Why it’s a good time to have a hero like Alex Cross as crime thriller gets TV treatment
When ABC News caught up with the cast and crew of Cross, Aldis Hodge who plays the titular decorated homicide detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross was quick to point out that the new TV series is nothing like the two movies starring Morgan Freeman or the one starring Tyler Perry, saying he didn’t draw from them to portray his character.
“That’s not a slight,” Hodge said.
“My performative process, I can’t allow other influences to shift my perspective or my approach to something, right?
“And I would impose that other artists make sure that their perspective is solely theirs and their own, because the best thing that you can bring to it is your own full perspective.
“I needed to figure out how I connected to the character, and that came about from conversations with Ben Watkins, the showrunner and creator, and then also [author] James Patterson.
“Much due respect to the work that has already transpired but I let nothing disrupt my process.
“I’m very singular, quite focused and very strategic.”
Cross (Aldis Hodge) and Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa) have a tight bond. (Supplied: Prime Video)
Isaiah Mustafa who plays fellow detective and Cross’s best friend John Sampson agreed this was important.
“I think with Ben Watkins’s vision, you have to start at zero and let him take you where you’re going to go,” Mustafa said.
The TV series is a fresh take on the James Patterson crime thriller novels. The first in the series Along Came a Spider was published in 1993, followed by Kiss the Girls in 1995.
In the TV show, Cross is faced with a sadistic serial killer leaving a string of bodies strewn around Washington DC. As Cross and Sampson track the killer a mysterious threat from Cross’s past returns to destroy everything he’s done to keep his grieving family, career, and life together.
Ryan Eggold takes on the role of a sadistic serial killer
In a complete 360 to the type of role we’re accustomed to seeing him in, New Amsterdam’s Ryan Eggold plays the serial killer Ed Ramsey with so much charm, it’s unsettling.
Eggold gives a human edge to ultra-charming serial killer Ed Ramsey. (Supplied: Prime Video)
“It starts with the script that Ben Watkins wrote,” Eggold said.
“This character was so on the page. The writing was so alive, and that duality was very present.
“And in terms of the charm, we see in so many of these docu-series and things, so often, these killers are very charming in terms of being able to lure people in and things like that.
“And then ultimately, the question was, what does that look like in real life?
“How in this life would you get to that point where you didn’t have the empathy or the remorse and you were able to inflict this kind of pain?
“Trying to find that truthfully was the challenge.
“And then I had an amazing scene partner to play all that with, who was an incredible counterbalance and very much informed, I think, my performance so much because so much of my performance was just listening and watching and reacting to her incredible authenticity in the part.”
Eloise Mumford played Shannon Witmer, but not as your typical victim. (Supplied: Prime Video)
Eloise Mumford is the scene partner he’s talking about.
Mumford plays Shannon Witmer who meets Ramsey on an online dating site and is intrigued by his charm and connections only to become one of his victims.
“I think Shannon really clung to the hope that there was actually some attraction between them as the series goes on, because that could in some way be her saving grace,” Mumford said.
“I mean, it’s twisted, right? But all of it’s twisted. And in survival, it becomes twisted.
“If she could get him to like her, love her, even, then maybe he wouldn’t kill her.
“And there’s even some Stockholm syndrome in that.
“So, exploring all of it was really fun. And honestly, I think it gives real stakes to the whole show when you are invested in the victim’s story.”
Ben Watkins nervous about stepping into a franchise with rich history
Showrunner and executive producer Ben Watkins’s name comes up again and again when you speak to the cast.
But Watkins was at first nervous about stepping into the franchise.
“There’s over 30 books, and then there’s three movies, so I really wanted to be sure that I could bring something new to the table,” Watkins said.
Ben Watkins (left) was focused on bringing something new to the table. (Supplied: Prime Video)
He did exactly that, putting a fresh spin on an old tale, with the television series going where the books did not.
“I got very excited as I read the books,” Watkins said.
“I started to see things in the books that I felt like I could bring to television that we haven’t seen on screen yet.
“The television version would have the room to do that, because we have more hours to tell the story.
“And more importantly, I started to get into this idea of where we are in this day and age this would be a good time to have a hero like Alex Cross.
“And so, from that point on, any reservations I had went out of the window, and it was all about what the opportunity was.”
There are some real issues to address when the main character is a Black cop
Watkins says the show doesn’t shy away from the fact that the main character is a Black cop.
Cross faces some unique challenges as a Black detective. (Supplied: Prime Video)
“This is something that I think is evident throughout countries all across the world, but is obviously very present in the US, is, where we’re at with the conversation between law enforcement and the community, and specifically the Black community,” Watkins said.
“I think that’s a conversation that’s being had every day, and unfortunately, periodically there are headlines that bring it back to the front of the topics of discussion.
“And so, some people would shy away from controversy.
“But I got a really key piece of advice at some point in my life from a director who was signing on to a project that had a controversial topic, and I said, ‘are you afraid of that at all?’ And he said, ‘if you consider yourself an artist, when there’s a controversy, you don’t shy away, you lean in.'”
He says that stuck with him, and sometimes creators underestimate audiences.
“I think that audiences are fine touching on controversial subjects, they just don’t want to be preached to or lied to,” he said.
“So, I can’t do a show about a Black cop and then tiptoe around the fact that there’s some conflict between law enforcement and the Black community from time to time, but I want to make sure that the way that gets handled in our show is organic and built into the fabric of the show through these characters and they have a nuanced perspective.”
Is it problematic that the source material with a Black protagonist is written by a white man?
There’s long been a debate in publishing circles about whether authors should only write what they know.
But Watkins doesn’t buy into this.
“There’s things in these books that are more specific and feel like they really are paying respect to the DC that a lot of people don’t know, the Black neighbourhoods in DC, instead of just the Capitol and the power player side of things,” Watkins said.
“And there is a really honest and sincere reflection of a Black family in the books, and that was written by a white man.
“And I would put it to you like [this].
“If someone told me that, ‘oh, a white man invented the typewriter’ and I want to write, I’m not going to not write because that was the typewriter.
“I feel like I can take that story and bring something fresh and new to it, and the way I hit those keys is going to be very specific to my experience.
“And the fact that he created a story that had a Black man at the centre of it creates a great opportunity for me, and he’ll acknowledge this too, I can take it to a place he couldn’t because of my experience.”
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Cross is streaming on Prime Video.
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