The Untold Truth Of Cynthia Erivo

Harriet Tubman brought hundreds of slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, and bringing those experiences to the screen required Harriet star Cynthia Erivo to perform an array of stunts for the film. In fact, the role required her to jump off a bridge, ride a galloping horse through a forest, climb a cliff, and more — all while wearing ungainly 19th-century clothing. "The stunt work is me," Erivo told CBS This Morning, revealing that she trained hard in order to meet the physical demands of the role. "I was working out the hour before I would get on set," she said.

Besides, added Erivo, no matter how difficult a stunt or how uncomfortable a situation, she knew that when it was over "there would be someone with a coat and we'd be able to go back inside and we were fine."

Speaking with The Guardian, Erivo shared that during filming "if anything got difficult there was a saying: 'HTH', which was 'Harriet Tubman hard.'" She explained, "So if it wasn't Harriet Tubman hard, it was fine, we were going to get through it. And nothing was Harriet Tubman hard, so we always got through it."