Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Alfre Woodard — on aging with intention and trusting her own timing

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

‘The Last Frontier’ star Alfre Woodard joins the show. Over oysters, we talk about her extraordinary career—from her early days in Tulsa to the groundbreaking roles that made her one of the most respected actors of her generation. Alfre reflects on working with icons like Robert Altman and Maya Angelou, the confidence she carried into Hollywood, and why she’s never once waited for permission to be herself. We also talk about ‘The Last Frontier,’ her gripping new Apple TV+ series and she shares how they shot epic scenes. This episode was recorded at Saltie Girl in West Hollywood, California.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hi, it's Jesse. Today on the show, you know her from her scene-stealing performances and films like Crooklyn and 12 years of slave and TV shows like True Blood and The Practice. She's now starring in the Apple TV Plus series, The Last Frontier. It's Alphrey Woodard. Just pick your favorite club. You get up in a nut hugger and you just sing.

You sing, are you an artist or not? Are you just a middle-class, middle-aged man? I don't know. This is Dinner's On Me, and I'm your host, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. If there was ever anyone who I would consider a legend, Alphrey Woodard would definitely be one of those people. She is absolutely an icon. She's someone who I've been watching for years,

as someone I've looked up to for so long. I've loved so many of her performances. I just realized she was on the pilot episode of L.A. Law. That's crazy. I mean, she's been doing such incredible work for so long. I was so excited to see her in the new Apple TV series, The Last Frontier. She's absolutely incredible, and the show itself is unbelievable. And I am so excited to sit down and have a meal with her.

I actually know that she's already waiting outside this restaurant. She got here about a half hour early, and I said hello to her as I passed by her in her car. I'm at Salty Girl on the sunset strip, and if you haven't been, Salty Girl is this lively little seafood spot, bright blue banquettes, raw bar up front. It's a kind of place where you can linger over oysters and a glass of bubbly and forget that you're right off one of the busiest streets in Los Angeles, if not the world. It's East Coast seafood with a California attitude. Think fish and chips,

Brandzino, or crispy fish sandwich that you could top off with caviar, if you so wish. So over oysters or a lobster roll or whatever she's feeling, I want to ask her about her absolutely incredible career, her time in Hollywood, and also get some behind-the-scenes stories of this incredible new show she's a part of. All right, let's get to the conversation. You've been married for like 40 years, right? 42.

Okay. Tomorrow is your anniversary? Yeah, when is you guys? We're in July. July what? My 50th birthday is on Wednesday. Really? So you got married October 21st?

21st, yeah. My birthday's the 22nd. Oh, my darling. You're just on the... Two things to celebrate this. Yeah, yeah. Last day of Libra. Wow.

Yeah. We're celebrating some things this week, aren't we? Cheers. Saloon. Congratulations. What are you going to do? My husband's 10 years younger than me, and we had a big 40-50 birthday. We had a big 30-40 party 10 years ago.

Yeah. And it was, you know, at night, we got a venue. It was like a big blowout thing. I sit out until, like, you know, 1.30 in the morning. We had a DJ. We had a band. We had food trucks. It was great.

It was like, we had a great wedding. But, you know, there is a responsibility, and everyone's there to, I don't, I just didn't get, like, let loose as much of my wedding as I would have liked to, even though I did have a really great time in my wedding. But this 30-40 birthday, it felt like the wedding with the fun part also attached to it. Like, I really just got to, like, let it go. And then this year, you know, 10 years later, we're trying to figure out what to do for our 40-50th.

And we ended up having a party between the hours of 12 and 5. p.m. on a Saturday, we rented out Betty Davis's old house that she used to have parties at. It's basically like Betty Davis's party guest house. And it's now, it's a production studio as well. Like, they have a podcast studio there. Anyway, it's a beautiful home. So we ended up doing that. But it was like, you know, between 12 and 5 p.m. I was in bed by 8. And I was thinking, like, but that's what I want to do. Like, I have two young kids. Like, that's the party I wanted this year. So, I mean, it was lovely, but it was so much more tame than what had happened 10 years earlier. Well, it should be, and it should be, I guess.

