Oprah Winfrey ‘disappointed’ by drama around Lacks family
As Oprah Winfrey’s latest project, The Immortal Life of Henri
etta Lacks, approaches its April 22 premiere on HBO, turmoil continues behind the scenes, leaving Winfrey “disappointed.”
Henrietta Lacks was an African-American Baltimore cancer patient who died in 1951 not knowing her tumor cells (now known as HeLa cells) were harvested by Johns Hopkins Hospital researchers and later duplicated into “immortal” cell lines utilized by scientists for medical testing all over the world. (They remain in use to this day.)
A best-selling book chronicling Lacks’ life, the medical developments wrought by HeLa cells and ethical issues of consent (the cells were taken without Henrietta’s consent and the Lacks family has never been compensated for their mother’s contribution to science) was released in 2010 by writer Rebecca Skloot.
It was optioned by Winfrey, and a film based on the book stars Winfrey as Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, Rose Byrne as Rebecca Skloot and Renée Elise Goldsberry as Lacks. But now with publicity growing, the Lacks family remains fractured.
Lawrence Lacks, Henrietta’s eldest son, enlisted a public relations representative to blast out a news release decrying the “inaccurate” and “racist” portrayal of the African-American family. He also accuses HBO, Winfrey and Skloot, among others, of profiting from his mother’s legacy without giving back to the family.
Though five family members were paid consultants on the film, Lawrence Lacks told The Wash
ington Post he turned down HBO’s offer of a $16,000 consult- ant fee on the project and refused an advance screening because he was asked “to sign my rights away.” He told the newspaper, “I wouldn’t be allowed to talk about my mother anymore.” Winfrey, who produced the film, told USA TODAY she is “disappointed” by Lawrence Lacks’ remarks. Winfrey confirms he did not want to see the film ahead of its release. “Lawrence’s part of the family and his son Ron didn’t want to see it. We were willing to show it to them in a separate screening from the rest of the family,” she says. (Karen McGagh, his publicist, contends it was a last-minute invitation.) “I know this for certain: That Lawrence Lacks was offered multiple opportunities to participate as a consultant on this film along with the rest of the family members and each time, (HBO) was turned down,” Winfrey says. She recalled an HBO luncheon in which the Lacks family gathered with producers before production began. “His son Ron spoke to me at the luncheon ... and said to me then that he didn’t appreciate the way Rebecca had portrayed their family as being poor people, and that they weren’t poor. I said to him, ‘That’s not my interpretation of the story. I interpreted it as you were working class, middle class, and certainly people striving to make a living every day,’ ” recalls Winfrey.
But, now she says, “to read that Lawrence Lacks, who supposedly has been complaining about the way she’s depicted both in the book and the film, never read the book! That is a drop-the-mic moment for me.”
In a statement sent by his publicist March 17, Lawrence Lacks also contends that Skloot has made just “one small donation” to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation in 2011, which she started.
In an interview, Skloot said finding a way to help the Lacks family has been of utmost importance to her. “When I was working on the book, once I understood what the family had been through, I knew I didn’t want to be someone who came along and benefited from the story without doing something for them in return,” she said. “So I started the Henrietta Lacks Foundation. ... It provides assistance, grants for education, health care and emergency needs for people who made significant contributions to science without their knowledge or consent, and their descendants.”