Relationships April 14, 2017
A real life medical marvel is revealed in Oprah's new HBO movie
Oprah Winfrey is bringing an incredible true life story to the screen in her new HBO movie, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”
She executive produces and stars in the drama about an African-American mother of five whose rare cells saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people as well as leading to the development of the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization and chemotherapy.
But those cancer cells were harvested without her or her family’s knowledge or permission and Oprah plays the youngest daughter of Lacks who fought to uncover the truth about how her medical marvel late mother had been used for research.
Based on a bestselling book, the TV movie to be screened by HBO on April 22 will reveal the following facts about Lacks.
Lacks was a tobacco farmer admitted early in 1951 to Johns Hopkins Hospital with an aggressive form of cervical cancer, which would claim her life a few months later. Doctors at the Baltimore, MD, hospital took a biopsy from her and the tissue was used, without her consent, to establish a cell line, later to become known as HeLa, which has been invaluable to medical research ever since. The cells taken from her cancerous tumor are called “immoral” by scientists as they can live and rapidly reproduce outside the body.
For 60 years after the cancer tells were taken, the Lacks family was never consulted when researchers used this genomic data. After the truth was exposed in the 2010 book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” use of the HeLa cell genome became governed by a panel that contains two of her grandchildren, both still living in Baltimore.
That book, which took more than a decade to research and write, was written by investigative journalist Rebecca Skloot, played in the film by Rose Byrne. It came together after Sklott befriended Oprah Winfrey’s character, Deborah Lacks, and they set out together to expose the truth. Published in 2010 the book instantly hit the New York Times bestseller list and remained there for four more years. It became a favorite of Oprah Winfrey who acquired the movie rights for her company, Harpo Films.
Deboarah Lacks died of a heart attack just months before the book’s publication but two of her siblings, Zakariyya and Sonny, were consultants on the film, which was shot in Baltimore and Atlanta. Now they can bring their mother’s story to a TV audience. The HBO movie’s director, George C. Wolfe, told Entertainment Weekly, “This woman’s cells helped heal the planet, yet her children were suffering. They didn’t know their mother’s story, even though they were living in the shadows of Johns Hopkins. I found that dichotomy incredibly moving.”
Oprah has made memorable acting performances before in projects like “The Color Purple,” “The Butler” and “Selma” but took her time over deciding to play Deborah as she had trouble relating to the character’s rage and mood swings and signs of manic depression. “I completely related to every other character I have played. I knew women like them. But I did not know Deborah and that absolutely terrrified me, ” she told TV Guide. “I’m not a person who lives in a space of anger, like Deborah did.”
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” premieres on HBO at 8pm on April 22.
