HBO shares this first look at upcoming film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, starring Oprah Winfrey, Rose Byrne, and Renée Elise Goldsberry. Goldsberry plays Henrietta Lacks, as seen in flashbacks, and Winfrey plays Lacks’ daughter Deborah in the present day.
The movie focuses on the “search to learn about the mother she never knew and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks’ cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs.”
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is based on journalist Rebecca Skloot’s bestselling book of the same name.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.
In this recently released trailer Skloot (Byrne), alongside Deborah Lacks (Winfrey) search for the truth about Henrietta Lacks.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks premieres at 8 PM April 22 on HBO.
