‘Cross’ Star Aldis Hodge on Balancing Two Mysteries, Whether Ramsey Will Be Part of Season 2 and Why He Has No Plans to Watch Other Alex Cross Movies

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 1 of “Cross,” now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Taking on a beloved character who’s been portrayed by other actors multiple times isn’t an easy task. So for Aldis Hodge, both star and executive producer on Amazon Prime Video’s “Cross” series, his method was straightforward: Don’t watch the other adaptations.

Although familiar with the character of detective Alex Cross and the universe created by James Patterson in 1993, Hodge didn’t find any reason to watch the movies. (In 1997, Morgan Freeman portrayed the role in “Kiss the Girls” and returned for the sequel, “Along Came a Spider” in 2001. Tyler Perry took over in “Alex Cross” in 2012.)

Below, Hodge breaks down his process of tapping into the emotional character, his thoughts on the dual storylines that spread throughout the season, what’s been set up for Season 2 and more.

James Patterson created Alex Cross in 1993. The character’s story spans multiple books, and has been adapted into movies with the role played by Tyler Perry and Morgan Freeman. What was your introduction to this world?

I was familiar with the character, but I didn’t read the books until after I got the role. I did not watch the movies. I remember clips and things from Mr. Freeman’s work when I was a kid, but I wasn’t allowed to watch them back then. My reference points came in conversations with showrunner Ben Watkins and James Patterson, talking to those two about intention and vision. I was happy to be able to have a clean slate, and build that organically. I hadn’t read anything throughout the first season, even going into the second season, because I still wanted to keep that clean slate. Any questions I would have would go straight to Ben and James. Afterward, once I felt I’d done my job, I started reading the books. They are quite good!

Yes, they are! So, you still haven’t watched any of the movies?

No. What I like when it comes to any job that I do is always keep a barrier so I can do my job. So as I move forward, season after season after season, there’s nothing that is impending or impeding my own process. I like to keep it my own, organically, without outside influence. So it’s more about making sure that I can protect the character that I’m playing and creating and stepping into.

This Alex Cross is more political than in the books. He’s a Black Lives Matter hero and obviously faces a lot of struggles with that being in the police force. Was that always part of the character?

I respectfully challenge to say he’s not political, he’s culturally competent. He has an awareness of what is going on, and he doesn’t shy away from it, which is what makes him authentically unique. When problems present themselves, he’s going to go at it. He’s not going to ignore it. He’s not going to beat around the bush. And that’s why we love to watch this character, because he’s the guy who’s going to be saying what we all want to say, hope to say, wish to say, or want to be inspired to say. That’s the greatest joy when it comes to playing this kind of character because he can be honest. And when it comes to the subject matter and why we even talked about these things, it’s because it actually is relevant and real to us in our real life. Watkins said, “Look, if we’re lying on the page, we’re lying to the audience, and they will know it.” We can’t have a story where a Black detective is at the center, knowing everything that’s going on in the past few years, knowing everything that’s going on right now, and not address what’s real. It’s not trying to make an attempt to be political, or societally trendy. It’s what is naturally there. That’s the fabric of these characters’ experiences because it’s the fabric of our real, lived experience.

Season 1 follows tracks two very different cases: The question of who killed Cross’ wife Maria (Chaunteé Schuler Irving), and the Fanboy killer, played by Ryan Eggold. Was it always the plan from the start to have two parallel stories, rather than one?

That stemmed from the beginning, and that’s something that you’d have to talk to Ben about. But for me, that’s something that I noticed early on, and I questioned. I was like, I wonder how they’re going to balance this out, because you get a lot in eight episodes. It is jam-packed with story. They do it so seamlessly that you never get lost, you never get off the track, you never get confused. Every single question that is presented we get an answer to and the things that we don’t get an answer to, that’s intentional. It’s almost like playing a game with the audience — with, not on. The audience are in the mystery of it. You have these two storylines, clues bouncing back and forth. I felt like I was knee-deep in the mystery with everybody. I think the intention was to have a fully layered narrative.

Let’s talk about your character and Ryan Eggold’s character’s relationship — specifically at the Ed Ramsey birthday dinner in Episode 5. It almost became a dance between the two of you. Can you talk about creating that dynamic?

With that episode, we got to just go in and have so much fun. We have take, after take, after take of us playing a little bit and we’d improv a little bit. He’d push, I’d push back. He really brought his A-game. Especially for this first season, he set the tone of the type of villain that you’re going to see. We needed somebody to execute, and he did so top tier. You get a full-fledged villain story, where you understand and learn who this villain is that sets the tone. So every season, you’re going to be expecting that, and he set it off amazingly.

I love that we get to see a bit of divergence when it comes to Cross and losing his cool. We expect him to always be cool. He’s always the smartest man in the room, but he’s also a human being. He’s in a situation he can’t control the surroundings or the environment. We finally get to see what that looks like. It’s one of those on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. The house is burning down. Where do we go from here? It’s the true epitome of thriller entertainment.

Ramsey is taken down in the end, and his worst nightmare of not becoming a famous serial killer is realized. But he’s still alive. Does this mean we could see him down the line?

You know good well I can’t tell you that. Am I open to the idea of seeing Ramsey again? Absolutely. I cannot confirm or deny what we’ve discussed.

You wrapped Season 2. Can you share where that picks up? Is there a time jump?

You know I can’t tell you that either!

Fine! Eventually, in the books, Alex does get married again. He’s clearly nowhere near ready for that, but is he ready to open up his heart again at the end of Season 1?

I think he’s ready to begin the process of healing at the end of Season 1. Before he can even try to open his heart to somebody else, he has to open his heart to himself first. I feel like he’s finally at a place where he can begin to address or acknowledge the importance of needing to heal.

The true love story is Cross and his best friend Sampson anyway.

That’s actually what Ben Watkins says: This is a love story, but not a romantic love story. It’s a bromance and the heart of that is Cross and Sampson, which I love. We get to see these two men operate in a way of a real brotherhood, real family, real support system that I haven’t seen on TV in a long time. I think the last thing that I saw that was close to it was the first “Bad Boys.” This is where we get to show the true strength of a man — through his vulnerability, through his accountability and through his responsibility, There’s so much strength in the representation of that, that we get to show to the world, because it’s how we operate in real life. It’s how we actually operate on set. We hold each other down.

Cross really goes through a journey on the first episode — he’s both physically and emotionally challenged. What was the toughest part for you to hop into as an actor?

The toughest part, to be honest with you, was working in Canada, shooting outside in the freezing cold winter. Dear God, Toronto, calm down. I live in New York, and I would travel back to New York every weekend to see my family. It made it feel like New York was spring, because I was used to this terribly frigid, ungodly cold in Canada. I don’t know why people choose to live there during the winter. They’re built different. My mind can’t process it. I’m a tropical people. I felt like it was personal. I felt like a personal disrespect from Toronto to me, to be honest with you, every time I woke up and walked outside. I want to fight the air.

This is what I truly feel. This is not jokes or hyperbole. I was literally outside swinging at the air like, chill, bro, we get it. You cold, we get it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.