Interview: Alfre Woodard Talks ‘Salem’s Lot’ & Dr. Cody

The latest adaptation of Stephen King’s legendary 1975 horror novel, Salem’s Lot, is finally set for its long-awaited premiere next week.

Written and directed by Gary Dauberman, Salem’s Lot sees author Ben Mears return to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire. 

Ahead of the release, Nerds & Beyond had a chance to speak with Alfre Woodard, who portrays Dr. Cody.

Please note this interview has been edited for clarity.

Nerds & Beyond: In this latest version of the film, there are quite a few changes. Particularly the fact that Dr. Cody is a woman, which I think is really a great change in the dynamic for the narrative. Especially given that we’re going back to the 70s time period, too. What kind of conversations did you have prior to filming with Gary Dauberman in preparing for this character and this change?

Alfre Woodard: That was none of my business, and I don’t think he was concerned with it. Once you cast a woman … hopefully you always cast the person, whether they’re a woman, man, non-binary, you cast the person that could really pull off what you want to use that character for. So I would like to believe and was told that it was because of the Dr. Cody he suspected I might bring. I don’t know other Dr. Codys. I wouldn’t talk about it, because Dr. Cody only knows herself. Those are the fingerprints I’m concerned with finding, because we’re all born … billions and billions of people, nobody has the same fingerprints. So when you bring a character off the page and turn them into a human being, that’s your job. The specificity with which you draw that person is what makes your viewer believe and pulls them in and says, this is real.

I’m gonna say this, this is interesting. There were very few OBGYNs back in the 70s, and we still didn’t have an equal rights amendment. We’re trying like hell to get it back then, but we got Roe. But that was the first time that I experienced — when I was in Boston, there’s a lot of colleges there — a few people saying, I have a woman OBGYN. We were like, what? That was like, a new thing. So I like the fact that Dr. Cody, although she was a general practitioner for that town … which is another reason she wasn’t going to leave. She’d been taking care of those people since Ben was a little boy. I like the fact that the beginning of women being integral in women’s health was during that period. We got the pill, we got the diaphragm. You got all kinds of stuff to manage your reproductive health care.

Nerds & Beyond: Your take on the character was excellent.

Woodard: I’m so pleased, not for me, but because you set out to tell a story in a way that your viewer can receive it however they do receive it. That it is something that, first of all, was worth two hours of their time, and that they’ll talk about it to somebody else.

Salem’s Lot, based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King, will stream on Max on October 3.

Make sure to check out our interviews with Spencer Treat Clark, Lewis Pullman, and Makenzie Leigh as well!