(CNN) -- Two weeks before Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday on July 18, actress Alfre Woodard sits on a couch near her home in Santa Monica, California, reminiscing about the first time she met him. Already an activist and a leading voice against apartheid, Woodard introduced Mandela at a fundraising event in 1990 during his first trip to the United States after his release from prison. "By the time I got on stage, I literally started to hop around ... I could not stop the electricity in my body," she said. "So I went and I wrapped my arms around him, and I said to him in his ear, 'Oh Madiba, Madiba. How are you? Have you eaten? Have you slept?' And it became a really funny thing because 'Nobody has asked me that, Alfre, in my entire travels,'" Woodard said with a laugh. "So that sort of became the basis of our relationship."
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Alfre Woodard greeted Mandela on his first trip to the U.S. after his release from prison
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She has worked with Mandela to help combat the AIDS pandemic in South Africa
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Woodard co-founded the nonprofit Artists for a New South Africa in 1989
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"We were in the receiving line ... and he sees me about three people away and he leans over and he goes '@placeholder, Alfre!