But I feel like I'm going to turn back around and, like, you know, maybe my 60th, it's going to be back to a bit of a rager. I think I'll be ready for it again. But, you know, you can also give them in half years or just any year. Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure. I mean, I don't, it feels. Says the woman who has had one birthday.

part of your entire life. For what year? Do you remember? My 46 or something. However, I'm going to tell you something about your 50th. Sheila Johnson told me this. You know who Sheila Johnson is? I know the name. She was one of the co-founders of VET.

Oh, okay. With Bob Johnson, her then-husband. She's just a prolific entrepreneur. But she said to me, when she turned 50, she said, well, I had turned 50, and she said, you know what you have to do? She said, you don't just celebrate one day or even a week. Every month that year, you have to do something special for yourself, but something that you would never do, not like just, you know, get a massage or get your hair cut or something, but something, you know, akin to hopping off something into something. You know, get in a

kayak by yourself in the North Atlantic and start down Maine, but have somebody follow you so that you're fine. Okay, so that's January. Oh, you know what else you could do? Tell me. Just pick your favorite club.

You get up in a nut hugger and you just just sing. You sing, are you an artist or not? Are you just a middle class middle-aged man i don't know that's the test yeah challenge yourself nut hugger oh my god that would require me setting an alarm and like waking up in the middle of the night to get out of my house in my nut huggers to like west hollywood you don't wear the

nut hugger there. You put it, you have it on under your song. Okay. Oh my God. It's so funny. On the other end, and you can do both of them because celebration happens in all flavors. You could also choose like a monastery or a reflective community somewhere and be be quiet for a week and see what you come up with. If I do this, if I do this thing that we're talking about once a month for the next year,

my husband will leave me. Tell me one, when you come back after having been quiet and come back, you're going to be so hot and so much more of yourself. Okay.

Do you know what you want to eat? Yeah. What are the oysters? I have five to change out daily, so it's going to be on this one right in front of that. What? So you normally like a smaller,

sweeter oyster or something a little larger, right? No, I like small and shallow. I would go with the bid you pearl. Bidu pearl? Bidu pearl, yeah. I'm going to have to have a like, a beju pearl.

Yes. Okay. Okay. Are like this size. But the moisture itself. It's not super deep. It's pretty shallow too. Okay, but all right, so I want small and shallow.

Sounds good. So ask chef if, how many are you going to eat? I might have a, I'll have like three. How many do you want? Like a dozen? No, no, let's do half a dozen. Half a dozen? And then if we want more.

I'll have like maybe two. Okay. Three, maybe three. We'll see. All right. I'm going to have, I love your lobster rolls so much, but I think I'm going to do the scallops. Perfect, the lemon, julie.

Mm-hmm, yeah. And the grilled artichokes as well. I'll get that started right now. I mean, I definitely, I think getting out of my comfort zone is something that I have started doing, more in the past like five years of my life and I think it's so important and I've I mean it's easy for me to the place I find myself doing it the most is in my work just because I know I can kind of control it like I need to work anyways so I try and find things that scare me and that

you know make me uneasy and uncomfortable especially you know having done something for 11 years that I was very comfortable in how was the park by the way oh my gosh with our lupita It was so great. Lupita was a dream. She's so great in this. You know, they recorded it for great performances, so you can watch it. I can watch it now? No, and it comes out in November.

All right. Yeah. That'll be my birthday present. Oh, my gosh. I wish you could have seen it. It was really special. Now I'll for a quick break, but don't go away. When we come back, Alphrey tells me about feeling like an outsider growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And we talk about starring in early productions of the groundbre. breaking and award-winning play for colored girls. Okay, be right back. You know, it's that time of the year. Yep, when your routine starts to unravel a little, the travel, the late nights, the, let's just grab something quick meals. Yeah, yeah, it's here. That time of the year's here.

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on chili sauce and the other is a house making it. That's really beautiful. Thanks, man. Thank you so much. But you know what I was going to ask was, how old are your kids? Five and three. So when you're doing the play, did they come to see you in the park? My son, my elder son, Beckett, came to see me in the park.

