The touching story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cells were taken and sold for research without her permission, has been a passion project of Oprah Winfrey’s for over six years.
In HBO’s new film adaptation of Rebecca Skloot’s nonfiction book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, Winfrey stars as Henrietta’s daughter Deborah Lacks, who sets out on a mission to seek truth and justice on her mother’s behalf. Henrietta’s stolen research cells (taken during a biopsy before she died of cancer in 1951) were named HeLa, and went on to contribute to multiple medical breakthroughs such as: cloning, polio vaccine, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization and much more.
Renee Elise Goldsberry stars as Henrietta Lacks and Rose Byrne plays Skloot, the freelance science writer who brought Henrietta’s story to life. Watch the latest trailer for the film below; HBO shared it on Wednesday with the caption: “Science took her cells. Family reclaimed her story.”
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is set to premiere April 22 at 8 p.m. ET on HBO.