ALFRE WOODARD NEWS, INTERVIEWS & UPDATES



News for 2/6/2006


Alfre Woodard Interview With TvGuide.com



News for 1/30/2006


Woodard Treads 'Water'

By Jay Bobbin
Zap2It.com


You know a performer is busy if her latest TV movie runs opposite the series she appears in.

So it will be for four-time Emmy winner Alfre Woodard on Sunday, Jan. 29. As ABC airs "Desperate Housewives," the hit show that now features her, she'll also appear in a new CBS drama.

"The Water Is Wide" is a Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of Pat Conroy's autobiographical book that also inspired the 1974 Jon Voight film "Conrack," about a novice teacher (played this time by Jeff Hephner, a semiregular on FOX's "The O.C.") who profoundly impacts the youngsters he educates on Yamacraw Island, off the South Carolina coast.

He also ruffles the feathers of more conservative peers, particularly the school's principal (Woodard) and the superintendent (Frank Langella). Nevertheless, he maintains his relatively radical methods of getting his students to learn, even if those lead to his firing. Julianne Nicholson ("Ally McBeal") plays Conroy's fiancee, and LaTanya Richardson ("Sleepless in Seattle") portrays the grandmother of three of the pupils.

As much as she'd like any of her work to be seen, Woodard hopes viewership of "The Water Is Wide" won't suffer at the hands of "Housewives," which is a repeat that night. She maintains, "This is a wonderful, beautifully shot, heartfelt picture that the whole family can watch and really get a lot from.

"I also think it can open up a conversation about education right now, but it's not glamorous -- and it's up against something glamorous and sexy and dishy, and something that children watch, but I don't think they should. I get 6-year-olds who come up to me and say they see me on 'Desperate Housewives' when they watch it with their parents."

Although she deals with children, Woodard's alter ego in "The Water Is Wide" is hardly warm and fuzzy. "When I first read the script," the actress recalls, "she was saying things like, 'These people can't learn.' I just started to laugh because you don't say those things, especially now; we have euphemisms for everything. Then I thought, 'OK. For her to be saying such things, where is she, and what has she experienced that would give her that point of view?' I backed up and went from there."

If she doesn't play the movie's most sympathetic figure, that's OK with Woodard. "I've always felt that one of the exciting things about being an actor is that you get to build character. That's the job. Most people think it's to just stand up and act up. They're just saying the words and being themselves in that particular story, but you've got to create a three-dimensional, fleshed-out human being with fingerprints that no one else in the world has. That also demands that you understand their psychology, and that is very meticulous work."

Woodard never saw "Conrack," but she says she remembered "the facts" of the story. "This version is more true to the book. Before, Pat Conroy signed away the rights, then people could take it and run with it. For whatever reason, they chose to interpret it in a way that was not very close, although the broad stroke of this idealistic teacher was still there."

"The Water Is Wide" isn't Woodard's first Hallmark job; she also co-starred in "The Piano Lesson," the 1995 Hall of Fame production of the stage hit.

"They're people you can collaborate with," she says. "Sometimes when you're working in television or film, people come to it from very different places for very different reasons.

"If you're talking to people who come from finance or the law or even pork bellies, and you come out of theater, you've gotta dance together and make it work. It's a wonder that anything comes together. With the Hallmark people, you have the same intention and taste and respect for what you're trying to do."

Wisteria Lane lured Woodard for similar reasons. After earning Emmys for the HBO movie "Miss Evers' Boys" and guest roles on "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "The Practice," she's enjoying her current part as "Desperate Housewives" neighbor Betty Applewhite -- the one who has kept one of her sons in her basement. However, Woodard admits to surprise over "the hype" that comes with being added to such a popular show.

"You know, it's like making the varsity cheerleading squad," she muses. "You've been in the debate club, you've been a student council officer, and you've been in the science fair ... but if you make varsity cheerleader, everybody suddenly talks to you. You take it in stride, because you know if you don't make cheerleader next year, your same core group will be the only people talking to you. You don't hold it against anyone; you just know that people are attracted to the fire shift, and that's the shift I'm riding right now. It just is what it is.

