‘Cross’ Jeanine Mason Explains Luz’s “Bizarre” Episode 4 Love Story: “These Two Crazies Are Perfect for Each Other”

[Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for Cross Season 2, Episode 4.]

In episode four of Season 2 of the Prime Video series Cross, a vigilante on a mission of vengeance, and an unexpected stranger seeking to help her achieve her goals get to know each other in a casino hotel room. With the FBI and Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) hot on their trail, Luz (Jeanine Mason) and Lincoln (Rene Moran) connect on a deep soul level, but their time together has a ticking clock. As their time together runs out, Luz realizes that she has no other choice but to leave Lincoln behind and find a way to deal with the tragedy that she was trying to avoid.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Mason discussed the heartbreaking love story of Luz and Lincoln, the most challenging aspect of episode four, the energy and creativity she got to bring to her vigilante character, finding the physicality and movement of someone who is so lethal, her passion for the mission, the complicated family dynamic, getting to play with the wigs and the wardrobe, and why she cried over her character’s story arc.

Jeanine Mason Feels Like She Hit the Lottery With Her ‘Cross’ Season 2 Character

"The fact that she’s atypical to what one might expect sets up this really unsettling entry point for Season 2, which I love."

Collider: I found your character this season absolutely fascinating. She’s complicated and complex, individually and with really everyone in her life. What did you find most interesting about her? What did you enjoy getting to explore with her and with all the layers that we see this season?

JEANINE MASON: Absolutely. Thank you. That’s so generous. I felt like I hit the lottery. I was so lucky to do this. It was teed up so beautifully by Ben Watkins and the writers to mess shit up for Season 2 of the show, and to bring in this energy and creativity. There’s all these wigs that she wears. It just feels like unsettled ground. And I think the fact that she’s atypical to what one might expect sets up this really unsettling entry point for Season 2, which I love. One of my best friends is an attorney now, but when she was a kid, she wanted to be a vigilante. For me, personally, it is also exorcising something that I fantasize about for myself.

You can understand her reasons for doing what she’s doing, but at the same time, she’s also violent in a way that’s shocking and that we don’t often see from a woman. How was it for you to figure out the sides to her? What was it like to explore that and what most helped you understand that aspect of her?

MASON: I am a dancer as well as an actor, and a lifelong athlete, so for me, in general, I’m an outward-in actor. Putting on the costume is such a big part of the process for me. It’s that final get there, as well as the physicality and any challenge or thing I can lean on to feel as if I’m in her movement or in her strength with the knife work, with the dialect, with the boxing. All the coachings I got to do were really my entry point and my way to convince myself I could carry this power and this anger and this violence. The physical stuff was really the thing that helped me. And I was so supported by (showrunner) Ben [Watkins] and the Prime team. I had a bunch of coachings with so many different experts. It was wonderful.

She’s frightening in her focus and purpose. It’s a little bit scary.

MASON: Yeah. It’s funny, I am like a type A person and a real nerd about this stuff. I love being a good student. It seems insane to say but bringing that energy of focus and commitment and wanting to do well, it did feel connected and tied into her passion and her headstrong approach to her activism. We’ll call it activism.

We get to know a bit about her by seeing her with Donnie and with her aunt. Did you guys have time to get to know each other at all, to figure out what that family dynamic would be, since it’s important to her, but it’s also very complicated?

MASON: Absolutely. There were elements that we were piecing together as we went. Ben was just so gracious with that stuff, being like, “Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, let’s go with that.” We had a lot of questions. The other element was that Wes Chatham is just the best guy in Hollywood, potentially. He’s a ball of energy and joy. To physically lean on him was nice. We were hand in hand on this. But also, this is less reactionary for them. They’ve been planning this for a decade. There is a bit of the joy of finally getting to enact it and finally getting to bring justice. And Wes’ genuine energy is joyful, so it helped keep her from feeling too weighted.

The Love Story Between Luz and Lincoln Reminds Her That She’s More Than Just a Tool for Vengeance

"She's a woman on a mission."

