Julia Roberts ‘was first choice’ to play black abolitionist Harriet Tubman

Julia Roberts was the first actress to be suggested to play the role of slavery abolitionist Harriet Tubman, according to the scriptwriter of a film about her life.

Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard says a Hollywood executive said it was so long ago “no one will know” Harriet was black.

Harriet creator Gregory Allen Howard says an unnamed studio president who discussed making the biopic back in 1994 said: “This is a great script. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.

When it was pointed out to him that Tubman was black he reportedly responded: “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.”

The film took 20 years to bring to the screen.

Describing the Hollywood climate as “very different back then”, Howard credits films like 12 Years A Slave and Black Panther with proving box office success of films with black protagonists.

Howard was speaking to studio Focus Features ahead of the film’s release at the end of this week.

Tubman, who died in 1913, was born into slavery in Maryland before escaping and going on to free at least 70 others.

She was the only female conductor on the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes across the US to help enslaved African-Americans escape to freedom.

The biopic, which was originally titled Freedom Fire, was a passion project for Howard who studied Tubman’s life in college.

Determined not to preach or create a “history lesson”, he wanted to show Harriet as a “superhero”.

Roberts has not commented on the casting suggestion.

Last year actress Scarlett Johansson faced accusations of “whitewashing” after being cast as cyborg soldier Mira Killian / Major Kusanagi – a role originally written as east Asian – in futuristic crime drama Ghost In The Shell.

Harriet, which also stars Leslie Odom Jr, Joe Alwyn and Janelle Monee, is in UK cinemas on Friday 22 November. – news.sky.com