‘Cross’ star Aldis Hodge shares how becoming a dad helped him shape his Alex Cross character

Alex Cross, the literary world’s well-known crime detective, is receiving a makeover in the latest television adaptation, “Cross,” coming to Amazon Prime on Nov. 14. The titular star is played stoically by “Black Adam” breakout Aldis Hodge. 

The role of Alex Cross is not new to on-screen adaptations. The first came in 1997’s “Kiss the Girls,” with Morgan Freeman playing the hardened Washington D.C. detective. The movie was a loose adaptation of the series’ second book of the same name. A second installment also starring Freeman called “Along Came a Spider,” released in 2001.

The last major attempt to convert Alex Cross into an on-screen fixture came in 2012 with the aptly named film, “Alex Cross” starring Tyler Perry in the lead role. 

With multiple films and a longstanding book series in the rearview, Hodge had the difficult task of making the legendary character his own in an eight episode series. In an interview with TODAY.com, Hodge explained how he approached the task with showrunner Ben Watkins.

“The perspective of how we shaped this character came in conversations with Ben Watkins where we didn’t even talk about the character. We just talked about what was going on in our personal lives, our lives as men.” 

For the 38-year-old actor, one of those “personal” life things included his newly appointed role as a father, which he says helped him curate his take on Alex Cross, a proud dad of two.

“I recently stepped into fatherhood,” Hodge said. “I was in a whirlwind of emotions because it’s such a beautiful experience. And those kinds of things really shaped how they went back to write the character as we moved through so I was really stepping into something that was already familiar.” 

Hodge is a first-time dad to his now three-year-old daughter. In an October profile of the star by Essence magazine, Hodge expanded on how his new parental role informs his life. 

“It’s what feeds me. It’s what drives me. It’s what wakes me up in the morning. It’s really the thing that makes me say, ‘Okay, life is worth living.’ It’s what redefines love,” he said.

Hodge says being a dad was one of the ways that helped him authentically portray his character on screen. The other? He says understanding what drove the detective’s everyday life. 

“I was stepping into honesty, and all I had to do was keep remembering what Alex Cross’ ‘why’ was with whatever situation he stepped into,” the actor tells TODAY.com.

“We didn’t have to try for that. All we had to be aware of was making honest decisions and choices,” he says.

The Prime series also stars Isaiah Mustafa as John Sampson, a fellow detective and longtime friend of Alex Cross. The Sampson character has made several appearances in the James Patterson novels but has seldom been brought to the screen.

In an interview with TODAY.com, Mustafa opened up about bringing his character’s close friendship with Cross to the screen. 

“I looked at the relationship that Sampson had with Alex, and I let that inform me as to who Sampson was and how deep his character was, how much love he had for his partner,” Mustafa says. “So to me, that was the through line. To show how much heart this character had and what he was willing to do to make sure his partner, his brother, lived up to his higher power.” 

The backdrop of Washington D.C. also serves as an important component of this new retelling of the Alex Cross story. Hodge explains that in the show, “D.C. stands as its own character.”

The star says that the show attempts to go beyond the political significance of nation’s capital by tapping into the culture of the people that make up the city’s heart. 

“Something that was really important to Ben was that we really bring out the flavor of D.C.’s culture. You’ve only really seen D.C. from the political side, the White House, the monuments,” Hodge explains. “We owe it to the culture to highlight them in a celebratory way.’