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Aldis Hodge is experiencing a transcendence in his career. The North Carolina born son to military parents began his career modeling as a child before making his first big screen appearance at nine years old along with his brother as Samuel L. Jackson’s two sons in Die Hard with a Vengeance. With a solid and varied collection of film and television supporting roles over the following years, he would make an impression on viewers in the acclaimed series Friday Night Lights as Ray ‘Voodoo’ Tatem, followed by a successful four-year run on TNT’s crime drama, Leverage. More recently, he had a minor but important role in 2015’s smash hit Straight Outta Compton, landed a prime role in WGN’s historical drama Underground, before snagging supporting roles in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, opposite Tom Cruise, and a role in next year’s Disney comedy, Magic Camp, opposite an impressive comedic cast. To say he is in demand would be an understatement.
Aldis is a giving actor, in full embrace of his craft, and with a loving respect of the arts and his passion, horology. He can be seen in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back today, available now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD.
HTF: Hello Aldis, how are you doing this afternoon?
Aldis Hodge: I'm doing good. How are you doing, man?
HTF: I'm doing very well. So I see you're a North Carolina native. I live in North Carolina. I've been here for 20 years. My wife is from Wilmington, which looks to be real close to where you were born.
Aldis Hodge: Yeah. I was there. And shout out to you there. I didn't spend much time there because both my parents are Marines so we were stationed there. After I was born, we were relocated to the base in Oahu, in Hawaii.
HTF: Nice! So you moved around. Both your parents were in the military. Did you use some of what you got from that experience in your portrayal of Lieutenant Espin in Never Go Back?
Aldis Hodge: Oh, absolutely. I mean, oftentimes I would just consult my mom like, "Mom, am I doing this right [laughter]? Does this feel like a military man to you? "Because she lived it, and she's the best source for it. I pull from what I knew of her, and the way she raised my brother [and I] with absolute discipline. I mean, granted, she was a very kind woman, but on time is late, early is on time, that kind of stuff. The "Yes, ma'ams. Yes, sirs," it's just a sign of respect. So, I'm real, kind of old school, and I used all of what I knew from her to put into this character and built him up, and I hope I made my momma proud. That's all I can say [laughter].
HTF: The Lieutenant Espin, he's a likable character. He's no fuss and fun to try and figure out what side he might be on in the film. Now, growing up around that military ethic, has translated into your work ethic as an actor and other pursuits? You've been fairly prolific and it seems like you're migrating more from the television space to the movie space, and you're still working hard on Underground, obviously, which is getting a lot of praise and deservedly so. But did that upbringing feed into your work ethic and your prolific work nature?
Aldis Hodge: Oh yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. The ideal that my mom instills in my brother, my sister, and myself, are really all about survival. So when it comes to adapting that to my work environment, it's about “how do I survive in this environment?” but at the same time, maintain who I am as a person. Maintain my solvency, my moral code, and ethics. Because just like any business, if you lose yourself in it, it can take a lot away from you. You can sacrifice so much and not recover trying to chase your dreams. So we have a firm foundation as a family. That's really kind of rooted in everything. And when it comes to ambitions, we support one another. We watch each other's backs, things like that. We never leave a man behind, ever. We try to respect people as much as possible because it's very important. And just allow ourselves to be able to make mistakes in a healthy way. But I'm always on time. I'm never late. I don't believe in that because being late is more than just a couple minutes off the clock. You're wasting people's time. You're holding people up. You're wasting people's money, and it shows such a huge lack of respect. When we're on set we respect every single person, regardless of their position, because at the end of the day, you need your entire team to make the whole job work.
“If you're an actor, it's never just about you, regardless of whether or not you're the lead. It doesn't matter. It's about the team.”
