Netflix found its star for the Madam C.J. Walker miniseries.
The streaming company announced Octavia Spencer will be taking on the role at Television Critics Assn. press tour session, reports Variety. LeBron James is also coming on board to be an executive producer on the eight-episode miniseries. The Netflix original will be based on the book, On Our Own Ground, which was written by Walker's great-great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles. She will also work as a consultant for the series.
Walker has one of the greatest American stories in history as she rose to become the first self-made millionaire who was both black and a woman by revolutionizing the haircare industry.
As Variety notes, Walker was the daughter of enslaved people who was later orphaned at seven years old. She was later married at 14 and widowed at 20. She lived a hard life as a washerwoman where she earned $1.50 a week (about $38.48 nowadays). But when she invented hair care formulas geared toward black women, her life was forever changed. Although it's widely believed that she created the straightening comb and the perm, it is not true. As her official website states, "she 'popularized' the use of the hot comb among black women because she taught many women how to use it." Instead, she created products to "cleanse the scalp and hair, heal scalp disease and prevent dandruff and baldness."
The Academy Award-winning actress is a legend in her own right as well. It won't be the first time Spencer's played a historical figure either. In addition to portraying NASA genius Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures, she also played Harriet Tubman in an episode of Drunk History.
Basically, they're both badass women and we're hype.
