Alfre Woodard

Let's discuss one of America's great tragic actresses, Alfre Woodard.

She is a beautifully elegant and classy woman.

After getting her start on the stage, she appeared in great films such as Cross Creek, Extremities, Scrooged, Miss Firecracker, Passion Fish, Heats and Souls, Crooklyn, How to Make an American Quilt, Primal Fear, Down in the Delta, Love & Basketball, K-PAX, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Radio, Beauty Shop, The Family That Preys, 12 Years A Slave, Annabelle, Mississippi Grind, So B It, Clemency, Juanita, and Desperate Housewives.

Don't forget - she starred opposite a then relatively unknown Denzel in St. Elsewhere. I love her too - I just re-watched Scrooged she's great opposite Bill Murray. That could've been a thankless role, but those two had great chemistry.

She outclassed all the dames on Wisteria lane, shame the writing wasn't that great for her arc.

I've loved her in so much, although the best role she ever got was one of her first, as the omnicompetent hotel PR director in Altman's HEALTH.

She's equally adept at comedy, OP.

She's such a good actor it almost doesn't matter if the film/tv show is good or not because you know she'll be good in it. Her career appears to have been thoughtfully built, with a nice balance of money/visibility gigs and projects of real substance. Agree with R5 that she's wonderful in comedy. That's because she's such a truthful actor.

Wish she would do more theatre. I've never seen her live on stage.

If I went up to her and sang, "What's it all about, Alfre?" what would she do?

Talented and certainly easier on the eyes than that pompous hack Viola.

I would say she should have been nominated for and won BSA for "Passion Fish". Vanessa Redgrave is great but didn't need to be nominated for "Howard's End".

Adore Alfre, ever since St Elsewhere, she was obviously a great actress. And Passion Fish is a beautiful film, not a single bum note or performance.

She's superb in the recent film CLEMENCY, which is available on Hulu now. Grim but worth seeing just for her.

And I wholeheartedly agree she should have at least been nominated for an Oscar for PASSION FISH.

I always liked her in Primal Fear as the Judge. The judge could have been thankless, but she stood out with a cast that included Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney, Terry O'Quinn, Steven Bauer, and Frances McDormand

She should have Viola's career.

She has a steely inner strength that is almost frightening in its intensity. Think the best is yet to come for her career.

She should have Viola's career. A much more compelling actress with a more palatable personality.

R13 Viola's career isn't that impressive really, she's just very good at getting attention.

Don't forget she regrets doing "The Help"

R13 Viola's career isn't that impressive really, she's just very good at getting attention.

Don't forget she regrets doing "The Help"

Is Alfre better than Angela Bassett?

Not a single bad word comes to mind when I think about her. Pure love.

She can do no wrong. Love Alfre.

She was also in Star Track. Why didn’t you list Star Track movie?

[quote] Is Alfre better than Angela Bassett?

NO ONE is better than me! Not even Viola!

Very underrated actress who doesn't get enough respect.

Love her in anything. She always delivers.

R23 Sit your ass down before I have my unemployable husband give YOU a taste!

She’s great, and her characters are always tired of people. I can 100% relate.

She was great in Star Trek: First Contact. That was also my “first contact” with her in film.

R31 She is so correct. jean Luc is obsessed. Wish she would turn up in Picard Season 3.

What about you, Phylicia?

I always confuse her with Viola Davis.

Passion Fish! “I didn’t expect the anal probe.”

R12 totally agree - I love that movie and all the cast - but like you said that really was a thankless “judge” part and yet I looked forward to all her scenes. I love that a thread here is devoted to her! I think I may have said in some Viola Davis thread that Alfre should have had her career - glad others here agree.

Around Thanksgiving I rewatched "What's Cooking?" for the first time in 22 years. It had quite a cast but Woodard was the standout. Mercedes Ruehl and Joan Chen were also great, and DL favorite Lainie Kazan plays a mother who struggles to accept daughter Kyra Sedgwick's lesbianism (Julianna Margulies plays her partner).

Adding my [bold]"I love Alfre Woodard"[/bold] to this thread. I first discovered her in Heart and Souls 1993 and have been a huge fan ever since. Love her in everything I've seen her in.

I've never heard anyone say a bad word about her.

She was great in Scrooged.

That other one completely stole her career.

"Pashone Feesh!"

As far as I'm concerned, Meryl Streep is the White Alfre Woodard. Love me some Ms. Alfre.

She actually does suffer from alopecia. Unlike you know who.

She’s pretty private and doesn’t do much press. Also she doesn’t have the traumatic childhood stories to talk about over and over again. She grew up middle/upper middle class and was a popular student at a nice private high school in Tulsa.

Tulsa? Does her family have a long history there? She could mine the massacre narrative and develop a movie or limited series where she plays her own grandmother or such.

She's also in Searching for Debra Winger.

R47 hahaha. I liked her as an actress enough but so ridiculous that Rosanna Arquette decided to make her into a martyr for “they’re not being enough roles for women.” Except that everyone hated her that’s somehow overlooked.

Alfre don't do auditions where people are eating sandwiches.

