March 20/2020: Mark your calendars! Get your NetFlix ready to watch the new mini–series Self Made, Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, starring Octavia Spencer, Blair Underwood, Tiffany Haddish, Carmen Ejogo, Garrett Morris and directed by Kasi Lemmons. It’s based on the book On Her Own Ground by Madam Walker’s great–great granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles. If this doesn’t get your entrepreneurial blood flowing… you might as well “work in a hotel, hand–washing laundry”.
Combine the amazing true story written by a great great granddaughter, an Oscar-winning actress, a basketball star, a groundbreaking director and a production team of nearly all Black women and you get the first biopic about a major player in the beauty/cosmetics industry ever!
A screening hosted by the African American Film Critics Association was held in the Crosby Street Hotel screening room in Manhattan. We were able to be sucked into the first episode. Octavia Spencer stars as Walker, starting out as a widowed mother, making money as a washer woman who suffers from hair loss. A woman in her community who sells a hair growth ointment (played by Carmen Ejogo) takes pity on her and provides her treatments in exchange for doing laundry. When a grateful Walker offers to become a salesperson for the product, the woman balks, saying that Walker is not pretty enough to sell the product.
Octavia is an expert actress, making us feel deeply the hurt that shot through her by being rejected by someone who had healed her, whom she thought had become her friend. She walks out and vows to concoct her own hair product, a formula less odoriferous (no sulfur).
Self Made gives us the pleasure of watching Octavia’s character go through failures and successes to develop the right formula for her hair growth product. We watch her being loved by a supportive man (Blair Underwood). We also see her advise her daughter (Tiffany Haddish) on how to be an independent woman.
The first biopic about a major player in the beauty/cosmetics industry ever!
We get a glimpse into Indianapolis Black society and business at the turn of the 20th century. “We didn’t have enough time to touch on how Blacks were basically holding Essence Fest every two weeks,” screenwriter Nicole Jefferson Asher said after the screening. “They were networking. They were bringing W.E.B. DuBois in. They were interested in Africa, brought in [Marcus] Garvey”.
The production also made sure the historical period was re–created accurately, from the muddy dirt roads of St. Louis to the flowers on the ladies’ hats. And the hair, of course. There were about 12 wigs for Octavia Spencer herself to depict her character’s hair restoration. They brought on Toronto-based Etheline Joseph to make sure everything looked authentic. “We knew we would get dragged if the hair is not right,” said executive producer Janine Sherman Barrois.
Viewers will also see interesting and likely controversial choices of the makers of Self Made. They used fantasy dance sequences to symbolize Walker’s aspirations. The conflict that Walker had with the woman who rejected her sales help is compared to the big Jack Johnson boxing match that happened at the time, dreamy scenes with both ladies in a ring.
The series touches on divisions by skin tone in the community and women in business. “Madam C.J. Walker modernized the beauty industry in a world where she was told she was ugly. She put her face on her own tin and in her own ads. That helped her rise above the competitors”, Nicole Jefferson Asher said.
Madam Walker 
Annie Malone
There’s no indication in history that Walker had a problem with her real–life competitor, Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone, due to skin tone. Viewers may also be bothered by negative depictions of many male characters from Walker’s husband to Booker T. Washington. The filmmakers admitted that they took creative license for the sake of drama so to depict the colorism and sexism of the era — that’s why the series is carefully titled “INSPIRED BY” Walker’s life.
There are bright spots in the show. “Women helped Madam C.J. Walker become successful,” Nicole Jefferson Asher said. “Walker was supported by other women in the community.” And Walker helped the community too, training others, helping them build careers, contributing to causes like NAACP. Viewers will be inspired by her determination and her great success.
Walker’s journey from handwashing laundry and barely getting by to becoming the first self-made female millionaire was long and hard; bringing her story to the screen was not quick and easy either.
A’Lelia Bundles, Walker’s great-great granddaughter, published the definitive biography, On Her Ground in 2002. It became a New York Times best seller. According to A’Lelia Bundles, a movie production company optioned the story at the time, but the deal fell through. Another screenwriter signed on to adapt the book; then the screenwriter passed away! Flash forward a decade later, another company approached her. “I think because of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, the success of of Twelve Years a Slave, Selma, etc., caused production companies to look at our stories,” she said. Historic works by other friends are getting second looks, too. “We have a responsibility to tell our story, not just for the next generation, but to the whole world to show our history is different”. Octavia Spencer expressed interest in starring and being a producer on the project, and she brought in LeBron James as producer. The basketball hero was looking to tell “stories of Black excellence in business.” A’Lelia Bundles did not write the script but was consulted during the filming via Skype.
And now we have a four–episode mini–series debuting March 20, 2020 on Netflix — in the middle of Women’s History Month — created with an all female Black team of directors including Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”, “Harriet”), showrunners and scriptwriter. So onscreen and behind–the–scenes, Madam C.J. Walker’s mission to empower women continues.
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