To get into spoilers, at the end of episode three, this stranger shows up at her house, which is a bit unsettling when you’re murdering people and hiding from the law. How hard has it been for someone like her, who clearly wants connection, but who also has to put herself in a position where that’s something that she can’t really have?

MASON: One hundred percent. From the moment we meet her in the first episode, she’s a dead woman walking. She’s already resigned herself to, “I am essentially a ghost here, in service of vengeance.” He reminds her that she’s also a woman and a daughter who’s missing her mother. For a second, he represents her getting to stop and put it all down. And then, he beautifully reaffirms that she’s not well enough to be able to do that. She’s a woman on a mission, and she’s already committed herself to not surviving this. That’s not what she wants, ultimately.

It’s so interesting to watch their relationship because you really have just one episode to explore an entire love story between these two people and make the audience care about him, and to make it hurt when he’s gone. They’re crying and kissing, and then they mutually end his life together. How hard were those moments to find? Is a scene like that hard to keep doing takes of?

MASON: It’s so hard. I’m still trying to figure that out for myself as an actor. You have this beautiful pocket in the first few takes where you surprise yourself and your body is being filled up with grief. It took us a long time. It was this crazy hotel room with a Vegas vibe. Stacey [Muhammad], who directed that episode, is lovely. And Rene [Moran] is such a beautiful actor and was so excited to be there and to deliver. I’m a nerd. He’s a nerd. We were like, “What do we need to do to get it there?” I’m so grateful. That was a big challenge, just resetting each take and really feeling like she knows what she has to do, but that she is honestly fighting, not wanting to have to do it. She can, for but a moment, just be a girl.

It’s hard to watch him come to the realization that he can’t really do anything to stop what’s happening, so he makes it easier for her.

MASON: Yeah, it’s so sad and bizarre. You’re also just in awe of him because he’s so on mission. In a way, you’re like, “These two crazies are perfect for each other.”

You have a variety of disguises in this, with different wigs and all sorts of different wardrobe. At one point, you’re even in this beautiful blue Brazilian Carnival costume. What was it like to wear the costumes? How was it to use the wardrobe in the way that she’s using to define herself throughout the season?

MASON: It was fun to just see everybody on set get excited. Joseph Hinds, who did my makeup, and Francine Francis, who did my hair and all my many wigs, we got to a point where we got to differentiate and make tiny, detailed choices. For one of the characters, Joseph was like, “What if she has freckles?” So, we added a bunch of freckles to her. I needed it. It was like exposure therapy. I had to look in the mirror and be like, “Yeah, I don’t know her,” so there were contacts and different wardrobe shapes and necklines for her. It was so fun. We had endless fittings. I’ve never had more fittings for a job in my life.

It was all hands on deck. It would start with Ben being like, “I think I see her in a blonde wig in this casino.” And then, we did so many hair and makeup tests and test shoots. It turns out my Cuban ass looks awful in a blonde wig, so we went red instead. Francine was pulling out wigs that I could not believe. We didn’t know how many disguises we would get. We assumed it would only be a couple until Kayla and Cross have identified her and the ruse is a bit off, but the writers found a way to let us keep playing it. And then, we just went deeper and deeper into the chest of wigs.

In Season 2 of ‘Cross,’ Luz Reignites Alex Cross’ Purpose

​​​​​​​"She knows that he is going to continue carrying the torch."

Without spoilers, what was your emotional reaction to learning how things would wrap up for your character?

MASON: I cried. I know that’s so corny. I loved what it does for Cross. I love that she ends where she does, and it reignites something for him and his purpose. She knows that he is going to continue carrying the torch. This woman has had no soft space in her whole life. I know that we don’t need to feel bad for her because she’s awful, but part of me, Jeanine, cares for her more than anybody else out there and has more empathy for her than anybody else should, certainly. I felt like it was the first soft moment of her life, and it made me very emotional. I was just so grateful to get to do it.

Cross is available to stream on Prime Video.