Dr Oz: Oprah Winfrey & Rose Byrn
Dr Oz continued his discussion with Oprah Winfrey and actress Rose Byrn about their HBO movie “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” based on the book of the same name. Author Rebecca Skloot researched the story of Henrietta Lacks for ten years and as Dr Oz stated, her relationship with the Lacks family wasn’t always an easy one. It took Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s daughter, a year and a half just to agree to meet.
Dr Oz showed a scene from the movie in which Rebecca received a phone call from Deborah. In it, you can see how important it was for Deborah to learn more about her mom and her sister, and how uneasy she was about letting Rebecca in to learn about her family.
Dr Oz: Rose Byrn Played Rebecca Skloot
Rose Byrn and Oprah Winfrey spoke with Dr Oz about the two stars of their latest HBO movie and how they changed the world of medicine forever. (oregonstateuniversity / Flickr)
Rose, who plays Rebecca in the movie, explained that although Rebecca is such a one-dimensional character in the book, she was candid with Rose when they spoke. Rebecca shared a lot of information with Rose that wasn’t in the screenplay or in the book, to give her context for her character. Additionally, Rebecca had a lot of audio footage of her with Deborah as well as photos.
Dr Oz also told Oprah that there were elements of Deborah that he thought Oprah brought to life wonderfully. Deborah believed that a bit of her mother lived in all of us, which in many ways is true. At one point Deborah even commented on the “untimely demise” of a journalist she didn’t like. Deborah said “mess with HeLa and Henrietta would sick HeLa on your [bottom].” Just to give you an idea of the kind of person Deborah was and how she felt about her mom.
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