Tonya Mosley

Let's take a short break.

If you're just joining us, my guest is Alfre Woodard.

We'll be right back.

This is Fresh Air.

My favorite films of yours are not necessarily the ones where you're playing against an institution, but where you're rooted in community.

And I think I told you right before we started, Crooklyn, Holiday Heart, Down in the Delta.

Yes.

Directed by Maya Angelou.

Yes.

I read, so you could tell me if this is true or not, she made everyone call her Dr. Angelo.

But she told you you could call her Maya.

What legends, you know, you're sitting with and working with?

Just to let folks know, down in the Delta...

You play a mother who's living in Chicago who kind of has some problems, maybe a little bit of substance abuse problems and things like that.

And your mother sends you down home to the Delta.

Yes.

So you can get yourself clean and together.

And you do – it's like this film and so many of those films of that time period –

You're letting us into the interior lives of people, of black people.

Real black people.