"I enjoy being with the other women," Woodard adds, "and we've finally gotten on track with my 'family' in the episodes we've just shot. There's some really good stuff coming up."



News for 1/2/2006


The following news item appeared in the November 28, 2005 issue of TV Guide Magazine





News for 11/21/2005


The following article appeared in the October 17, 2005 issue of People Magazine





News for 11/8/2005


The following article appeared in the September 9, 2005 issue of Entertainment Weekly Magazine





News for 10/15/2005


The following article appears in the October 17, 2005 issue of Tv Guide





News for 10/10/2005


The following article appeared in the September 2005 issue of Essence Magazine





News for 10/2/2005


Alfre Woodard has a secret

By William Keck
USA TODAY


BEVERLY HILLS — Something wicked is happening behind the doors of 4351 Wisteria Lane. The colonial home on the Universal Studios back lot is now occupied by the newest of TV's Desperate Housewives: Betty Applewhite and her handsome son, Matthew.

Oh, yeah — there's also that guy Betty has shackled in her basement.

Lunching on scrambled eggs at the Four Seasons Hotel, Alfre Woodard, who plays Betty, chooses her words delicately. "Betty never means harm," she says of her seemingly saccharine character, a former concert pianist turned neighborhood piano teacher. "Let's just say she has flaws. She had to make some really tough decisions quick and if the law ever catches up with her, she'll have to serve time. ... But they'll never catch her."

Apparently, Matthew (Mehcad Brooks) got himself into some trouble in the past. But all ABC series creator Marc Cherry will say about the mysterious Applewhites is that "they've got a secret. And it's pretty gothic. It's real and human and awful all at the same time."

During Cherry's appearance on Oprah Winfrey's talk show last fall, Winfrey suggested the need for some color on his mostly lily-white Wisteria Lane. But he had not originally intended for Betty to be played by a woman of color. Two white film stars had turned down the role over financial and time-commitment concerns.

But Cherry, a longtime fan of Woodard's work, says once he verified that Woodard was as easygoing as she was talented, he knew he'd found his Betty.

"I wish I could work with her more," says co-star Marcia Cross, whose uptight character, Bree Van De Kamp, might have to deal with her daughter growing closer to Matthew. "Alfre's soulful, powerful and smart. I love talking to her."

Woodward, 52, a four-time Emmy winner, had only appeared as a series regular on the hospital-set soap St.Elsewhere (1985-87), though new NBC drama Inconceivable was banking on her becoming a regular before she was lured to Housewives.

Before signing on, though, Woodard first had to familiarize herself with a show she'd never seen. The producers of Housewives sent her 15 episodes, and her family and friends divided up the tapes and watched them in different rooms of Woodard's house. When they gathered together to share story lines, all were instantly hooked.

She purposely avoided reading the Housewives exposé in May's Vanity Fair so that she would enter with a fresh perspective. Besides, she says, "where am I going to work where I'm not going to be around people who don't have emotions? I would be out of work for the rest of my life if I was going to only go where people treated each other with kid gloves. You can't create anything without conflict."

The role of sadist is one Woodard assumes with glee. She covers her mouth to stifle the laughs as she confesses to a reign of terror that began as the youngest of her family's three children in Tulsa. As a 5-year-old, she once smoked a cigarette her brother found in the dirt. During a game of Cowboys and Indians, she tied up her sister — and threw lit matches near her feet. Twice, she feigned death after rough-housing with her siblings. "We got spanked every day," she recalls. "Our parents spanked us. The neighbors spanked us. If they were spanking one of us, they'd tell the other, 'C'mon, let me get you now because I know I'm going to have to spank you before the day is over.' "

Her penchant for exploring the dark side of human nature served her well in the 1997 TV movie Miss Evers' Boys. She played a 1930s nurse who knowingly allows her black, male patients to be denied medication as part of a long-running government syphilis experiment. It was a complex role, and she won an Emmy for it. "I love to play the bad ones," she coos. "It's so fun."

