INTERVIEW: Alfre Woodard Talks Her Role as Paris and the New Season of ‘See’

See is back with season two, streaming on Apple TV+ and picking up on the story of a world where humankind has been devastated by a virus that has left everyone blind hundreds of years into the future. Alfre Woodard stars as Paris, Baba Voss’ (Jason Momoa) spiritual leader and the adopted father of twins Haniwa (Nesta Cooper) and Kofun (Archie Madekwe) who were born sighted, centuries after the virus hit. The twins must keep their powerful gift of sight secret as they grow up amongst the Alkenny Tribe and be protected at all costs from Queen Kane (Sylvia Hoeks) who brutally governs the last city known to have electricity and her Witchfinder General, Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo). Tamacti Jun and his army are sent out to find the twins and to destroy anyone that has the power of sight.

Paris is also Maghra’s (Hera Hilmar) midwife, the mother of the twins, as we find them on a journey in season one to learn the truth about their birth father Jerlamarel (Joshua Henry) as they discover the House of Enlightenment. Baba Voss has married Maghra not knowing her intricate past and the secrets behind the story of the twins and Queen Kane’s thirst for power. See is a world of mystery, battle and intricacies as we follow along on this journey of good vs evil and learn that being sighted isn’t always an advantage.

The Emmy and Golden Globe winning actress chatted with us on the story behind See as well as what’s yet to come in season 2. Find out more on what she had to share below.

ALFRE: Hello Nikki. 
GLITTER: Hello, Alfre. I absolutely love this series, and I binged all of season one and the first three episodes of season two, so congrats on a phenomenal show. Can you describe your role as Paris and what part she plays in this new unseeing world for those new to the series?  

ALFRE: Paris is the spiritual leader of the Alkenny, and she is Baba Voss’, sort of, I would say, his guru and his spiritual guide. She was the midwife when Haniwa and Kofun were brought into the world as a surprise; Kofun was the surprise when Maghra birthed them in a cave back when the Alkenny were all alive before they were decimated by Tamacti Jun. Queen Kane sends out the Witchfinder from the Payan capital to find the sighted children and bring them back.  

So the Witchfinder for generations has just scoured the countryside, burning people. We’d all be burned as witches. They’re just burning men, women, and children because of the fear of sighted people four hundred, six hundred years into the future; that’s the prejudice. The punishment is burning, so we are trekking across the country after all of our friends and relatives have been murdered. We get to the Republic of Travantes; we’re coming into cities now. The first season is all wilderness, and we’re meeting tribes along the way. People tribe up, not out of DNA, but out of shared needs in this post-apocalyptic world, that’s in the future, and we come to cities now.

The Travantes are known to be fierce and feared warriors, barbarians, some think. We are trying to find the rest of the family. Bobba Voss is determined to find the family. Haniwa his daughter has been captured, given away to Edo Voss, his brother, who is the leader of the Travantes, and they have a wound so deep and so old from their childhood that they will rip each other apart physically; I mean, arms, legs. It’s intense. The battles are battles that I don’t think you’ve seen. It has a strange beauty to it. Even though they’re so vicious, it becomes a dance with people who are unsighted doing those bouts, with every other sense they have being warriors. We meet a lot of women warriors in season two.

People’s pasts are coming to the fore, and it all has to do with family, with each grouping of people. So at the same time, it’s epic, and it’s action-packed and sometimes brutal. It’ll be very familiar because we first learned to love and to fight in families, and we are hurt most deeply in families because we care so much.

GLITTER: I love the powerful female characters and all the lessons that Haniwa and Kofun are learning from your character. So, looking forward to the rest of the season. Thank you so much, Alfre.  
ALFRE: Thank you for having me. Be well.

Stream See on Apple TV+ with new episodes weekly.