Sam Neill and British actress Carmen Ejogo star in this dramatization of the 38-year romantic relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Hemings (1773-1835), who was born a slave on his Monticello plantation. By all accounts, Jefferson hated slavery but he didn't try very hard to end it, and that contradiction drives this film. Betty: Diahann Carroll. Martha: Mare Winningham. James: Mario Van Peebles.