If you're an actor, it's never just about you, regardless of whether or not you're the lead. It doesn't matter. It's about the team. You have actors like-- honestly Tom Cruise, who's one of the biggest stars in the world and he walks on set and he never makes it about him. He goes up to everybody, "Hey, how are you doing?" Wherever he's at, he acknowledges everybody in the room, looks you square in the eye, "How are you doing? How is your day? Do you need anything? What can I help you with?" Next, he allows his team to know that he acknowledges them and that he wants them to do better so he's going to help them do better. So he gives a lot of those leadership qualities that my mom instilled in my brother and I, and it's really nice to see in somebody at his level that the team should do well. And that's how you get to that level. That's how you get to a Tom Cruise level. It's about how do you treat the people around you? How do you treat your kid? How do you take care of your people?
HTF: It sounds like you come to the set with that same sort of perspective, so when you're around someone like Tom Cruise, who has been in the business for a long time and is now one of the last great movies stars that the industry really has, what do you come away with? What do you recall learning either from Tom or from any of the other cast members on Never Go Back? What is that you took away from this experience in particular?
“I took away the value of doing all that my mother taught me and continuing to do it, and seeing the effect of it from a different level and from a different perspective. Like I said, Tom does those things because he understands how important it is…”
Aldis Hodge: I took away the value of doing all that my mother taught me and continuing to do it, and seeing the effect of it from a different level and from a different perspective. Like I said, Tom does those things because he understands how important it is, and he understands the resounding effect beyond himself. I mean, he knows who he is, he knows his presence, he's massive in the room but he makes everybody so comfortable. I remember the first couple of conversations we had, and he is really easy to talk to, he’s like “so let's talk about the business”, “how do you feel this,” and we were just shooting the breeze talking about our ambitions and I was telling him about how I think I'm overworking, and I'm always looking to the next job, trying to figure how I can stack up job after job, because I never get comfortable. And he was telling me, to a degree he's like, "My opinion is that you're always working on the future of jobs." He's trying to stack up two, three, four jobs, right after the last one he's worked on just because he keeps it going because he loves his business so much. And it kind of made me feel like, "Okay, this is normal. I'm not crazy for wanting to be as ambitious as I am." But just take away the experience of treating people well and making people feel good in an environment where they need to do good.
And of course, that's not just trying to make people happy. It's keeping people in line and making sure they do their job well, but when they do it well, you acknowledge and celebrate that. And when they do not do it well, it's not about scolding people, it's not about blowing up on people. It's like, "Hey, look. How do you need help? I see we're not really on the same page right now. How do I get you on the right page? How do you need help?" You got to always lend a hand and bring people up. So it just kind of reaffirmed the lessons that my mother taught me and just to keep doing it, and to do it better, and do it more often and be more boisterous about it. Because if there's any sort of reputation I leave behind, I would like it to be that.
HTF: One of my favorite quotes is, the only person you should be in competition with is the person you were yesterday. And so when I look at your career and the arc upwards that it's taking, you've got a lot of really great variety in the roles that you've had. Lots of guest spots on television series, then a role in Straight Outta Compton, which is a great movie. And you are currently doing great stuff in Underground, you're a military man in Jack Reacher, and next year you'll be around some great comedic talent in Magic Camp. What draws you to the roles that you take on? What is it you look for?
“I look for good quality stories and I do look for the challenge. I look for anything that is atypical. I don't like stereotypes, I don't like common roles and, as an artist, my job is to be responsible with my art and to produce effective art…”
Aldis Hodge: I look for good quality stories and I do look for the challenge. I look for anything that is atypical. I don't like stereotypes, I don't like common roles and, as an artist, my job is to be responsible with my art and to produce effective art. So there is a lot that goes into me being a male actor, a black actor, and a black male actor, especially in America. I don't put any precedence on what I look like and so I see myself as an actor, simply put. But I know the industry looks at me that way at times. And so my job is to supersede [any] stereotypes and continue to [find] interesting atypical roles that show people how I can be and how I can look. And not just for me, but how others that look like me can be put in these roles and have it seem absolutely normal, so you don't have to question it, you don't have to focus on my color, you don't have to focus on what I look like or my culture because that's a distraction and it's an unfair and devaluing distraction. So in terms of my responsibility as an artist, that is a part of it. As far as my personal preference as an artist, I just like interesting new things. Repetition is not my strong suit. I get annoyed with repetition and my job affords me opportunities to do something different on a regular basis, and that's what I'm used to. I've been in this business since I was two years old, so I'm used to being able to go to work and look forward to having a new job because that's what stretches my creativity. Simply put, this is just merely a conduit for my creativity. That's why I love acting so much, because I'm nuts, I'm a crazy artist, and I'm always looking for some way to facilitate my dreams, my ambitions. So if I was always going to the same job doing the same exact thing on a daily basis, I would go crazy, but when it comes to work, I want to do jobs that push the meter and push productions and push to think differently and to create better work that is more imaginative and creative, you know? But to create that influence, I have to be in the world to do that. And also, I look for creative satisfaction. I want to do things that have no connection with how I live my regular life just so I can experience a different part of culture. A different part of myself.
