This week's cover story: Inside Cynthia Erivo's Journey to Making a 'Badass' Harriet Tubman Biopic
Chase, the producer behind such movies as “The Princess Diaries” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” had been trying to make a film about the revered abolitionist for two years. When she saw Erivo as Celie onstage, she said to herself, “A week later, when Erivo arrived at the Mandarin Oriental at Columbus Circle, Chase knew her instinct was right. ”She walked in, fabulous — short, blonde, natural hair,” she recalls. “Stylish and confident and dramatic.
The social movements #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo have also started to change industry attitudes and priorities, which benefited “Harriet.” “To have the industry shift as we’re developing this over years was helpful,” Lundberg says. “I don’t think anyone would have jumped onto this even two years ago.” Erivo, 32, was born to Nigerian parents and grew up in London. She lived with her mother and sister. By her own account, she was a “good kid, who was a good student.” “I was funny. I was not shy at all — chatty,” she says. “I smiled a lot. Ilied.” These qualities appear to have carried into adulthood: In person, Erivo is forthright and not afraid to laugh.
journey began in 2014 when, at the suggestion of her friend Gregory Allen Howard, she read his 1993 screenplay “Freedom Fire,” a biopic about Tubman. After making attempts with other writers at reworking Howard’s script, Chase and Lundberg hired, who was replacing the director Seith Mann, to rewrite and direct “Harriet.” The two producers are complimentary about Mann, but his ideas for the movie did not jibe with theirs.
They talked in detail about creating the character of Tubman. “I said to her, ‘Study her face, look in her eyes, look at her mouth — you know, try and find her,’” Lemmons says. They obsessed over Harriet’s speaking voice, and her singing voice as well, which Erivo — decided was an alto, even though she herself is a soprano. Erivo worked with a dialect coach on a late 1840s Maryland accent. “It’s one thing to do an accent, but if it’s not specific, it’s pointless,” she says.
Focus bought it in the room. Suddenly, after years of thwarted attempts and disappointments, the “Harriet” team had to hurry up. They had to start shooting in September. Chase vociferously defends the casting of Erivo. “Honestly, I think it’s unfair and, frankly, ridiculous” she says of the criticism. She lists several biopics — “Lincoln,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Selma” — in which Americans have been played by British actors with little or no controversy. “So I don’t know if it’s because she’s a woman,” she says, “but it is so unfair. This was her role!”
Before he was cast as Still, he witnessed the attacks on Erivo as her friend. “Cynthia has continued to lead that sort of charge with all the grace and dignity and courage that she took on the role of Harriet with,” Odom says.
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