Winfrey is mesmerizing as Deborah Lacks, whose quest to connect with the history of her mother, who died when she was a baby, forms much of the spine of Skloot’s book.
#WATCH THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS 2017 MOVIE#
The HBO movie about this trio makes only one of the women truly memorable, but it’s worth seeing in order to witness Oprah Winfrey give one of the best performances of her career. Byrne focused on capturing Skloot's spirit.The immensely readable book “ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is ultimately the story of three extraordinary women: The title character, a Baltimore woman who died young, and whose cancer cells changed the course of scientific history her daughter Deborah, who persevered against incredible odds to find out more about her mother and Rebecca Skloot, the author of a nonfiction bestseller about both, who knit scientific history and family saga together with an inspired elegance not seen since Watson and Crick came up with the double helix. The fictionalized Skloot is an outsider acutely aware of how she, as a white journalist with much to gain by telling Henrietta's story, might be viewed with suspicion by the family. It was a big job for her to bring that character to life."īyrne has a less showy role as Skloot, who was reluctant to write herself into the book. She was not the bubbly personality you see on TV, which I completely respect. "Overall, the family is pleased," she says.Īs for working with the Oprah Winfrey, Byrne confesses she was "as intrigued as anybody" but also impressed by her commitment. Nevertheless, at least one member of the family, Henrietta's eldest son, Lawrence Lacks, is unhappy with the film, accusing HBO of exploiting his mother's memory. " 'I'm not going to be your mother, and I'm not going to be able to re-create everything she was for you.' "
"I said, 'Look, my job is to to make an offering of this story so that the world will know your mother and your grandmother in a way they did not before,' " Winfrey recalls telling them. Winfrey relied on Skloot's extensive audiotapes to help build the character, and discussed Deborah with members of the Lacks family, several of whom were enlisted as paid consultants on the film. Really deep," she says, enunciating in a way that can only be described as Winfrey-esque. "I have to go really, really, really deep to pull up rage and anger. I have to go really, really, really deep to pull up rage and anger. Still, playing Deborah, a devoutly religious but troubled woman with a host of eccentricities - in one scene, she douses a restaurant table in Lysol before sitting down - was a challenge. "It's really stimulating to probe the depths of yourself, searching for emotions that otherwise would go untouched or unexplored, particularly for me," says Winfrey. The "Shuffle Along" star urged Winfrey to work with Wolfe if she ever had the chance.įor the talk show doyenne and media tycoon, acting has been a successful if occasional side gig, with roles in films including "The Color Purple" and "Beloved" as well as a more recent recurring part in the OWN family drama "Greenleaf." But performing feeds her in a way that's different from, say, interviewing former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Wolfe's involvement also helped convince Winfrey, who hadn't planned to star in the film but reconsidered, thanks to a recommendation from Audra McDonald. And if it's a strong muscle, it can withstand your wrestling." "You honor the work by digging, you don't honor the work by being passive to the process. By design, the audience knows only as much about Henrietta as Deborah does.Īs much as he revered Skloot's writing, Wolfe was more interested in "embodying the world" than treating the book with kid gloves. "Her desire to process this information, to gather pieces no matter how desperate, no matter how clueless, no matter how, sometimes, foolish it was, just to know - I found that heroic and thrilling," Wolfe says during a break from editing in the frenzied final weeks before the film's release. Wolfe was particularly moved by the fact that Deborah had virtually no memories of her mother, though her cells were now "immortal" and had improved the lives of countless millions.
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