So what did he think of you on stage? I mean, he was very excited. He's seen me on stage. stage before. So I think he understands that that's my job and I do this thing where I like stand on a platform

in front of people and speak loudly and pretend I'm someone else. Like, and that's funny for him. Like, he thinks that's humorous. And so, you know, but the Delicourt Theater is this huge outdoor space

with 2,000 seats and it's a whole thing. And so I think that for him was also very exciting to be in the middle of Central Park in the middle of night and like seeing a Shakespeare play. he uh it's so funny because he started doing musical theater he's in a musical theater

extracurricular class at his school and he said he wanted to do that because i think he knows that i do theater but then he started to realize oh i don't want to stand he basically got scared because he doesn't want to stand in front of two thousand people and have to do this thing i was like oh no honey you have to work up to that like you're not you're not playing the delicordid like this is just fun with you and your your classmates you know so he's sort of like eased up a little bit but the funny thing he did say because i introduced him to my understudy and because i was like this is the guy who does the part for me if like i can't go on if i'm sick and it was this guy named valentino who has red hair as well and um for some reason he heard the word um imaginarius

is what he remembered is it is an understudy so during his musical theater class he's like well i'll I'll do the musical theater if I can be the imaginarius, and I don't have to go on. I was like, what is your brain? How did your brain make up this word imaginarius, which is kind of genius? It's like the person who might go on for you if you can't go on. Anyway, thank you. Do you want some artichoke? Do you like art of?

How is it so green, green and such? Oh, ooh, that's, yeah, I would like some of that. See, there's a decision. I knew something would show up. There's a decision I made to have some of your dinner. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect.

So you grew up in Tulsa, right? Yeah. Yeah. I just, you know, I was a plain girl child from a place that did not like girl children. And it really didn't like its own women. And I could feel that even at eight. although I had a great life I was very bold

I was popular I was weird but you know when you're odd you can either slink away or you can just like walk in the middle of the floor I'm gonna tell you about putting on that nuth hugger in a minute

so you can walk on the floor and not leave and they have to figure out something and so I did what's brave I mean I

you know I was a weird kid too but I was the opposite Like, I was nervous to be myself in front of people. So it's really incredible. And you know what? My sister was tall with, like, thick, long, straight hair. My brother was athletic, and he was all ripped and all in. People would do this, they'd say.

Grownups, oh, my, look at those. those braids. Look at her long legs. He's a handsome one. Look at his muscles. And they go like, and then there's a little one. Just like that. I'm telling you, and my mother would say, they're so stupid. Wow. But, and I'd say, Ma, it doesn't count if you say it. You're my mom. You're supposed to say I'm cute. And then I got voted as queen of my middle school by accident. accident. Like a prom queen, but for middle school? Yeah. I even heard my friends saying things like, oh, damn, this is the ugliest queen. Oh, no, come on. What I'm going to do with that?

And so I was like, oh, I didn't ask to be in it. And they were saying, he was like, ooh, her escort is pretty and then she is. Anyway, my mom took me to Dallas to Neiman's and brought me this beautiful gown for a woman. and which made me just think, yep, you better dress me up because apparently I'm the ugliest queen they had. You think I gave a fuck what Hollywood said about what I looked like. It's like, nope, I ain't going nowhere. I'm here.

It's amazing that, you know, that could go two ways. You could have, you could come to a city like L.A. And it could completely eat you alive. Or you could say, I've seen it all, like show me your worst. And, you know, it's easier to do the other thing and, like, lie down. And, like, did you always have that confidence in your, in yourself and your talent and, like, who you wore was there? Did you always have that self-assuredness? Yes.

Did I have butterflies and, like, my throat closing up sometime? Yes. But I realized early on, my desire. To do what I needed to do, what I felt was right, was stronger. And, you know, tell me I can't do it. And there's no harm feelings. I don't feel mad about it. Like, that doesn't drive me.

