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A Studio Executive Wanted Julia Roberts to Play Harriet Tubman

A truly cursed headline.

Julia Roberts Was Once Considered To Play Harriet Tubman In A Film

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Gregory Allen Howard's Harriet Tubman biopic opened at the end of October after nearly 25 years of discussion and work.

Recently, Howard dusted off a memorable quote from the 1990s, when the movie was first in talks. Apparently, a studio executive suggested Julia Roberts, a white woman, play Tubman, the legendary black abolitionist.

HARRIET | Official Trailer | Now Playingwww.youtube.com

"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 in an interview with Focus Features, republished in the LA Times on Tuesday. "When someone pointed out that Roberts couldn't be Harriet, the executive responded, 'It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.'"

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"The climate in Hollywood … was very different," Allen added, crediting two recent box office smash hits with creating space for change. "Two films really changed the climate in Hollywood to allow Harriet to be made," he said. "When 12 Years a Slave became a hit and did a couple hundred million dollars worldwide, I told my agent, 'You can't say this kind of story won't make money now.' Then Black Panther really blew the doors open."

Representation in Hollywood has long been a contentious topic, and despite performative diversity and major successes for actors and directors of color, recent studies have shown that the state of the film industry is still abysmal. In 2018, the Observer reported, "Not only do Hollywood films still disproportionately showcase white, cisgender, heterosexual men, executives and authority figures on every tier of the industry haven't even deigned to experiment with telling stories from different perspectives to any tangible degree."

Naturally, the Internet had a lot to say. Most lamented the utter horror of seeing Julia Roberts and Harriet Tubman in the same headline, but the story really only highlights what we already knew: Hollywood, like the nation at large, has a racism and whitewashing problem, and always has.

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Let Leslie Odom Jr.'s Silky Vocals Ease All the Pain In Your Soul

The sonic equivalent of a hot toddy on a cold night.

Leslie Odom Jr.: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

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Leslie Odom Jr. has released a new album, entitled simply Mr, and it's, well, soothing.

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While some music is great for diving into the darkness so you can come out stronger (cough, FKA twigs' latest album), some music is useful for replacing all the aches in your heart with elegant jazz, dreamy violins, and of course, Leslie Odom Jr.'s voice.

If we're talking voices, Odom Jr. has the voice. It's the vocal equivalent of a hot toddy on a cold night, an advil in the thick of a migraine, a sip of warm but not hot honey-ginger tea. It's just rough enough to sound real, and thank god for that little rasp, otherwise it would be almost incomprehensibly smooth. He's riffing magnificently and shifting from falsetto to sultry low notes with impressive ease.

Mr finds the former Hamilton star adding modern inflections to classics such as Nina Simone's Feeling Good, using that song's triumphant chord progression to fuel the energy of his song "Standards," which is all about having high standards.

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Though not ostensibly a Christmas album, Mr still feels like Christmas—it's got all the bells and whistles, and you can imagine it playing in a department store during the Christmas sale rush, but in the best way possible. That's not to say it's not great party music: It would also be perfect to play during a Christmas party.

Odom Jr. can't quite shake his theatre kid roots, and it shows, as the album has an element of flashy performativity to it. That doesn't hurt the quality of the music. If anything, it's refreshing in an era obsessed with radical authenticity and glitchy sonic experimentation. Though not averse to drawing from a wide range of styles, Odom Jr. makes it all sound classic and refined, resulting in a cohesive, beautiful, and deeply, deeply soothing work of art.

Some of the songs are quite poignant, while others turn political, but ultimately, it's the perfect album to listen to if you're trying to stop racing endlessly through the hamster wheel and just take a minute to rest. On "Cold," he's literally inviting you in from the cold and promising to keep you safe, so take note. Here's some advice: Tonight, shut off Twitter, curl up with a cup of echinacea tea, and let Leslie Odom Jr. sing you to sleep. Sleep for twelve hours, wake up with your winter cold gone and a newfound excitement for the holiday season running through your currently cold, dead veins, and give thanks for Mr and all the pristine sounds that Leslie Odom Jr's voice box is capable of creating.

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