman as Tubman. Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard had revealed that a studio head suggested Roberts for the role, apparently unaware that Tubman was a Black woman. In the end, Cynthia Erivo, a Black British actress, portrayed Tubman in the film Harriet.
