Aldis Hodge
The “Underground /
Hidden Figures” Interview
with Kam Williams
Badinage with Brother
Hodge!
Aldis
Hodge is perhaps best known for his role as Alec Hardison on the TNT
series Leverage which nabbed a People's Choice Award in 2013, in
addition to his role as MC Ren in Straight Outta Compton.
Furthermore, he starred in the Amazon pilot The After and enjoyed a
recurring role on the AMC Revolutionary War drama Turn: Washington's
Spies.
Aldis
appeared opposite Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page in the
eco-terrorism thriller “The East.” And he appeared in A Good Day
to Die Hard, the latest installment of the “Die Hard” franchise.
Aldis
started his career at 3 as a model for print ads and commercials. He
made the transition to the small screen when he and his brother Edwin
were cast on Sesame Street. Later, they joined the Tony-winning
revival of Showboat on Broadway.
During
that period, he parlayed his success on stage into a movie career,
debuting in Die Hard with a Vengeance, before making Bed of Roses,
The Stone House, Edmond, The Ladykillers and Big Momma’s House.
Aldis' television roles include the critically-acclaimed series
Friday Night Lights, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, Girlfriends,
American Dreams, City of Angels, Bones, CSI: Crime Scene
Investigation, ER, Cold Case, Charmed and Boston Public.
Born
in Jacksonville, North Carolina, but raised in New York and New
Jersey, Aldis is an avid scriptwriter, designer and painter in
addition to acting. Here, he talks about playing Levi Jackson in the
Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures and about reprising the role of Noah
on the television series Underground about the Underground Railroad
which just started its second season on the WGN America network.
Kam Williams:
Hi Aldis,
I'm honored to have this opportunity to speak with you.
Aldis
Hodge:
I
appreciate your time as well, Kam.
KW:
Congratulations
on the second season of Underground. What first interested you in
doing the series?
AH: I enjoyed the
way the story was written. I was intrigued by the narrative showing
people rising up and fighting for their freedom.
KW:
What can we
expect to see new this season.
AH: I'll put it
like this, brother. Everybody thought it couldn't get crazier or more
dangerous, but it does. Last year, everyone was focused on this idea
of freedom and just getting off the plantation without contemplating
the harsh reality of what that really meant. At the end of the
season, we were pretty much split up. Now, you get a pretty
introspective view of each character. We're all dealing with the
consequences of what transpired last season in our own way. My
character, Noah, was learning what it meant to try to be a leader.
This season, he's learning more about who he is as a man. Right now,
the strength of his love for Rosalee [played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell]
is more important to him than freedom, whereas last year was purely
about survival.
KW:
What's it
like acting opposite Jurnee?
AH: She's awesome!
That's my road dog right there. Our characters go through so much
together this season that we have to depend on each other emotionally
as actors. We didn't share a lot of scenes together because our story
focuses on Noah and Rosalee's trying to get back to each other. We
see that their love transcends their situation. There's still a very
powerful connection between them, and we had to develop that. So, we
had to take a different approach, and Jurnee was there 100% of the
way. She is an absolute beast!
KW:
What's it
been like working a real-life icon, Harriet Tubman, into the story?
AH: It's
great that we get to honor Tubman's legacy through a real-life
representation, although we'd already paid tribute to her last
season. It's not really a different approach. The only thing that's
changed is that we have a fantastic actress in Aisha Hinds
materializing Tubman. Aisha does a fantastic job of enabling us to
explore who Harriet Tubman was.
KW:
Congratulations
on Hidden Figures' win at the Screen Actors Guild awards. Were you
surprised?
AH: It was a huge
surprise. We were all blown away. The girls [Taraji P. Hensen,
Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer] were all crying, and I think I
might have dropped a tear or two, too. The film has gotten so much
love. It was awesome because this award was coming directly from a
pool of several hundred thousand actors. Our peers! So, we were very
grateful.
KW:
Why do you
think Hidden Figures has made the most money of all the movies
nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?
AH: It's
absolutely because of the message. Granted, a big part is that people
will go to the theater and enjoy it. But I think the primary reason
it's been so effective is that it represents the antidote to some of
the cultural issues we're still dealing with as a nation. It
illustrates what can be accomplished when you look beyond the
prejudices and stereotypes and allow equality to win out overall.
These women accomplished what they did in spite of segregated
bathrooms, and not having equal pay or the right to vote. That made
it an inspiring film for both little girls and boys. It's exactly
what America needs right now.
KW:
Your mom is from the South and your father is from Dominica. Did they
ever talk to you when you were growing up about any racial
discrimination they experienced?
AH: Yes,my mom
experienced racism. She was harassed by the KKK several times. And I
experienced racism myself, growing up. In New Jersey, we had trash
thrown on our lawn every day. And we had the lines to our Christmas
lights cut three years in a row. We just stopped putting up Christmas
lights after that. That's probably why I still don't put up any
lights during the holidays. People talk about Jim Crow as if it's
dead. Jim Crow isn't gone. It's adjusted. Look at the
disproportionate sentences meted out to blacks caught up in the
criminal justice system. There's a problem when people profit from
putting and keeping African-Americans in prison. We need to do a
better job as a nation understanding the real values the country's
built upon in terms of fairness, equality and equal opportunity.
That's why I like being a part of projects like Hidden Figures and
Underground. They illustrate mistakes of the past we need not repeat,
as well as the beauty of the progress achieved when everybody cares
about the underprivileged.
KW:
Editor/Legist
Patricia says: I recently saw Hidden Figures and I loooooved it! I
even started to read the book before there was talk about releasing
the film. Were you familiar with the role these women had played in
the NASA space program before you got the script?
AH: Yes, but I
didn't know much beyond the fact that there were these black, female
mathematicians who had accomplished this great feat.
KW:
Patricia continues: You write scripts. Is there a story special to
you that you would like to see turned into a film?
AH: Yes, I have a
few projects that I'm already working on right now that I have to
keep under wraps. I also think the Emmett Till story needs to be
told, because his accuser just came out and admitted that her story
wasn't true, and because his murderers bragged about lynching him
after they were acquitted, since they couldn't be tried twice. again,
problems with the legal system.
KW: Lastly,
Patricia says: Your parents served in the U.S.
Marine Corps. Did you travel a lot with them growing up? If so, was
it useful in your up bringing?
AH: Yeah, when I
was younger, we moved from North Carolina to Hawaii, and then from
Hawaii to New Jersey. Nowadays, my job keeps me traveling on a
regular basis, and I think my childhood did prepare me for it.
KW:
Finally,
what’s in your wallet?
AH:
[LOL]
What’s in my wallet? Just my business card.
KW:
Keep up
the good work, Aldis, and I look forward to speaking with you again
soon.
AH:
Likewise,
Kam. Thank you.
To
see a trailer for Underground, visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCjINoMFpxc
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