Other people's disregard of me. It's just that's something that they live with their own selves. I, like my father's at the beginning. So how am I get to tell this story? Yeah. Yeah. What was the opportunity that made that made you feel like, okay, I've broken through. I've, this is, this feels different. It feels like I'm being given opportunity. Never. Never. Really? You know what? Who was hiring me back then? And they were a different sort. People like Altman, you know? Rob Altman, yeah. Who were outside. of that kind of thought anyway.

So people that, people in charge that those over them who held the purse strings, but they couldn't trust them either. So it was, yeah. Yeah. Can I ask about for color girls? Because that is a play that I became aware of in high. school, a lot of people would use it in speech and debate tournaments. And I became sort of fascinated with it. And then when I started working at the public theater in 1997, I would

always see the poster up at the public. And when you did it, it was a televised version, correct? right? I did I did the Tapea first. Okay. I did the Mark Tapeer production. That was the LA production here. And then I did an Australian tour.

Oh, wow. Well, came back from there, I did a company at the Huntington in L.A. And that's when I got asked. PBS wanted to film it. there were probably about six companies by then that had been called the other so that's when I did it there

I mean I did find your monologue about your I want my stuff back on YouTube and it is because I saw the recent revival that they just did at the public and then on Broadway and it was

It was such a, I mean, it was really lovely to see something that is so theatrical. And it's sort of like what we were just talking about that presented in front of the camera. Now for a quick break, but don't go away. After the break, Alfred tells me about shooting in Alaska for the Apple TV Plus series, The Last Frontier. And she shares her fondest memories of the late Maya Angelou, who she worked with twice. First as a co-star in the Great American Quilt, and then later, when she was directed by her, down in the Delta. Okay, be right back.

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I do, before I forget, since you brought it up, I, um, so I, I, I absolutely binge the first three episodes of the last frontier. Hmm. it is so exciting I was just telling Joanna like I that first scene of the pilot I was like I don't know if I've ever seen anything more intense in my life

I was like first of all this must have cost $7 billion to shoot over the course of seven years like it just looked so complicated with a real friggin plane I don't understand how that wasn't a piece of plane they that was a real plane

um and one of the the is a moment for me was one of the, so it's a plane of inmates that is being transferred and the plane crashes in rural Alaska. What makes it interesting, so it's all this action I have to tell you about when we first saw that scene, but there's a lot of tenderness. You see love and people, it's a kind of, it's a kind of scene that you seldom see in the Lord.

48. It's kind of how rural people used to be two or three generations ago, how you look out for each other and, you know. Great sense of community. I mean, that's... Yeah. They're headed, those, those,

escapees are headed for those people. Those people, you know, they're, they haven't had to kill people before. They all got guns because they hunt and they also, they look out for each other because it's such a harsh land that you can just go out and easily die in a night just because it's cold or your truck stopped or any number of things.

It's just there's so many times you're just shrieking. And you're nervous. And all of that's going on. But at the same time, part of why that plane went down has international espionage ramifications. So there's a lot of, it's like the two worlds colliding. So I'm in D.C. I'm the deputy director of the CIA. And so you see people in D.C.

and the marshal's on the ground up in Alaska that the D.C. people are just thinking their hayseeds and they're going to screw this up. And it's all the, yeah, it's just, and we all have stunt people. Yeah. And they are heroic. So there's stuff coming up.

Yeah. Do you end up in Alaska? Well, things that fall in the park. And I'm the deputy director of the CIA, and I'm running an off-the-book's operation for the CIA. And I'm giving absolute carte blanche. I answer to nobody because I'm absolutely committed to preserving democracy. And we, the people that are charged with overseeing that happen, will do anything to keep the bad actors as far off the shores as possible. Yeah. So maybe I'll go to Alaska.

I did an episode of Who Do You Think You Are, which I think you did as well. And I ended up in Alaska on my journey. My great grandfather ended up in the gold rush in Alaska. Holy smokes. And so I actually went up to that part of the country. And it was my first and only time up there. And it really is truly stunningly beautiful country. Yeah.

