‘Self Made’ story
Netflix explores life of black female mogul
Netflix’s new limited series “Self Made” is about a hair care mogul who became the first black woman to bank a million — but it’s also about the definition of success and how to make it in America.
The drama show premiering Friday focuses on Sarah Breedlove, born in 1867, who is better known as Madam C.J. Walker.
Octavia Spencer stars as Walker, a Mississippi woman looking for her own place in the late 1800s. She finds it in the hair care industry, helping black women who look like her and are ignored by the rest of the world. But in the time it takes her to grow from a one-woman show selling products on the street to running a massive empire, Walker’s story becomes one of convincing people that she not only belongs, but deserves her place at the table.
“People are hungry for these stories,” A’Lelia Bundles, author of the Madam C.J. Walker biography “On Her Own Ground,” on which “Self Made” is based, told the Daily News. Bundles is the great-granddaughter of C.J.’s daughter, A’Lelia Walker, who is played in the show by Tiffany Haddish.
Bundles began telling her great-great-grandmother’s story as a high school senior in 1970, then for her graduate thesis at
Columbia’s journalism school. “Roots” author Alex Haley wanted to turn it into a miniseries but died before he had the chance. Bundles’ book was optioned multiple times but never made it to the screen.
“A decade of conventional thinking in Hollywood [was] that nobody’s interested overseas in black movies, so we’re not interested in talking to you,” she said. “Then, #OscarsSoWhite, ‘12 Years a Slave,’ ‘Selma’ and ‘The Butler’ happened and it changed the narrative.”
Comedian Bill Bellamy, who plays a fictional character named Sweetness in “Self Made,” said he learned about Walker while studying at Rutgers University and always dreamed of telling her story.
“She’s one of my, ‘oh my God’ heroic entrepreneurial-type characters in American history,” he said. “Mrs. Walker was the bomb.”
Sweetness, one of the few characters invented for the four-episode Netflix series, comes from the wrong side of the tracks, but whose questionable money supply helps launch her empire.
Then there’s Breedlove’s husband, C.J. Walker, who gave his name to his wife but in return lost his own. C.J. is portrayed by Blair Underwood, who said he knew Spencer for 20 years before signing on on to play her husband.
C.J. was there before his wife became rich, famous and powerful, Underwood noted.
“He wasn’t a gold-digger trying to get her wealth. He was there before the wealth came along,” Underwood said. “He was just a man who was overtaken by and overshadowed by her success. But he was dealing with outside forces looking at him as Mrs. C.J. Walker, which is just such an irony, because C.J. Walker was him. She was known in relation to him.”
Now, the rest of the world can also learn the story of Madam C.J. Walker, who died in 1919 in Westchester County, where she had a home.
“I hope when people watch this series, they will see ... the courage that Madam Walker had, how she empowered other women, how she was able to start and build a business,” Bundles said. “But also the sacrifices that come with that.”