Alfre and Viola and Angela should do an American version of 8 Women.

R35 We quote that all the time except it’s “I didn’t ask for the anal probe.” Such a great scene in the movie.

I love Alfre too! I think I first saw her in the Geena David sitcom. She was good in that as well. I was so glad when she started in St. Elsewhere after that.

She is the best!

I didn’t ask for the anal probe.

I thought she was in Roots too

I think it's time to inform the OP that none of the Works of Woodard mention qualify as tragedy. They are melodrama, propaganda-bios, niche-interest movies, comedies and what used to be called "women's movies" when women weren't such cunts.

So whether or not she is a tragic actress has not been tested, but her pride makes her look ripe for a little divine retribution. Except instead of a catharsis and transformation she's apt just to write a book and appear in a movie starring herself addressing her "experience and triumph."

She had a sad role in Clemency but I found the film underwhelming.

She was so good in Passion Fish

R49 - Debra Winger's issue wasn't the older woman not getting roles. That was more Rosanna's agenda. But Alfre talks about having bad auditioning experiences, being an older woman in Hollywood and being a working mother.

Woodard is like Tyson in the sense that shes often better than her parts and the material. They are from different generations and have had different but still limited opportunities. Angela Bassett is good but has never had the range of parts that Woodard has had. Woodard is just perfection in “Passion Fish” and just about everyone is great in that film.

R59 true but Bassett is only six years younger than Woodard

Another vote for Scrooged. Seeing a real actress alongside an oaf like Bill Murray just elevates the material for both sides.

I have always thought Alfre was the most beautiful woman in ALL of movies. For me it's the eyes and those lips - so expressive.

I liked her in Desperate Housewives, but she was way under used.

Loved her in “Crooklyn”. Cried my heart out.

Have we mentioned "Grand Canyon?" I only wish a better love interest than Danny Glover had been cast for Ms. Woodard, but he was a box office fave back then. Their love story was well written and played.

And Jeremy Sisto, who was a mere child in that movie! I saw him on something the other night and the years are being kind to him. I remember, too, the beautiful baby found abandoned. Time to watch "Grand Canyon" again.

Loved in everything from Cross Creek to Grand Canyon to Passionfish.

She deserved a nomination for Passionfish.

She has this scene that I always remember of her crying in her bedroom. Just a scene of loneliness and despair.

It was so true and beautiful and I always remember that scene.

Love her

R67, so nice. I did not read any responses until I wrote mine, and you mention Grand Canyon.

I have it on excellent authority that she was very unhappy during her season on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.

Will she go to her grave without an Oscar?

She's a far better contender for the black Meryl Streep than Viola. I never got that comparison anyway since Meryl was acting since the 70s and Viola only came on the scene in the 2000s with a glut of thankless roles before Doubt was her breakout. Alfre at least had a history of film going back before the 21st century.

I can’t wait for they inevitable documentary “Alfre Woodward: A History of Film.”

She isn't more compelling than Viola.

Which one was in that Sissy Spacek film where she drives them so they could participate in the bus boycott, and wasn’t that “technically” cheating and making the white person the savior in a black narrative?

Viola made a splash in a recurring role in Law & Order on TV.

R75 - I think that was Whoopi.

Ok, which one was that best friend of the little white boy played by Doogie Howser when his mommy died and I think they made him play piano?

[quote] "She's also in Searching for Debra Winger."

That's a waste of time if I ever saw one! Some things should be left to lie in obscurity. And that's one of 'em.

I think it has some redemptive stuff in it. Jane Fonda talking about acting is particularly good. And it shows how funny Debra is.

R75 - The Long Walk Home.

R78 - I think that's Whoopi again.

When did this turn into the Whoopi thread? Bitch needs to get her own space.

Alfre not being nominated for Passion Fish is one of the biggest Oscar omissions in history. It's hilarious that there was a shock that Gaga was not nominated last year but Alfre not getting nominated was a shocker because she was brilliant and the film doesn't work without her. Mary was fantastic of course but the two of them make the film.

I'm not a big fan of Scrooged but Alfre, along with Karen Allen, really help ground the film. Murray acts like he's in a completely different film. I find him really off-putting, especially after learning what an asshole he is. But Alfre lights up every scene she's in.

I felt bad for Alfre that there was no big push for Clemency. I think she would have been nominated. It's crazy to think she hasn't received another Oscar nomination in almost 40 years.

at one time she was part of the conversation for Clemency but once again the field was overcrowded with contenders.

I think Alfre was a co-lead in Passion Fish. I would have liked to see her get nominated alongside Mary McDonnell ala Thelma & Louise the year before. Michelle Pfeiffer should have been nominated for Batman Returns (in supporting or lead, doesn't matter to me). I would have dropped Sarandon in Lorenzo's Oil. She was alright, but not Top 5.

OK, but one of them was definitely in that movie about the dead husband trying to communicate and warn the wife who was into crafting and the one about the illiterate black girl who writes letter to god and falls in love with a juke joint hussey.

Imagine Alfre as Lady MacBeth. Wow.

I loved her in Holiday Heart.

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