The Trailer for the New Harriet Tubman Biopic Is Here
In 2018, Focus Features announced that it would release a biopic about Harriet Tubman, directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Tony-winning actor Cynthia Erivo. And now we have our first look: The first official trailer for Harriet dropped on Tuesday, July 23, and it’s fantastic.
Harriet, which will be out November 1, follows Tubman’s journey escaping slavery in Maryland and becoming an integral part of the Underground Railroad to free other enslaved people. The trailer was met with a large wave of excitement online, with Twitter users already campaigning for Erivo’s Oscar. If Erivo wins an Academy Award, she would be the youngest person ever to achieve an EGOT designation.
“Cynthia Erivo is this close to becoming an EGOT winner, and I am SO ready to watch it happen,” one person wrote on Twitter. Actress Susan Heyward tweeted, “Whhheeeee!!! This imagery, this message, this team, this @CynthiaEriVo! This @leslieodomjr!!”
Erivo’s casting has been a bit controversial, though. Many people have taken issue with the fact that she was born and raised in the U.K., and say the role could have gone to an African American actress with a closer link to the story. Erivo addressed the backlash in an Instagram post last September.
“Nothing has been given to me without me first putting the work in, people speak of foreign privilege and truthfully life would be unbelievably easy if that were applied to me but that is not my portion. I fought for the role of Celie, and spilled blood sweat and tears playing her, the same applies for every role I’ve earned, this will be no different,” she said.
Some people are hoping that this film at least restarts conversations about finally putting Tubman on U.S. currency. The Obama administration had proposed putting her on the $20 bill, replacing former president and slaveholder Andrew Jackson. But the Trump administration’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, put those efforts into question in 2018, claiming that no decisions had been made “as to whether we’ll change the bill or won’t change the bill.”
Watch the full trailer for Harriet, above. Is it November 1 yet?