The new Netflix miniseries, Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, has sparked a renewed interest in the life of the famed entrepreneur, and ALelia Bundles is grateful for it.
Millions of people now know who Madam Walker is, Bundles, who wrote the biography that inspired the four-part miniseries about the cosmetics and hair care mogul, told HuffPost. Now it gives me an opportunity to tell Madam Walkers story and to tell the facts of the story.
The facts of Walkers life have been murky for some time, but Bundles dedicated 20 years of research to clear up some of the confusion that surrounds the millionaires life. Thats why, though she believed Octavia Spencers portrayal of Walker was amazing, theres no substitute for the actual history.
I really do hope people will read the book because theres no way to put all of this life into four 45-minute episodes, Bundles explained. Theres a lot that I did to try to create context and historical context. And what happens in Hollywood is very different from what happens for me as a journalist. And for me, as a biographer, Im really sticking to the facts. Everything that I put in my books can be documented.
Netflix consulted Bundles for the miniseries, but ultimately the show was a dramatization based on Walkers life, with fictional characters and scenes added. We talked with Bundles on Instagram Live about the miniseries and her book.
What are some of the other things people should know about Madam C.J. Walker and her daughter that were omitted from the miniseries?
For me, whats really important about her life was that she was nurtured, mentored, and empowered by other women. And part of that is how she got to the point of doing that for other women. When she was the poor Sarah Breedlove-McWilliams, widowed at 20, who moved from Louisiana to Mississippi, along the Mississippi River to St Louis. She had three older brothers who were barbers who were there. She began to learn the hair care business from her brothers. Their barbershop was very near Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, and it was the women of the church, like Jesse Batts Robinson, a schoolteacher, who really began to give [Walker] a vision of herself as something other than an illiterate washerwoman.
These women were part of national organizations. So thats where she really got this idea of organizing women. So through that and carrying through the story, she starts a company. Yes, she works for [businesswoman] Annie Malone for a while, but for a short while, and then she begins to develop her own business, establishes a company, and trains thousands of women. She becomes a patron of the arts, a political activist who supports the anti-lynching movement and involved in so many other things. So that part, the philanthropy and her political activism really gets telescoped in the series.
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