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Oprah Winfrey Didn’t Feel Good Enough To Take On The Emotional Role In HBO’s ‘Henrietta Lacks’ Movie

By Chrissie Williams
Published on: 17:17 PST, Jun 14, 2017

Oprah Winfrey opened up and revealed her insecurities about taking on the role in the HBO movie about Henrietta Lacks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Oprah wasn’t sure she could pull off the emotion needed for the film.

Winfrey explained that she is an artist that has a great respect for actors and realized that it had been 30 plus years since her last great film, The Color Purple. So, her biggest worry was making a complete fool of herself and making herself look silly on camera.

Thirty years ago, Oprah received a nomination for an Oscar for her supporting role in The Color Purple.

Winfrey said that she has such a respect for what it takes to open yourself up and portray another person on film, revealing their fears, hopes, and heartache.

Oprah added that she tries to share with the world what it means to be sexually violated and to have someone you should be able to trust break your confidence in every way possible. She went on to say when this happens, it completely “shatters” the woman’s ability to trust anyone around her. Ultimately, that is why she choose to do the HBO film. She felt that Henrietta Lacks’ daughter had an important story to tell.

In the HBO film, Oprah’s character had spent years trying to accept what happened to her mother in the 1950s. She suffered for a long time, and the government lied to her family about the HeLa cells.

A journalist set out to interview Lacks’ children and gets to know Deborah Lack (Oprah Winfrey). Deborah slowly begins to accept what happened to her mother and confronts some of the most painful moments of her childhood.

Oprah tends to take on roles that have an enormous impact on women, particularly African-American women. Henrietta Lacks’ story was a project that Winfrey felt compelled to dive into.

Just because she felt that it was a role she couldn’t pass up, doesn’t mean that portraying Deborah Lacks wasn’t challenging for the seasoned actress. Oprah Winfrey noted that despite initially feeling insecure about her acting ability, she couldn’t be more pleased with the finished project.

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks aired On HBO.

[Featured Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]

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