“It’s time to tell my story,” says Octavia Spencer in a new trailer for “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker.” Netflix’s upcoming four-part series is based on a true story and sees the Oscar winner playing America’s first female self-made millionaire. A trailblazing African American haircare entrepreneur, Walker was inspired to make and sell hair products after losing her own hair and growing it back.
“Sisters, let’s talk about hair,” C.J. tells her potential customers. “They put us down. Tell us we’re ugly. Make us feel ugly. Wonderful hair leads to wonderful opportunities,” she emphasizes.
Dismissing warnings that she “lives in a man’s world” and that “there’s such a thing as growing too fast,” C.J. decides that she wants to launch a whole line of products and open her own factory. She’s determined to be as “big as Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller put together.”
A three-time Academy Award nominee, Spencer took home an Oscar in 2012 for “The Help.” She later received nods for “Hidden Figures” and “The Shape of Water.” “Truth Be Told” and “Ma” are among her recent credits..
“Self Made” launches on Netflix March 20.