Woodard has two films coming up — a ballroom dancing drama with Antonio Banderas called Take the Lead (no release date yet) and a "fabulous interracial falling-in-love story" coming out in February titled Something New, in which she plays a disapproving mother.

Woodard's own interracial love story (she's been married to producer/teacher/activist Roderick Spencer for 22 years) defies the odds of any Hollywood marriage. "Our families have always been very supportive," she says. "We were both taught 'you pick your friends on how they treat you — not by what they have or what they look like.' We get twice the cultures."

They have two children, daughter Mavis, 14, and son Duncan, 11. Hearing her children, both of mixed race, referred to as "adopted" catches the proud mother off guard. "Yes, I did adopt my children, but I'm so grateful that we did all find each other through adoption," she says. "If I had tried to carry a baby, I never would have got to my real children — the ones I was meant to parent."



News for 4/12/2005


Alfre Woodard Moves to Wisteria Lane

Source: Variety


Alfre Woodard has signed a deal to join the cast of ABC's Desperate Housewives next season, reports Variety. She'll play a seemingly normal woman who moves into the cul-de-sac with her son in tow.

Meanwhile, Woodard has also signed to star opposite Antonio Banderas in the New Line feature Take the Lead.

Desperate Housewives is Woodard's first regular TV role since she played Dr. Roxanne Turner on St. Elsewhere. Woodard will appear as a guest in the show's final episode before continuing as a regular this fall.

Take the Lead follows the story of a French emigrant who volunteers at an inner-city high school. Woodard plays the school principal, who is at first concerned with the lead character's methods, until she notices how favorably the students respond.

Liz Friedlander is directing the film.



News for 4/7/2005


The following article appeared in the April 2005 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine





News for 3/21/2005


Alfre Woodard Lands Role in Inconceivable


INCONCEIVABLE (NBC) - Alfre Woodard ("The Practice") has booked a potentially recurring role on the drama pilot, about the doctors, psychologists and lawyers at a fertility clinic. She'll reportedly play Lydia Clarke in the project, who's described in the casting notice as: "Late 30’s, African-American. A psychologist, compassionate and loving to her inner circle, but suffers no fools when it comes to those who cross her. Single, married to her work, but surfs Match.com in the wee hours." Joelle Carter, David Norona, Ming-Na and Jonathan Cake also star. Touchstone Television and Tollin/Robbins Productions are behind the project, with Marco Pennette, Oliver Goldstick, Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins and Joe Davola executive producing.



News for 5/15/2004


Ving Rhames Catches the Night Train

Source: Variety


According to Variety, Ving Rhames will topline and executive produce Night Train, the Sonny Liston biopic with James Woods, Alfre Woodard and Kristanna Loken also expected to star. Woods has signed on to play manager Ashe Resnick, and Woodard is in talks to portray Liston's wife. Here's how the trade describes Liston's story:

Liston grew up in poverty, violence and illiteracy in Arkansas as one of 25 children, which left him poorly equipped to handle life outside the boxing ring. As a teenager, he turned to a life of crime and went to prison before becoming boxing's heavyweight champion by beating Floyd Patterson in 1962.

Due to his prison background and glowering demeanor, Liston was widely reviled while he was champion and lost the title two years later in a stunning upset to Muhammad Ali. Liston then lost a rematch to Ali in the first round, became embittered and died of a heroin overdose in 1970 in Las Vegas under suspicious circumstances.

The project will start shooting in Puerto Rico in mid-June under the direction of Andrzej Sekula, whose credits as a cinematographer include Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and American Psycho. After this film, Rhames will rejoin Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3.



