Photo by Glen Wilson/Focus Features
"Harriet,” in theaters this month, might revive plans to put her on money. Director Kasi Lemmons lensed the notable “Eve’s Bayou” (1997), and in her latest, the Emmy-Grammy-Tony-award-winning Cynthia Erivo plays in the title role.
Besides Erivo, the cast includes Leslie Odom Jr. (the original Aaron Burr in “Hamilton”) as abolitionist organizer William Still; Joe Alwyn as Gideon, the cruel son of a worse plantation-owning father; Vondie Curtis-Hall as the Rev. Green, who poses as a minister preaching subservience to mask his Underground Railroad alliance; and Richmond-residing Daphne Maxwell Reid (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”) as Miz Lucy, who is among the first group of enslaved people Tubman guides north.
“It was lovely to hear that the project was shooting in Virginia,” says Reid, whose role involved running through woods and ponds. “My husband [actor-director-producer Tim Reid] said, ‘You were running?’ ” She laughs. “It’s an absolutely amazing cast, and I got to watch incredible people doing their best work.” She’d thus far seen only a few sections of the film with its gorgeous cinematography that evokes 19th-century paintings, pre-Civil War costumes and attention to detail. “Moved me to tears,” Reid says.
The film might not have wound up here, except that last July, the Virginia Film Office’s Andy Edmunds, standing on his front porch and preparing to leave for vacation, received a tip from film animal wrangler Doug Sloan about the “Harriet” production crew scouting locations in upstate New York.
Edmunds had worked with the film’s unit production manager, Shea Kammer, when trying to get the film “The Yellow Birds” shot here (due to incentives, it went to Georgia instead). The Virginia Film Office began working the phones and email. “I’m wired for this hunt,” Edmunds explains. He queried Kammer, emphasizing the availability of period backdrops — real and backlot. “This is our kind of movie,” he recalls telling her. “You’re breakin’ my heart.” It seemed, though, that the director had made up her mind and was ready to head home.
Cynthia Erivo (Harriet Tubman) and actor Joe Alwyn with director Kasi Lemmons on the set of "Harriet," which opened Nov. 1 (Photo by Glen Wilson/ Focus Features)
Undeterred, the film office sent images of Richmond and Petersburg’s historic structures, along with photos of the sets built for the films “John Adams” and “Lincoln.” Then Edmunds triangulated producers who knew each other and Virginia and put them in contact. He proceeded with his vacation and hoped for serendipity to work “movie magic.”
Kammer and a scouting party arrived at midnight on the Monday after the Fourth of July. Edmunds greeted them, and between the airport and the Quirk Hotel, they conversed about friends, family and the business. On Tuesday, Edmunds drove them around to potential filming sites, and that served as enough persuasion to bring “Harriet” to Virginia.
“It’s about tenacity and relationships,” Edmunds emphasizes, “and our team at the film office aren’t only experts in productions and locations, but in packaging these for the right fit. We’re all production people, work as partners, and we speak the same language.”
Richmond-based actor Mike Marunde, who’s been in about 30 big and small productions, gives despicable gravity to Maryland Eastern Shore plantation owner Edward Brodess, the slaveholder of Harriet and most of her family.
“I had to be a really bad guy who says terrible things,” Marunde recalls. “And I had to prepare for that.” His scenes took place on the film’s first day of shooting. Brodess’ wife is portrayed by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. “I didn’t know who she was,” Marunde admits. “We’re there to do the work, so, we did.”
Brian Landis, also in Richmond, landed the day player role of a marshal inspecting the travel papers of a disguised Tubman. The scene was filmed at the Petersburg train station and interrupted by passing freights. “It’s the kind of film actors dream about,” Landis says. “Politically relevant, a story that should’ve been told this way many moons ago and something you’re proud to put on your resume.”
