'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' Release Date, Cast and Plot News: HBO Releases Trailer Starring Oprah Winfrey
HBO recently released the official trailer for their upcoming movie adaptation of the non-fiction novel "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."
HBO's biopic stars Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne and tells the real-life story of a black woman whose cells were harvested without her consent while she was suffering and dying from cancer in 1951. Her cells paved the way for several medical breakthroughs such as the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization as well as gene mapping.
Winfrey portrays Lack's daughter Deborah while Byrne plays Rebecca Skloot, the real-life journalist who wrote the 2010 book that inspired the TV movie. "Hamilton" star Renée Elise Goldsberry will portray Henrietta in the flashbacks.
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As can be seen in the trailer, Henrietta's family was kept in the dark about her cells' contribution to medical science for many years, even when her cells helped in creating medications that saved a lot of people's lives.
"What you don't understand is, we didn't know nothing about nothing," Deborah is seen telling Skloot in the trailer.
"I want to write a book about your mother," Rebecca tells Deborah.
When Rebecca reveals to Deborah of her plans to pen a book about her mother's life and experience, Deborah sizes her up and says, "Hope I don't regret this."
Written and directed by George C. Wolfe, the upcoming biopic film follows the efforts of the Lacks family to gain acknowledgment as well as remediation for the unauthorized utilization of their mother's cells, also known as HeLa cells.
Aside from Winfrey, Byrne and Goldsberry, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" also stars Rocky Carroll, Courtney B. Vance, Kyanna Simone Simpson, Reg E. Cathey, Leslie Uggams, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Reed Birney, Adriane Lenox, John Douglas Thomson, Roger Robinson and Melvin Van Peebles.
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is scheduled to premiere on April 22 at 8 p.m. EDT on HBO.