HTF: And you are a very artistic soul. I loved reading an article about you, in GQ I think, where you talked about your passion for horology. I don't know that I've ever spoken to anybody that has that particular interest and I find it fascinating. So what is it about the art and science of timepieces that draws you in, and is there some parallel or connection there between your passion for acting? Or are they sort of separate pieces of your whole?
“It was primarily because I was a black kid that most people just assumed sports was my way out. And that was so offensive to me, because the assumption that I was not going to use my mind to be prolific in any of my endeavors beyond athleticism was a stark contrast to the nature of who I was…”
Aldis Hodge: Here's the connection. Art is my language. So for me acting is the emotional application of my art. For me, watchmaking is the engineering, mechanical application of my art. It's soothing for me because all I want to do is build. I want to create and build. I can build people and characters with acting, I can build machines with watchmaking. I was always I going to be an engineer from the time I was trying to crawl. I was always an artist as well. I drew on everything and I paint today and I'm actually working on a new series right now, but when I was younger I was living in sort of an impoverished environment in New Jersey and a lot of people just thought, "Oh, you're going to grow up to be a basketball player." And I said, "Why is that the automatic assumption that just because I'm a black kid living in this environment?" Not even just the environment. It was primarily because I was a black kid that most people just assumed sports was my way out. And that was so offensive to me, because the assumption that I was not going to use my mind to be prolific in any of my endeavors beyond athleticism was a stark contrast to the nature of who I was. And because that's so common, it offends me. It's still offensive to me. The idea that "Oh, you don't want to be a doctor, you don't want be a scientist like that," you come at me with that. You know what I'm saying? Because that's where my interest lies.
“For anything I do in life, I always want to continue to learn, and build, and create to become better…”
So, it is sort of a slap in the face these presumptions about who I am and what I am, just because of where I was and just because of what I looked like. I always wanted to be a biochemical engineer, but I wasn't able to pursue that because with acting and school it kind of got a little crazy. But while I was in school for architecture, I started designing watches and I was like, "Wait a minute, I can take this with me." So I fell in love with the idea of horology, and the mechanics, and the way watches worked. It fascinates me that something that's mechanical, with no electronics, can work proficiently for a hundred or so years. I have some watches that are about a hundred years old and more. And it engaged my mind to continue to learn and create. For anything I do in life, I always want to continue to learn, and build, and create to become better. So, me being a micromechanical engineer, which is basically what watch making is because you add physics with chemistry, metrology, gemology, and then you get watchmaking. But me being that serves so many different agendas for me. One is that I get to continue to create and satisfy that itch. Another thing is that I get to disprove the idea of what I'm supposed to be, because of what I look like. And three I can be a representation of what I do, so other little kids who look like me can see and say, "Oh, I can do more, I didn't realize," or they already know they want to do more and then they have the passion and the will to actually pursue it, because in spite of what everybody else tells them. You know I'm saying?
HTF: Yes. Yes, I do. Well, thank you very much. Congratulations on the film and best of luck to you for the future. I look forward to seeing what you’ve got coming next!
Aldis Hodge: For sure. Thank you, I appreciate it brother. Look forward to talking to you about the next project!
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