For so many of our days spent at home trying to distract ourselves from the turmoil that rumbles outside, choosing the best thing to watch has become more difficult than normal at this profoundly peculiar moment.
Others have chosen the masochistic exposure therapy path, watching movies such as Contagion and Outbreak, while others have chosen the warm comforts of escapism, looking for the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in a place or tale so far from our present reality.
For those in the latter group, the just-dropped four-part Netflix series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker might prove to be a well-timed tonic, a warmly entertaining period tale of ambition against all odds, of a woman who built an empire from the ground up brought to vivid life by Octavia Spencer.
Despite one Oscar win and two nominations, it’s only been in the last year that we’ve seen Spencer allowed room to truly come to life. As effective as her performances in The Help, Hidden Figures and The Shape of Water might be, they were restricted by certain limitations, giving us just a fraction of the actor we’re now able to fully see.
Last year saw her on electric form in Luce, an underrated thriller about racial stereotyping, and Ma, a Midnight Movie elevated somewhere close to art thanks to her fascinatingly empathetic turn as a sexual assault survivor turned B-movie villain.
The role of Madam CJ Walker gives Spencer her biggest opportunity yet to shift from support to lead, playing America’s first self-made female millionaire, an extraordinary tale that makes for a mostly involving miniseries.
Originally known as Sarah Breedlove, she was born two years after the emancipation of slaves, living as a free woman but one with limited opportunities. She worked hard as a “washer woman” but suffered from severe hair issues, affecting her confidence and how she was perceived by the wider world.
In the dramatised version of her life, she gets taken in by Addie Monroe (Carmen Ejogo), an entrepreneur who developed a hair product specifically tailored to help women of colour. Sarah’s hair, and in turn her life, is transformed but Addie rejects her impassioned requests to work together, choosing lighter-skinned women to represent her brand instead.
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