I mean, unlike anything I've ever seen before, though, I mean, it is, it's a brutal country. I mean, the weather is unforgiving. But also just so stunning and just epic and vast. And, I mean, it was really an incredible experience being able to go up there. And then, you know, on top of that, like, learned about my family. Okay, I'm snarping down all the oysters. Have them. I wanted to tell you about at BU, Paul Rubens and I were in Rick Ross.

We were, we did our first scene together. Can we back up a little bit? you say Paul Rubens, was he one of your colleagues? That's incredible. Yes. So you went to school together. Yeah, we did. Oh, my gosh. He stayed, he stayed until middle of the sophomore year

and then realized. Were you friends? Yes. Oh, did you remain friends? Yes. I got to meet him He left and came to Cal Arts. Oh my gosh. Which is where he should have been in the first place. Yeah. Because they, you know.

I mean, what did you think when he, like when peewee happened and we're like that's like it was so weird and strange and did it make sense yes people were creative and it depends on where you took your creativity yeah and whether the people there were afraid of it or they felt they they could handle it i mean that's a thing when you when you're in a situation we don't turn into artists we are all right we are all already. We're the ones that are hot wire to surrender to it. Everybody is created. But some of us surrender to that principle more easily. You once said something, I remember this. I don't know where I heard you say this. You said for you, it was like with acting that you were like always doing

the breaststroke and then someone just tipped you into the water. And you're like, oh, that's why I'm doing this. And it's just like, and you, you didn't say that's why I'm doing it, because that's thought, that's cerebral. You just, you just felt like, oh. You just felt that same thing that people were making allowances for, yeah. It just was like, there's freedom right there. And you get your first hit of oxygen.

And you want to live in that. and you will do anything you'll put up with anything any business is dealing out just to live between action and cut yeah

when you're talking about just people who work and you know you recognize these faces and like there's so many people in our industry who you do see and you're like how do know that person. How do I know that person? It's interesting because when I was watching the first episode of your show of The Last Frontier, I saw this guy Damien Young. He's one of the,

plays one of the convicts. I think he's one of the ones that doesn't survive because I haven't seen him again. But I used to babysit head his kids in New York. He's a great actor. He's a theater actor in new york he played lisa kudrow's husband on the comeback and like he's he's wonderful he works you know consistently but here he was and uh and what i think is just one scene of this great pilot and uh i was like wow that's i haven't seen him in 20 years and immediately i was like what is he first of all he looks exactly the same but like it's just it's astonishing how um how many people, you know, have this passion and just put one foot in front of the other and don't necessarily get the accolades and yet still show up or the jobs, yeah, yeah.

You just still work that craft. You practice. And even if you've got a job, you have to keep practicing. That's, that's, that's, that's, uh, that's the joy of it is that there's no right or wrong. There's no end date, no expiration date. This show is just chock-a-block with top-flight actors. Yeah, truly. There's not a role, whether it lasts one scene and they only have two lines. There is not a person on camera that hasn't come into that moment with all their backstory and everything type so that it's not a character

it's a human being that's what's so arresting about this besides the base and all it's full of really good actors that belong in the center of the frame yeah sit among the edges

I mean you've worked with incredible people and you're I mean you must you have to feel so fortunate I mean I mean that's what I I that's what I that's One of the great gifts of, you know, I feel like my career is that I, even this dinner that I'm having with you. I'm like, I get to have these moments with people that I just admire so much.

I'm, I think about how, I think, terrified and intimidated I would be working with someone like Maya Angelou, you know. in her, you know, I know you, it was her first and last thing that she directed that you did with her. Yeah, I think she might have directed something some years ago. Uh-huh. But this was definitely the biggest thing that she directed. She might have been the second thing that she's ever directed. Yeah. I mean, what was, well, I guess I just want to know what it was like to work with someone who's, I don't know, I've put her on such a pedestal.

to then be working with her in a medium that she was maybe, you know, like not quite so sure-footed end. She was, but she was sure of herself, but, uh, again, because you don't, you don't walk the roads that she's walked and not depend on your own sense of deserving to be wherever you are at any moment, uh, but, and she's a poet. That was what was the thing. is that, yes, she's very creative and all. She's a dancer

and all these things, but she was a poet, and poets write more than anybody by themselves. So there she was with a crew. Yeah. And she had a very, you know, she had a very strong

way of running a set that was antithetical to the way we all do. Yeah. You know, she set everybody down. Yeah, that a person said, you know, first of all, my name is Dr. Angelo. It is not Maya to you.

