People_USA_April_24_2017

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OPRAH

WINFREY

‘I’ve learned

to love the

whole of me’

NOW STARRING INTHE IMMORTAL LIFE

OF HENRIETTA LACKS, THE MOGUL IS ENJOYING A

NEWFOUND SENSE OF STRENGTH—AND PEACE

Oprah Winfrey wasn’t looking to act again. But

the story of a working-class African-American

mother whose cancer cells were used after her 1951

death and helped spawn major medical advances

inspired her. Now an executive producer forThe

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,an HBO film

based on the bestselling book of the same name,

Winfrey, 63, tackled the part of Lacks’s daugh-

ter Deborah. “I felt intimidated,” she says of the

role. “This story is about a daughter’s yearning.

Her longing to know who she is and to find her

own identity through the identity of her mother.”

Winfrey sat down withPeople’s editor-in-chief for

the latest episode ofThe Jess Cagle Interview

(excerpts below) to discuss her own journey to find

herself—and the life lessons she now takes to heart.

Henrietta Lacks. Let’s talk a little bit about who

she is....So many people don’t know this story.

So many people including this person!...[Back

then] they routinely took cells from patients

[without consent]....When they put her cells

in the Petri dish, the cells duplicated. Those

cells have contributed so much to medical

science....Her family didn’t know that anyone

had taken her cells until much later on....Billions

of dollars have been made off of the cells.

There are so many parallels. She, like you,

[suffered] physical abuse when she was young.

Until you were in your 30s, you thought somehow

it was your fault.

You know what is very interesting for me...

I had never gone to a therapist, ever. But I had so

many therapists sitting in the chair across from

me [on theOprah Winfrey Show] that I just

sort of took it in....It was the greatest classroom

and it was my greatest therapy....I could relate

[to her] and be empathetic, but trying to find

the space of deep pain was harder for me.

When you were an adolescent, what were you

PEOPLE April 24, 2017 51

“I am at

probably the

most peaceful

space I’ve

ever been in in

my life,” says

Winfrey (right,

with costar

Rose Byrne).

FROM LEFT: MILLER MOBLEY/AUGUST; QUANTRELL D. COLBERT/HBO