Sundance 2017 Exclusive: Alfre Woodard Talks Netflix’s Burning SandsPosted by Wilson Morales
January 26, 2017
Making its World Premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival is Netflix’s frat film ‘Burning Sands,’ which will be available on its platform and in more than 190 countries starting March 10, 2017.
Directed by Gerard McMurray from a script written by Christine Berg & Gerard McMurray, the film stars Trevor Jackson, Alfre Woodard, Steve Harris, Tosin Cole, DeRon Horton, Trevante Rhodes, Christian Robinson, Rotimi, Octavius Johnson, Malik Bazille, Mitchell Edwards, Imani A. Hakim, Serayah, and Nafessa Williams. The film had its World Premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
A student enduring harsh hazing while he pledges a fraternity at an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) is torn by the physical and emotional mistreatment he receives from his peers, the hazing’s historical implications, and its questionable place in the modern world.
In his freshman year of college, it seems Zurich has everything going for him; he has the respect of his teachers and university administration, the love and devotion of a wonderful girlfriend, and he’s been selected for admission to a prestigious Black fraternity on campus. But as Zurich embarks on the Hell Week of pledging his fraternity, the harsh trials of entry into brotherhood begin to test the limits of his self-worth.
As the intensifying abuse begins to become untenable, Zurich struggles to honor the fraternity’s code of silence, and the scaffolding of his life outside the frat begins to dismantle. Burning Sands constructs a deeply complex cross section of the fabled fraternity hazing culture and the vicious power of the desire for acceptance.
For veteran actress Woodard, who was last seen in Captain America: Civil War and in the indie film Knucklehead, she spoke to Blackfilm.com about her character and working with a new talent Gerard McMurray.
How’s it going?
Alfre Woodard: You know what? I’m excited to be here from there. I’m always excited to be at a film festival, but I am elated to be at a film festival with a really wonderful film in it, and a brilliant film maker, and a great cast, so I have everything to be happy about.
How long has it been since you last came here?
Alfre Woodard: Well, I probably came to Sundance when they first started. I came to Sundance when it was still like a little mountain town. Now, it looks like Vail, Colorado or something. But yeah, I’ve been coming, and I came as a person who just loves films, and wanted to come to film festivals. I think I’ve probably been here with three or four films over the years. But probably about four or five times, I’ve just come just to come watch the films.
In Burning Sands, you’re playing Professor Hughes. How would you best describe her character?
Alfre Woodard: She is a professor who’s on a campus of a historically black college, and that was the university. I think she’s a person that remembers what would have been helpful to hear when she was at the point where our students find themselves. And so because of that I don’t think she judges Zurich. I think she looked out for him, and she cares about him, but I think she understands that you have to just drop the knowledge, drop them through there, and let that young adult take that, and move with it however they would. Because it is their journey.
Even when you understand it, I think one of the bottom lines is you want to make sure that young people keep themselves safe, whatever they’re doing, whether they’re partying. They’re going to party. She’s been a young person before, and it’s a matter of keeping that inner compass to know that you can be safe, and that you don’t have to lose your morality when you are in the process of wilding out and expressing your youth, and your independence.
What was the attraction to doing this?
Alfre Woodard: The attraction was always the script for me. It’s gotta be on the page, and Gerard wrote a very smart script. It was already there. You could feel the film, all the different avenues he would take you down, leading you to that moment where it burst open at the end. But also I understood that he was creatively intelligent, and you like to be around people, no matter what they’re doing, you like to be around those people. Because that’s the language that I speak, and I feel like we all deserve to get together when we’re the people that speak that language.
This past year you appeared in Luke Cage, and you did a great job as Mariah Dillard, and I’m happy to hopefully see you back for the next season. When you look at the roles, and you’re back on with the Netflix’s Lemony Snicket, what goes into the roles you take now? Is it more of a script, or is it the character?
Alfre Woodard: It’s the writing. I’ll create the character, but it’s in the writing. So I’m not just concerned with how that person has written my character, because I’m gonna create the character no matter how skeletal it is. How do they write? How do they tell a story? Do they have a mastery of cinematic language? You know good writing. It does not say exactly what it wants. Because we all could write down a plot about what’s happening, or we can all tell a story.
But then there are the people that, they have the gift of using language that we hear music in our ears, and we come to an understanding that we wouldn’t come to other than by the way that they put words together, put themes together, and again, I keep stressing cinematic at the same time. Yes, you have your DP that will further that language, but it really is always in the script, the writing, for me.
What can you expect from playing Mariah next time you come around for Luke Cage? Where do you want to take that character from what’s different from what people may assume?
Alfre Woodard: You’re trying to slip something over on me. Okay, but let’s just say this. You think you know Mariah now. You thought you knew her in the beginning, but then she just went all the way around the way on a wide … Well, the way is even wider. That’s all I’m gonna say.
Clip – Lead Your Brothers