But anyway, so, yeah, it was, it was wonderful to, to spend time with her and to know her. Yeah, and I remember her saying to me, When we were watching, she goes, Alfred, you do not have to call me Dr. McAngelo, you call me Maya. And I said, oh, I'm not calling you Maya. Not after that talk.

I said, okay, let's do Miss Meyer because, Ms. Meyer, but, oh, yes. It's incredible. Yeah. Okay, the last thing I want to know, what are you doing for your anniversary? Oh, that's what we needed to do. Hala.

You know, look at you. Oh, that's, oh, that's. awful lighting. No, that's too much. One, two, three. You think that's... No, one, two, three. That's like, this is like tennis court lighting. That's no, absolutely not. No. You respect yourself.

I don't even know you were that cute. Come on. Oh, my God, it's too bright. It is not... That's like Wimbledon. That's the lighting I'm going to use when you do your club at. What happened? My nut huggers.

Oh, that's so much softer and nicer. I'm a big... Okay, let me tell you something. Justin and I moved into this modern house. We used to have this beautiful house in those phyllis, and all the bulbs were like, you know, edits in bulbs and, like, it had this old, like, you turn the knobs and, like, dim things. And I would go around and just, like, dim everything.

Now we live in this new home in Encino, and it's beautiful, but it's like a Lutron system. where you press a button on your iPhone and like the lights go on. And it took me years to finally program all the lights. So it's not this, you know, that. I want this. I want this. And so I will like be on, I'll be on the other coast.

I'll be in like New York working or something. And I know that Justin will be having a dinner party. And I'll go on to the camera and I could see in the kitchen on the camera because we have a camera. because we have a camera inside the kitchen. And I will adjust the lighting from the East Coast. No, no, you don't. And you look at it on the phone, he's like, stop fucking with the lighting.

We all think we're having strokes over here. Oh my God. Yeah, I'm crazy. I was like, no, they want better lighting. Believe me. Thank you for doing this. You're the best. You're so deserving of a good life,

of the good life you're having with. with him and the children. Thank you. I'm having a really good time, and I'm trying. I have never been one to focus on my age, and that, like, I feel great in every age that I'm in. I'm actually really excited about turning 50,

and I feel like I'm in, I love my life. I love my family so much. I love that I get to do this. I love that I get meet people like you, and, I mean, this has been a dream come true for me. I'd love doing this. Don't worry about your age. Don't ever think about it.

It's you living in the middle of eternity. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. But I do think you need to do something for your anniversary. We're going to pack this up and send this to your husband. This episode of Dinners on Me was recorded at Salty Girl in West Hollywood, California.

Next week on Dinners on Me, we are replaced. playing a very special episode. You know him as Manuel, Alberto, Javier, Alejandro Ramirez Delgado, also known as my stepbrother Mani on Modern Family. It's Rico Rodriguez. We'll reminisce about our time together on the set of Modern Family, and Rico opens up about how the loss of his father shaped his approach to acting. And if you don't want to wait until next week to listen,

you can download that episode right now by subscribing to Dinners on Me Plus. As a subscriber, not only do you get access to new episodes one week early, they'll also be able to listen completely ad-free. Just click Try Free at the top of the Dinners On Me show page on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today. Dinner's On Me is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and a kid named Beckett Productions. It's hosted by me, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. It's executive produced by me and Jonathan Hirsch. Our showrunner is Joanna Clay.

Our associate producer is Alyssa Midcalf. Sam Baer engineered this episode. Hans Dale She composed our theme music. Our head of production is Sammy Allison. Special thanks to Tamika Balance Kalasni and Justin Makita. I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Join me next week.