James Patterson’s most famous detective finally gets his own TV show

When Aldis Hodge sits down for an interview, he is a man with the time on his mind. Not that he’s watching the clock. Rather, as we begin to talk about his role in the new crime drama Cross, we begin with Hodge’s other job: horologist. That is, a designer of timepieces. And it’s a passion, he says, which informs every part of his life.

“Design is everything to me,” Hodge says. “I break things down to the minutiae of the details. I understand how they work, to understand how to execute them. So for me, designing the movement, or the case, or whatever of a watch, whether it’s energy, inertia, flow ... it’s the same way I approach composing and building a human being.

Aldis Hodge as Alex Cross.Credit: Prime Video

“Creating a character, what is the foundation? What is needed to work? What is needed to make this person, this project exemplary? And how can I supersede what we’ve already done and already seen?” Hodge adds. “I just piece things together, it’s a puzzle in my head.

“There is no delineation or deviation; rather, when it comes to my process of design, I just have different conduits for execution, meaning I’m going to hit a watch this way, I’m going to hit a character this way,” Hodge says. “So the method to my madness comes from a base of formulaic design. I start with blocks, and then we get what we get.”

Cross, based on the series of novels by James Patterson, is the story of detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross, who chases killers and brings them to justice. Since 1993, more than 30 novels have been published in the series, and there have been three movie adaptations: Kiss the Girls (1997), Along Came a Spider (2001) and Alex Cross (2012).

Like Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Alex Cross and his partner John Sampson have a nuanced friendship and professional partnership. It works, in many respects, because of the ease and clarity between the two friends. Cross is a haunted man in some ways and Sampson, played by Isaiah Mustafa in the new adaptation, is his truth-teller.

Aldis Hodge as Alex Cross and Isaiah Mustafa as John Sampson.Credit: Keri Anderson/Prime Video

“We have two men, two adult men, two black men who grew up together, they’re brothers, but they’re not afraid to actually love each other as brothers,” Hodge says. “They’re not afraid to say, ‘I am going to do my best to protect you. You are sinking, I’m not going to let you drown. And I’m not afraid to tell you that I love you because you need to know that you are loved’.”

It is an expression of “real brotherhood”, Hodge says, at a time when the lived reality for men is still one where expression of emotion is a barrier. “It’s sorely needed to be represented on television,” Hodge adds. “I’m happy we get to finally see a refreshing representation that shows other young brothers that it’s OK to go to your boy and say, ‘I got you, I love you, I’m here.’

“I have my circle, and my friends always hold me up and hold me down, you know what I mean?” Hodge says. “Whenever I see stereotypes about the fact that we, as a community, are far removed from love, and from vulnerability and openness ... yes, every culture has pockets of certain things that apply, the base of our culture, how we have survived, especially in this country, is family. It’s bonding, it’s love. We protect each other.”

When the Cross novels were first written, the fact that Patterson is a white author of a black character was not an issue. Like James Clavell, who wrote Shogun, authorship and culture were not interrogated in the same way that they are in 2024. Clavell’s Shogun was recently rebooted with enormous success, and Patterson’s Cross novels remain bestsellers.

Man of mystery: Ryan Eggold as Ed Ramsey in Cross.Credit: Keri Anderson/Prime Video

The issue of authorship and culture is perhaps not as selective as it seems, but it does seem nuanced, I suggest to Hodge. “We’re dealing with a different timeframe, and different time period, and expectation,” Hodge says. “Certainly, it would be controversial today, only based on the merit of honesty and respect for the culture.

“This adaptation of 2024, the authenticity, the roots, the honesty that you get is from [showrunner] Ben Watkins,” Hodge says. “Ben made it a standard to say, ‘look, this character, he’s going to be black, he’s going to live a black experience’, which means we have to have conversations that some people may be afraid to address or approach because they don’t know how to.”

“Ben knows how to relay that in a way where people can see the other side and understand these are real, lived experiences. And when he approached James, the great thing about James is that he said, you know what, of course, do your thing, hands off, I’m going to let you do your thing.

“I think that is great because you have to be able to have your work informed by the root source,” Hodge adds. “If you’re trying to build anything great, it will always take a team, and due to the humility of Mr Patterson and the brilliance of Ben Watkins, that’s where you meet in the middle, and you get the true nature of Cross.”

Though Hodge does not recall the specifics, he and Watkins met when they were both teenagers, playing in a basketball league in Los Angeles. “I was like 14, 15, but I was so focused on not looking stupid on the court because I couldn’t play well. I couldn’t shoot, I couldn’t make a basket to save my life. I was always a defensive player. I could block, but dear God, don’t give me the rock.

“Fast forward to now, I think we met again when I was 36, and that’s a good bit of time, right? But my first impression of Ben off top from reading his work was that he has a brilliant mind, and he’s a very smart, strategic writer,” Hodge says. “On top of being talented, he also understands how to take grand topics, issues, and piece them all together in a way that’s really palatable and digestible.

“So I knew that this brother was truly impressive,” Hodge says. “And then, when we talked, we sat down for honestly a couple of hours, just talking about life, and mental health, and therapy, and where we were as men in that particular point in our lives. And really, it came down to, I think, there was a sort of brotherhood that was building out of that because I told him straight up, you’re going to be my teacher.”

Cross screens on Amazon Prime from November 14.

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