The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
(Sony Pictures Television)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
OPRAH ON HER NEW PROJECT, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
Tomorrow, Oprah Winfrey joins
Dr. Oz to share the riveting, untold story behind the immortal cells of
Henrietta Lacks. Her cells, more commonly known as HeLa cells, have
changed medicine forever because
they have continued to reproduce since her death over 65 years ago.
This allows scientists to watch the cells, learn how cancer spreads and
how it could be killed. Oprah, HBO movie co-star
Rose Byrne, author Rebecca Skloot and Oz discuss the science behind the immortal cells and their new HBO Movie.
On what inspired Oprah to help share Henrietta Lacks story, Oprah shares:
“You
were actually the first person I asked, because I had been in Baltimore
all these years and never heard of HeLa or Henrietta Lacks and I
remember back in the day
I said, Dr. Oz, have you ever heard of this thing called HeLa? And you
said, of course I've heard, are you talking about HeLa cells? Of course.
And I said, well, do you know about Henrietta Lacks, but you didn't
know about Henrietta Lacks. The woman that they
come from, so I thought if you didn't know, I didn't know, that was one
of the things that actually inspired me to purchase the book and get
this story told, 'cause I thought it was an important story. Frankly, I
didn't know and I lived in Baltimore all those
years. And you didn't know.”
On the character of Deborah Lacks, Oprah explains:
“So
this woman, Deborah Lacks, had this longing to know who her mother was
and from the very first phone call says, you know, she like to dance and
what kind of colors
did she like and, you know, she wanted to find out. And by finding out
about her mother, she really learned about herself. It filled this big
void inside herself.”
On what about this role caught her attention, Rose Byrne says:
“I
was intrigued. I mean, in the book she's intentionally a
one-dimensional character, because Rebecca is a journalist. She never
intended to have herself in the book
but she's part of a long line of people who's come to the Lacks family
and wanted something from them and also been taken advantage of and she
was in a long line of these people and she was the latest one and she
realized at a certain point she was in the
story. But on purpose she's quite one-dimensional in the book so that
was challenging to try to bring dimension to her and texture and be
complex.”
On Dr. Oz’s HeLa cell sample for Oprah, Oprah reveals:
“That's
why it's called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, because those
cells are living on and on and still are being reproduced as we speak.”
Dr. Oz: “I brought you a little of Henrietta.
That's her. There are millions of Henrietta's cells in there.” Oprah: “We did not even have the
real cells in the movie, Dr. Oz. This is fantastic.”
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