Aldis Hodge couldn’t be more thrilled about his newest role. The 37-year-old actor will star as Washington, D.C., homicide detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross in Prime Video’s upcoming series “Cross.”
Hodge not only stars in the project, but also produces it, working closely with creator Ben Watkins to develop and shape his character. Hodge’s Alex Cross is layered and nuanced. He is a friend, brother, detective, and a man who is dealing with “personal challenges,” including grief and mental illness, according to Hodge. Cross’ most important role, however, is that of a father.
Hodge tells theGrio in an exclusive interview that he related to Alex Cross’ journey to fatherhood, sharing that many scenes gave him a feeling of “déjà vu” as he is a new father himself.
“My little mama is my whole world,” Hodge says about his daughter. “Honestly, as scary as it is on a regular basis — because you don’t want to mess up, you don’t know if you’re doing the right thing — I have the most ease and the most confidence when it comes to my daughter. Because she’s just the light of my life. I think in many ways, she has saved my life.”
Hodge adds that the arrival of his baby girl has motivated him to address “a lot of things personally in order to be right for her,” similar to his character, Cross.
“As a parent, there’s a lot of things that come up that you may not have known,” Hodge says. “You have to step in and say, ‘Alright, I need to go ahead and have this conversation internally.’ I need to deal with this so that when I step out as an example to this little person, I can have the tools to be the right kind of teacher. It’s a strange parallel with that and also dealing with Cross. He’s a father, and to a degree, deals with some of the same things. I thought that was actually pretty cool. Shooting the show and going through that, I was like, ‘Oh, this is déjà vu?’”
Hodge adds that it often takes “a great traumatic event or a great event of love” to drive people to want to manage their internal battles as witnessed in the “Cross” series.
“My daughter is the one who’s brought up all these things for me to basically really want to be a better man,” Hodge shares.
Hodge’s complex portrayal of Alex Cross is so impactful that Prime Video has already renewed the series for season two. The actor tells theGrio that he is “very grateful” for the opportunity to work on a second season before the premiere of the first — although he is cautious to not get too excited.
“I’m humbled. I think it’s a real testament to the rest of the cast, our crew, and our writers, because everybody’s doing their thing,” Hodge shares. “I’m very, very proud of that. But also, it feels like we got another shot at bat. Let’s not take it for granted. Let’s not get too comfortable. Knocking out the first one is hard; knocking out a second [season] is even harder because people gotta stay focused. But our team is absolutely laser sharp. It’s just a beautiful privilege to be able to have that sort of support.”
“Cross” will be available to stream on Prime Video on Nov. 14.
