![]() Skloot and her publisher have stood by the book's accuracy. They've now scaled back their comments, saying they're more concerned about the accuracy of the book. Henrietta's oldest child, Lawrence Lacks, and his son, Ron, criticized both the book and the film publicly last month. Not all of us have cells that have transformed modern medicine, but we all want to know our parents more.ĭEGGANS: The movie's impending debut has also exposed tensions among some in the Lacks family. WOLFE: The film needed to be about Deborah. Wolfe said he chose to make the film's story more personal. It's not like those people would have understood anyway.ĭEGGANS: Fans of the book will notice there isn't as much science in the movie. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) I suspect there was no effort to explain anything in great detail. In the film, Skloot, played by actress Rose Byrne, confronts a doctor who was involved.īYRNE: (As Rebecca Skloot) Were you aware that the Lackses thought that you were testing them for cancer? They had to pull information from an indifferent, white-dominated medical establishment, which included people who took blood from the Lacks family for further research, letting them believe they were testing them for cancer. And I just felt the story would be safe with her.ĭEGGANS: Skloot and Deborah Lacks spent years working on the book. Oprah's going to make a movie, and she's going to play me. REBECCA SKLOOT: She always said, you know, this book is going to come out. And the real-life Skloot told me last week that Deborah, who died in 2009, wanted Winfrey to play her in any movie. The movie's largely told from the journalist's point of view. I'm ready.ĭEGGANS: Winfrey's down-to-earth charm helps humanize Deborah, who had serious mood swings. ROSE BYRNE: (As Rebecca Skloot) I'm ready. So my whole life, I grew up not knowing one thing, not even the littlest things, like, what was her favorite color, or what happened to her clothes? You better get yourself ready because this story is crazy enough for three books. ![]() Old folks, they didn't talk about nobody wasn't alive. So when journalist Rebecca Skloot calls hoping to write a book about Henrietta, Deborah is jubilant. She was a passionate, righteous woman struggling against racism and a tangled family history to learn more about the mother who died when she was a child. OPRAH WINFREY: (As Deborah Lacks) For years, it seemed like a dream, not knowing what was going on, not knowing who to go to for understanding - didn't even know how to talk about it.ĭEGGANS: Deborah Lacks is a role that Winfrey seems destined to play. ![]() Lacks's daughter Deborah, played in the film by Oprah Winfrey, was particularly wounded by the secrecy. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) What makes this sample so unique is that this is the first cell line we have discovered in over 30 years of trying that can survive and reproduce indefinitely.ĭEGGANS: But Lacks's family wasn't told back then that the cells were taken or compensated for them. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS") Researchers in the 1950s took cancer cells from a young black woman, which led to the development of drugs for polio, leukemia and many other illnesses. Here's NPR TV critic Eric Deggans.ĮRIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: HBO's "The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks" begins with a brilliant montage showing the birth of the biomedical industry. The movie is based on a bestselling book, "The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks." It's a true story in which the title character is played by Oprah Winfrey in her first leading role in a TV movie since the 1990s. Skloot’s book also sparked a group of Oakland, California middle school students to produce and star in a rap video that took social media by storm.An HBO film out this weekend works to expose a historic injustice. I found that dichotomy incredibly moving.” They didn’t know their mother’s story, even though they were living in the shadows of Johns Hopkins. This woman’s cells helped heal the planet, yet her children were suffering. Wolfe, who adapted and directed the film, told Entertainment Weekly: “The book connects the epic with the intimate, and that’s the movie’s ambition. Skloot (Byrne) to learn about the mother she never knew. The story is told through the eyes of her daughter Deborah (Winfrey), who teams up with Ms. Goldsberry of Hamilton fame), the black woman whose cells - which were harvested without her permission as she lay dying from cancer in 1951 - led to the discovery of the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping. The biopic tells the story of Henrietta Lacks (played by Ms. A trailer has been released to promote the HBO Films’ April 22 premiere. Oprah Winfrey, Rose Byrne and Renée Elise Goldsberry star in the HBO adaptation of the Crown/Broadway Books New York Times bestseller, THE IMMORTAl LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot. NEWS Watch the HBO Trailer for TV Adaptation of THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |