what if

Barbra Streisand Wanted to Direct Hidden Figures

Barbra Streisand. Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for BSB

Barbra Streisand hasn’t directed a feature-length film since 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces, but not for lack of trying. In an interview with Variety, Streisand discussed the various directorial projects she’s had stuck in limbo (including a Gypsy movie and Skinny and Cat) and one movie that got away: Hidden Figures, an awards-contender last year about black women working for NASA in the 1960s.“I wanted to do Hidden Figures because that is a great film to me,” Streisand told Variety. “I was sent the script, and I said yes. They gave it to the man who wrote the script [Ted Melfi], and he did a good job. I wish I had directed it.”

Hidden Figures producer Donna Gigliotti explained that, while Streisand was interested, the film was already pretty much set with Melfi. “UTA, Barbra’s agents at the time, urged her to read the script,” she said. “She liked it, and we had a terrific, wide-ranging conversation about the screenplay. I loved her! But I was pretty far down the road with Ted Melfi. If the timing had been different, the result might have been different.” For one, imagine if she had collaborated with Pharrell on the soundtrack.

Barbra Streisand Wanted to Direct Hidden Figures