'This dude is cool': 'Cross' star Aldis Hodge brings realism to literary detective

Aldis Hodge calls it “Cross Vision.”

At certain points in his new Amazon Prime series “Cross,” police detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross gets so deep into working a case that his brilliant mind goes into overdrive, showing the inner workings to the viewer but leaving fellow cops wondering if he’s OK because he’s zoned out.

Hodge can relate: He'd do something similar while working as a conceptual designer on a project. “People have called it out. They're like, ‘Yo, Al, we lost you. Like, where were you? You're just staring off into space,’” says Hodge, who “applied my sensibilities” to Cross’ onscreen problem-solving facade. “It's just awesome, visually.”

Hodge’s Cross is a man of action and intelligence in the crime thriller series based on the character from James Patterson’s mystery novels. The entire eight-episode first season streams Thursday − a second is already in the works − as Cross becomes the latest in Amazon’s growing library of literary crime-solving heroes, joining Titus Welliver’s “Bosch," John Krasinski’s “Jack Ryan” and Alan Ritchson’s “Reacher."

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Among Hodge’s screen roles, from NFL star Jim Brown to superhero Hawkman, Alex Cross tops that chart: He has “all the facets of, as a Black man, what I believe us to be without any of the stereotypical judgments," Hodge says. "He is equal parts intellectual and raw and real and true to who and what he is without compromising who he is.” Cross is also the smartest man in any interrogation room: The premiere features him verbally eviscerating a racist murder suspect with measured, gleeful swagger. Reading that scene, “I was like, ‘This dude is cool as hell,’” Hodge says.

The first season of the show finds Cross, a popular cop in his community in Washington, D.C., investigating the death of a Black Lives Matter activist. The new case puts him at odds with locals who are wary of police, but Cross quickly discovers there’s a serial killer at work in the city. He’s also still grieving the unsolved murder of his wife a year earlier, and he finds he and his family are being stalked by a mysterious figure seemingly connected to his past.

Cross is really good at his job and even has a signature trench coat − it’s a “very special” clothing choice for Hodge, 38, who designed it with his friend, fashion designer Waraire Boswell, who died in July. But “Cross” creator Ben Watkins told the actor early on he didn’t want Alex to be a superhero: “They're impervious and they're invincible, but this hero is flawed,” the actor says. “He has challenges he may not be able to actually defeat. And one of the greatest challenges, really, is himself, as he's navigating this space.”

Speaking of superheroes, here’s a fun fact: As many actors have played Alex Cross as have played Spider-Man in live-action movies. Before Hodge, Morgan Freeman starred as the detective in the movies “Kiss the Girls” (1997) and “Along Came a Spider” (2001), while Tyler Perry took on the role for the 2012 action thriller “Alex Cross.” 

All three have “spectacular and different approaches” to the character, Patterson says, but Hodge “just has a way of getting under the skin of Alex.” The books detail “that interaction and the conflict between his role as a father, husband, grandson, etc., and then this harsh life that he has as a detective. Aldis handles that really well.”

The author also appreciates the way the show tackles contemporary issues involving the police. “With the Alex Cross books, I kind of don't do realism. It's like somebody who's looking at a Picasso. You can't go, ‘It's not very realistic.’ He doesn't do realism,” Patterson says.

The show explores how Alex “swims in both worlds” − the police and the African-American community − and “what that difficulty looks like when you are wearing a badge,” Hodge says. “It doesn't matter who you are: If you are abusing the true definition of what justice is, Cross is going to take you down.”

Both Hodge and Patterson dig Cross’ close relationship with his partner and best friend John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa), which wasn’t touched on much in the films. Theirs is “a brotherly love story,” Hodge says. “Very rarely do we get to see that relationship where two men are fighting for each other and really talking about mental health: ‘Look, man, you're drowning right now. Let me pull you up so you don't sink.’”

Maybe Cross can expand his friend circle with all these fellow novel detectives running around. “It’s a rich genre, mysteries, and it also travels well around the world,” says Patterson, who's also developing a show featuring another one of his book sleuths, Jane Smith.

That one is headed to Max and will star Renee Zellweger, so no synergistic team-ups there. But if Alex was going to cross over with any of his Amazon brethren, who’d be the best fit?

“I think Bosch is a bit close,” Hodge says. “He would have to move differently with a Jack Reacher because of how Reacher operates. And then Jack Ryan would be cool, but that might take Cross out of his jurisdiction.

“It’d probably be Reacher,” the actor figures, grinning at the thought of those two brainy, brawny dudes working together. “That’s a good question.”