Deborah and her brother Zakariyya Rahman first see their mom’s cells through a microscope in 2001. HeLa cervical cells stained with blue dye. Lacks died eight months after her first treatment, never knowing that her cells would change the course of medical history.Ĭlockwise from left: Oprah as Deborah in front of a projection of Henrietta’s cells at Johns Hopkins. But no one had asked Lacks, or her family, for permission to remove the sample. To their amazement, the uncommonly resilient cells, which they labeled HeLa, kept reproducing. When Lacks, a young black mother of five living in Baltimore, went to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 to be treated for cervical cancer, doctors removed slices of tissue from her cervix. For decades, researchers tried and failed to find a solution-until a miracle occurred. They had a name for their dream: an immortal cell line, a forever-multiplying supply that would let them experiment with new vaccines and drug therapies they’d never be allowed to test on people. There was a time when scientists could only dream of growing human cells outside the body. She had the door slammed in her face many times.” Oprah between scenes with director of photography Sofian El Fani ( left), executive producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, and director and writer George C. “And I give Rebecca a lot of credit for her relentless pursuit of what happened to Henrietta. “Rose was wonderful to work with,” says Oprah. “But I tried to stay in the center of it-in the heart of a daughter who is frustrated, manic, depressed, working multiple jobs, and wanting to know who her mother was.” Costars Rose Byrne (left ) and Oprah with Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, in Baltimore. “This story is deep and wide,” Oprah says. A look at one woman’s journey from ordinary to legendary.Ĭlockwise from top left: Renée Elise Goldsberry re-creates a moment captured in a rare photograph of Henrietta. Now she’s starring in the HBO adaptation (out April 22) alongside Rose Byrne. That’s the point.Seven years ago, Oprah was deeply moved by the astonishing book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the true account of a single patient who unwittingly transformed modern medicine. Under the rigorous eye of executive producer Winfrey (she’s the poster image), the science story is pushed to the margins, and the focus is the family, their cultural, personal and racial legacies the heart of the matter.Īgain, not the story we (establishment TV critics and HBO geeks) thought it would be. “The family.” Over Skloot’s objections, he rhymes off, “The mentally damaged daughter, the indigent ex-con brother, the manic-depressive daughter.” Skloot sputters, “The story of Henrietta is about legacies: cultural, personal, racial.” But he talks over her: “Eliminate the family.” Skloot meets with her older, white editor (John Benjamin Hickey). “They see you, it’s ‘Rebecca, come on in.’ So go on, gal, keep on being white.” “They see me coming, they lock the door,” Deborah says. Skloot tells Deborah about that conversation. “It’s not like those people would have understood anyway.” “I suspect there was no effort to explain anything to them in great detail,” he says haughtily. Skloot meets with the older, white doctor (Reed Birney) who studied Henrietta’s children. Instead, three scenes smack at the midpoint tell a different tale: You think this telefilm is going to be that story, told by reporter Rebecca Skloot (Rose Byrne), with the help of Henrietta’s daughter Deborah (Oprah Winfrey). Henrietta Lacks (Renée Elise Goldsberry, in flashbacks) died of cancer, but her cells live on they have a remarkable capacity to reproduce infinitely in labs and have been central to every significant scientific breakthrough since her death. The Show: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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