The year 1994 doesn’t seem that long ago. It was the year of the Winona Ryder Little Women and the original The Lion King, the year of Kurt Cobain’s death and Oasis’ success and the boom of MTV.

It was also the year that Julia Roberts was one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood, courtesy of her Oscar-nominated turn in Pretty Woman a few years prior. Naturally, studio executives were eyeing her for every major role in Hollywood at the time. Not so naturally, one of those roles was Harriet Tubman in the first major biopic of her life.

Tubman, for those not familiar with the trailblazing activist, remains one of the most celebrated figures in African American history. Born into slavery, she escaped to become one of America’s most prominent abolitionists. Over the course of her life, she ran 13 rescue missions to save some 70 friends and family through the Underground Railroad. After the American Civil War ended, Tubman became a key figure agitating for a woman’s right to vote. She died in 1913 at the age of 91 and has since become one of the most recognisable and famous black women in US history.

Who thought it was OK to suggest that Julia Roberts play Harriet Tubman?