Oprah is adding another film credit to her resume!
The media mogul is set to star in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, reports Variety.
Winfrey will play Deborah Lacks the daughter of Henrietta Lacks, the African American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line in the HBO project.
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The true story is told through Deborah’s eyes as she learns about her mother’s unauthorized contribution to science led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs that changed the face of medicine forever.
Henrietta who died from cancer in 1951 at age 31, when Deborah was only 2, had two samples of her cervix removed—a heathy part and a cancerous part—without her consent which were then used for research.
This project is one that Oprah has been passionate about for quite some time—Harpo Films first acquired the rights to the book of the same name in 2010 and has sat in development since.
While no premiere date has been announced, with Winfrey’s role as both a star and executive producer of the project, it has been fast-tracked with expectations to begin filming this summer.
Deborah Lacks passed away in 2009, but her brothers, David Lacks, Jr. and Zakariyya Rahman and her niece Jeri Lacksare will serve as consultants for the film.
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