Khandi Alexander: 'My Character Is Very Polished'

Khandi Alexander (Alexx Woods) recently told Ebony magazine her character's quirkiness didn't always come straight from the writer's pen.

"I've certainly improvised my share of 'sweetheart' and 'baby,'" the actress revealed. "But it was written that way for Alexx to personalize everybody, every corpse." Alexx Woods can often be seen sweet-talking to dead bodies as if they were children, a characteristic that makes her the most caring medical examiner on television, and certainly one of the weirdest. "What I love about the character is that it's different from what I've done before," Alexander added.

Other peculiarities set Alexx Woods aside from television coroners. For instance, the character, despite her weekly workload at the Miami-Dade crime lab, is always cloaked in sexy outfits and her hair is the envy of even those who have the time to go to the salon. But Alexander never found that far-fetched. "What Black woman does not have her hair done? My character is very polished," she said. "Jerry Bruckheimer is a man who loves attractive women. He said, 'We want you to look great. It's important that young girls watching the show will want to be you as opposed to just wanting to be someone on a video.'"

But for Alexander, there's more to playing Alexx Woods than wearing sexy outfits. The actress revealed that understanding what her character says is important to her, and has made it a habit to research words and medical procedures. "I don't like to just spew words; I want to know what they mean. So, I had a technical advisor, then a biology advisor, then a medical advisor, then a science advisor. So when I was saying the words, I actually knew what I was talking about."

The June 2005 issue of Ebony is currently featured at the magazine's official website. The full article, in which Alexander discusses her career as a dancer, is available at Just Adam.net.

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