When news of the death of the revered conservationist Jane Goodall arrived on Wednesday, a handful of Netflix employees knew they faced a few very long workdays. Those people would have 48 hours to put the finishing touches on a new show that was already years in the making.
On Friday, without much fanfare, Netflix released the first episode of that show, “Famous Last Words,” a series of late-life interviews with famous people, whose contents — including their subjects’ identities — are kept closely guarded until after the subject dies. Goodall’s interview, which was completed in March, was one of a handful that have been sitting in a Netflix vault for months. She was simply the first among those interviewed to die.
In the 55-minute episode, which was reviewed on Wednesday by The New York Times, Goodall, known for her groundbreaking work documenting the lives of chimpanzees, offers a candid assessment of the “dark” times she says we are now living in. She reserves some particularly choice words for world leaders including President Trump.
But Goodall, who died at 91, also says repeatedly that she believes she was put on earth to advance a particular mission. And in a final message, she calls for hope.
“If you want to save what is still beautiful in this world,” she says in the episode, which was edited down from roughly four hours of footage, “then think about the actions you take each day.”
“Don’t give up,” she adds. “There is a future for you.”
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