Source: Phillip Faraone / Getty
Alfre Woodard is coming out the gate in 2019 so strong. Riding high off her critically acclaimed performance in the independent film “Clemency,” the 66-year-old actress is showing a softer side in a new flick from Netflix.
As most romance films de-center the stories Black women across the board in general, Netflix’s upcoming movie Juanita seems to take on the age-old trope of the sexless middle-aged woman and break it on its head.
In the opening of the trailer, we are presented with Woodard’s character as she enters a room where Blair Underwood awaits her lathered with oil and unclothed.
“I just want to make you happy baby. Can I do that?” Underwood, who is playing himself, asks seductively.
We soon learn Woodard’s character is fantasizing the whole affair, but we are totally here for it.
Juanita aims to show a woman’s journey to discovery. What does life look like after you’ve raised the kids, their kids and have given your all to your family? What do you have left for yourself?
Woodard seeks to find out and takes a solo bus journey across the country to find her true calling, leaving her children and the hum-drum life she led far behind.
“I’d like a ticket to Butt,” she says to a bus clerk in one scene. “I believe it’s pronounced Butte,” the clerk says back in return.
Woodard settles in the small town Montana town and takes over as a chef at a diner run by Native Americans, which brings her an emotional ride of affirmation, purpose and real romantic love.
The movie is directed by Clark Johnson and was written by by Roderick M. Spencer. Woodard co-stars with Adam Beach, Gil Birmingham, Ashlie Atkinson and of course Blair Underwood.
Juanita drops on Netflix on March 8, will you be tuning in?
SOURCE: MadameNoire.com
Article Courtesy of MadameNoire
First Picture Courtesy of Ray Tamarra and Getty Images
Second Picture Courtesy of Phillip Faraone and Getty Images
Video Courtesy of YouTube, Netflix, and MadameNoire
