“I like a challenge, which is why I signed on,” Alfre Woodard reveals to Gold Derby in her exclusive interview about acting on the new drama “See” for Apple TV+ (watch the video above). She continues, “I was a Girl Scout for 10 years of my life and I went to camp every summer, so I love the outdoors, but I had never been in such a survival mode outside as I was in shooting ‘See’. We joked about it, but the part that came easiest to us was acting. Just staying alive was the challenge!”
Having filmed on location deep in the forests of British Columbia during winter for the eight episodes of the first season, the show moved to Ontario this year for its second. Woodard teases, “It jumps ahead, but not far, I think. We were only three episodes in when we had to fold up camp.”
“See” takes place six centuries into the future; humanity has been decimated, the survivors are blind and live in tribes. “We trained for about a month before we even started and then we kept the training going as we shot,” Woodard begins as she describes how she came to portray her sightless character, a shaman named Paris in a tribe led by a warrior named Baba Voss, played by Jason Momoa. She explains, “There was a constant discovery. I probably learned more shooting ‘See’ than I’ve ever learned as an actor and as a human being.”
Much of this work was under Paradox Pollack, who was uniquely employed by the historically expensive production as “Cultural Designer & Supervising Movement Choreographer.” Woodard elaborates, “Paradox was certainly not only the maestro of those ancient songs we were discovering in our collective imagination, but he was the person that kept the boundaries so you could trust to ‘go there’. A lot of times as an actor, we know when to go there and when to not.”
Woodard has won four Emmy Awards in her career among 18 nominations. A whopping 15 of those bids were for different characters, which is first among any performers for the Emmys.
Will “See” get her back into the Best Drama Supporting Actress race? Make your predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see how their shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until the nominations announcement on July 28. And join in the fun debate over the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our television forums.
