It is a strange thing to be famous and totally anonymous at the exact same time. Henrietta Lacks didn't ask to change the world. She didn't sign a waiver, she didn't get a payout, and she certainly didn't know that after she passed away from a brutal case of cervical cancer in 1951, a piece of her would essentially live forever in lab freezers across the globe. When The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks movie hit HBO back in 2017, it forced a lot of people to reckon with a history that is, frankly, pretty gross.
Science usually likes to present itself as this clean, objective pursuit of truth. But this story? It’s messy. It’s about a poor Black tobacco farmer whose cells—the now-famous HeLa line—became the backbone of modern medicine. We’re talking the polio vaccine, gene mapping, and even COVID-19 research. Yet, while pharmaceutical companies were raking in billions, her children couldn't even afford health insurance.
Oprah Winfrey took on the role of Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s daughter, and honestly, it’s one of the most raw performances she’s ever given. She wasn't playing a billionaire media mogul; she was playing a woman vibrating with trauma, desperately trying to find the mother she never knew. The movie isn't just a science lesson. It’s a ghost story.
What the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Movie Gets Right About the Science
Most people walk into this film expecting a straightforward biopic. It isn't that. Based on Rebecca Skloot’s massive bestseller, the film jumps between the 1950s and the early 2000s.
George Gey, the researcher at Johns Hopkins who first cultured the cells, is often portrayed in history books as a pioneer. He was. But the film doesn't let him off the hook for the ethical vacuum in which he operated. Back then, "informed consent" wasn't really a thing, especially not for Black patients in segregated wards. The movie captures that clinical coldness perfectly. You see the doctors snipping tissue from Henrietta's cervix without a word to her. They saw a "specimen," not a person.
📖 Related: Howie Mandel Cupcake Picture: What Really Happened With That Viral Post
The science of HeLa is mind-blowing. Most human cells die off after a few divisions. That’s called the Hayflick limit. But Henrietta’s cells had a mutation—likely caused by the HPV virus combined with her own genetics—that allowed them to keep dividing indefinitely. They were "immortal."
The Trauma Nobody Wants to Talk About
Rose Byrne plays Rebecca Skloot, the journalist who spent a decade trying to gain the trust of the Lacks family. This is where the The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks movie actually gets interesting. It shows how "the pursuit of knowledge" can feel a lot like "the pursuit of exploitation" to the people being studied.
Deborah Lacks was terrified. She grew up hearing rumors that her mother had been "stolen" by white doctors. She didn't understand the science at first—how could she? The medical establishment had ignored her family for decades, only popping up when they wanted more blood samples to study the Lacks' genetics.
There's a scene where Deborah finally sees her mother's cells under a microscope. It's heartbreaking. She whispers to them. She treats them like a living person because, in her mind, they are her mother. To the scientists, they were just $HeLa$. To Deborah, they were a piece of her mom that was never allowed to rest.
👉 See also: Austin & Ally Maddie Ziegler Episode: What Really Happened in Homework & Hidden Talents
The film does a decent job showing how poverty intersects with medical advancement. While the HeLa cells were traveling to the moon and helping cure diseases, the Lacks family stayed stuck in a cycle of poverty in Baltimore and Virginia. Zakariyya, Henrietta's youngest son, is played with a terrifying, justified rage by Alex Hernandez. He’s the embodiment of the family’s resentment.
The Controversy Over the Movie's Focus
If you talk to some critics, they’ll tell you the movie focused too much on Skloot and Deborah and not enough on Henrietta herself. And they have a point.
Henrietta remains a bit of a cipher in the film. We see her in flashbacks—vibrant, dancing, loving her kids—but she's secondary to the drama of the book being written. Some viewers find this frustrating. They want more Henrietta. But the reality is that the "true" Henrietta was largely erased by history until Skloot started digging. The movie reflects that erasure. It’s a film about the search for a legacy, not just the legacy itself.
Why We Still Haven't "Fixed" the Ethics
You’d think after the book and the movie came out, everything would be settled. It’s not.
✨ Don't miss: Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me to Sleep: The Dark Folklore of a Viral Lullaby
In 2023, the Lacks estate actually reached a landmark settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific. The family sued, arguing that the company had continued to make money off Henrietta’s cells without permission or compensation long after her story became public knowledge. This wasn't some ancient history problem; it was a right-now problem.
The The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks movie serves as a permanent reminder that medical ethics aren't just about checkboxes on a form. They are about power. Who gets to own your body? If you go into surgery and they take out your appendix, and that appendix contains a protein that cures cancer, do you own that? According to current U.S. law (specifically the case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California), you generally don't have property rights to your own discarded cells.
How to Actually Engage with This Story
If you've watched the movie and feel that itch of "this isn't right," there are a few things you can do to understand the landscape better.
- Read the actual book. The movie is a 90-minute snapshot. Skloot’s book goes into the horrific details of "Crownsville State Hospital" and what happened to Henrietta's other daughter, Elsie. It is much darker and more detailed than the HBO version.
- Look into the Henrietta Lacks Foundation. Founded by Skloot, it provides grants to people who have been used in research studies without their consent. It’s a way to see how people are trying to balance the scales.
- Check your own medical forms. Next time you have a biopsy or a procedure, read the fine print. Look for the sections on "de-identified data" or "residual tissue." That is Henrietta’s modern-day legacy.
The story isn't over. As long as HeLa cells are being used in labs—and they are used in thousands of them every single day—the conversation about Henrietta Lacks stays alive. The movie isn't just a drama; it's an indictment.
If you're looking for a comfortable watch, this isn't it. But if you want to understand why there is such a massive trust gap between minority communities and the medical system, you have to start here. You have to look at Henrietta.
Next Steps for Deep Diving into Medical Ethics
- Research the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: To understand the context of Black Americans' distrust of medicine during Henrietta's era, this is the essential (and horrifying) companion history.
- Investigate "Informed Consent" Laws: Look up how these laws changed specifically in the 1970s following the National Research Act.
- Follow the Lacks Family's Ongoing Litigation: The 2023 settlement was just the beginning; the family has signaled they may pursue other companies using the HeLa line without compensation.