News for 4/19/2004


MacDowell, Woodard & Wilson Aboard Beauty Shop


Source: The Hollywood Reporter


Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard and Bryce Wilson are joining the cast of MGM's Queen Latifah comedy Beauty Shop, says The Hollywood Reporter.

MacDowell will play a conservative Southern socialite who goes through a rebirth when she follows Queen Latifah's character from her fancy hairdressers, run by Jorge (Kevin Bacon), to her new salon. Woodard is set to play Miss Josephine, the shop's Afrocentric stylist, who spouts Maya Angelou poetry. Wilson, meanwhile, will play James, a con/truck driver turned hairstylist. Nobody can figure out whether he is the ultimate metrosexual or actually gay.

Alicia Silverstone, Djimon Hounsou, Mena Suvari and Lil' JJ round out the cast of the Barbershop spinoff. Bille Woodruff directs from a script by Kate Lanier, Norm Vance and Audrey Wells.



News for 2/19/2004


Chekhov lures actress back to the stage

By Kim Campbell


Alfre Woodard is laughing. After 13 years in Hollywood, she's had trouble getting used to the sound effects in the new play "Drowning Crow." "It took me like the first week after we got on stage in the theater to stop cracking up every time a sound effect came on," she says, imitating dogs barking to make her point. "Everybody's very happy that I've gotten over that."

This year, the Emmy-winning actress broke her self-imposed hiatus from the theater to work on the latest play from actress/playwright Regina Taylor. "Drowning Crow" is a remake of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull," retold from the perspective of a modern African-American family living in the Gullah Islands off South Carolina's coast.

The tragic story of a headstrong actress and her attention-craving, artistic son had a complexity to it that intrigued Ms. Woodard, whose résumé includes TV's "Miss Evers' Boys" and the movies "Passion Fish" and "Star Trek: First Contact." She praises Ms. Taylor for her ability to honor what Chekhov was trying to say more than 100 years ago - about social classes, and the desire to be famous - while finding a way to move the discussion forward. "It was just so deep and so layered," she told a press gathering last month. "I got so excited. And that's why I came to do it."

Three weeks later, after days of 12-hour rehearsals and nightly preview performances, Woodard is even more invested in the production. She chuckles about the sound effects, then shifts to a thoughtful reflection on what "Drowning Crow" signifies.

"This play is for everybody - there is no such thing as a 'black truth' - there is a universal truth," she says during an interview at the play's home, the Biltmore Theatre. "It's an epic piece about an epic condition of human beings in their longings, their desires ... their patterns of failure."

She's particularly interested in the incessant quest for celebrity and success, themes explored in "Drowning Crow." "Everybody wants to be remembered," she says, but they try to do it by getting attention, rather than giving back to society. "Not only do we crave it for ourselves ... we make other people gods," she says.

Broadway itself is guilty of celebrity worship, and Woodard wonders why the classic play "A Raisin in the Sun" is being revived this spring. Rapper Sean Combs is slated to play the role Sidney Poitier originated. "You have to ask yourself the question, Why are the people who are producing it doing this - this American classic piece?" she says. "Well, we know why. It's a star vehicle. It's a vanity production."

She then muses on how far Broadway will go to court celebrities. "Would we really see somebody be cynical enough to put on a big fabulous production of Joan of Arc with Britney [Spears] in the lead?"

Woodard initially turned down the starring role, not wanting to be away from her children on the West Coast. It was her own struggle with being apart - not that of her kids - that held her back, she says. Now she's grateful for the opportunity the role has provided for her to grow beyond that concern. "A lot of times you do things when you don't know why you're being led to do them. You have your own reasons, but then there are also deeper and higher reasons."

Her daily routine starts with a morning prayer which helps her prepare for her nearly daily performances. Closer to performance time, she tries to "get all the other Alfre stuff out of the way."

"You don't arrive as the character," she explains, "but you need to be in a state of sort of a relaxed alertness and neutrality to take off from then and let it all unfold on stage."



News for 1/12/2004


The following article appeared in the December 2003 issue of InStyle Magazine