Renée Elise Goldsberry will take on the titular role in HBO’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks film adaptation. This Tony Award-winning actress (pictured, via) has become well-known for playing Angelica Schuyler in the original cast of Hamilton: An American Musical.
Entertainment Weekly reports that the story in this HBO television movie will be based on Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 nonfiction book. Other members of the cast include Rose Byrne as Skloot and Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks (the daughter of Henrietta).
Here’s more from Deadline: “Goldsberry will play Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks (Winfrey), the film chronicles her search to learn about the mother she never knew and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks’ cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It’s a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest of people.” (via A.V. Club)