Aldis Hodge Is Devoted To Transforming The Image Of Black Men On-Screen

With a career that spans three decades, Aldis Hodge has been a pillar of Black representation in Hollywood for years. The actor got his start in the ’90s and hasn’t taken his foot off the gas since. After smaller parts throughout his childhood and teen years, Hodge got a breakout role in Leverage at age 21. Since then, he’s captivated us in projects like Underground, Hidden Figures, The Invisible Man and City on a Hill. A true leading man, he has an ability to reinvent himself and take up space in Hollywood that can’t be understated.  

“For me, the ambition is to continually change the perspective [on] and the approach to the identity of Black men and Black people fully,” says Hodge, 36. “That’s something that we, the community, need—so that we can maintain and control the professional narrative and affirm our value in Hollywood. We’re not sitting here waiting on a call. We’re creating that avenue of opportunity for ourselves.” 

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'Underground' Season Finale Recap: Either You’re A Citizen Or A “Soldier”

All roads have been leading to the events that occur in the second season finale of Underground. As “Soldier” opens, one of John Brown’s men approaches Harriet Tubman’s hidden cabin. He speaks briefly with Harriet about plans for the attack on Harper’s Ferry which includes arming slaves on surrounding plantations. Though Harriet agrees with the risky but bold endeavor, she is shocked by Brown's invitation to participate.

In Ohio, Daniel sits with Elizabeth, Noah, Georgia and Rosalee asking for aid in rescuing his family in Kentucky. Once they realize that Daniel was blinded with lye as punishment for teaching his fellow enslaved people how to read, everyone is on board with the escape plan. Elizabeth and Noah, in particular, are looking for a fight, while Rosalee and Georgia reluctantly agree.

Getting together a group of abolitionists and some of John Brown’s men, Elizabeth and Noah come up with a plan to attack the plantations surrounding Daniel’s as a distraction in order to covertly steal away his family and friends. It’s going to be a tough rescue because of Daniel’s infant child. The team decides in order for the plan to work; they have to be back across the river in five hours tops.

Meanwhile, Cato seems to have slithered away from Patty Cannon and her gang for a moment. We find him in a room with some random redheaded white woman; it’s clear Cato has been plotting and planning. As he helps the woman get dressed, he coaches her into calling herself, Patty Cannon. What are you up to Cato?

Down South, August and Ernestine have made it back to Georgia. August arrives at his home, and we learn that both his wife and Jay, his trusted slave have died. We can only assume that his son is somewhere still hospitalized. Seeing his despair, Ernestine offers him some of her devil’s potion. He indulges, and after he passes out, Ernestine escapes through the vast cotton fields toward the Macon Plantation. When August finally catches up to her standing in front of the big house, the two look on stunned. There is nothing there, only bits of burnt wood where the commanding structure once stood. Later, Ernestine awakens to see August holding a gun to his head. She tells him it's time that he forgives himself for the horrible things he's done.

Up in Ohio, Rosalee finds James playing solitaire in the front of Georgia’s safe house. He and his big sister have a heart to heart. While James is a realist and doesn’t expect to see his mama again, Rosalee tries to tell him otherwise. They have a quiet moment of comfort while James lays his head on Rosalee's swollen belly, feeling the kicks of her unborn child.

Later in their bedroom, Rosalee and Noah still aren’t talking. Dressed in her nightgown, the heavily pregnant Rosalee helps Noah pack for his mission to get Daniel’s kin. She asks him to please return safely. She tries to explain to him that everything she did once finding out she was pregnant was done out of fear. Noah seems to understand this, but he’s still pissed. He tells Rosalee that he wants to forgive her; he just doesn’t know if he can.

Over the river in Kentucky, Noah, Elizabeth, and the crew are moving quickly between the three plantations. Though Noah gets Daniel's sleeping baby out, one of the plantation masters unties himself and holds a house girl hostage. While the men deliberate about what to do, Elizabeth takes matters into her own hands and blows the master’s head off. Elizabeth is tired y’all, and she’s done playing. Though the group eventually reaches Daniel and his family, they must arm themselves and fight their way back across the river. Many including Noah and Elizabeth do make it back to Ohio, but their victory is not without major bloodshed.

In the midst of all of this, there is trouble at Georgia’s. Patty Cannon has come to collect her Black Rose, and she’s started shooting up the place to work her way in. Though Georgia and the fellas hold her off for some time, she eventually gets in the house. While all of this is occurring, Rosalee who is now in labor grabs James and begins running through the house’s hidden tunnels. However, Cato has mastered the tunnels and finds her. Thinking quickly after seeing Cato, Rosalee and James barricade themselves into the kitchen, and an awestruck James looks on as his sister gives birth.

While Rosalee is laboring, Cato approaches Patty Cannon with evidence of Harriet’s hideout. Leaving her men behind, Patty, Cato and the biographer Mr. Donahue set out to capture Harriet. It’s then that Cato’s plot is revealed. After blowing Patty’s brains out (good riddance), Cato explains to a bewildered Donahue that Patty’s mistake was that she believed in her own legend. He also tells him that he will be leading Patty’s gang from now on. (If you recall, he already has a new Patty.) Cato explains to Donahue that he needs to deliver Black Rose to the men in order to gain their respect. He thinks that most men are just looking for a master anyway.

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'Underground' Recap: Things Come Full Circle In 'Auld Acquaintance'

Christmas time should be the season of giving, but on Underground, we know there is no such thing. After being caught teaching other slaves to read and write Daniel is back to work, but this time without his eyes to guide him. As a punishment for his perceived crimes, he’s been blinded. As one of the skilled carpenters on his plantation, I was actually astounded that this was done to him. It moves well beyond the realm of cruel and horrific, but then again so is the institution of slavery. During the antebellum period, a slave was worth the equivalent of what a car is worth today, which means that labor would be extremely costly to lose. Knowing this, I’m unable to reconcile why Daniel’s master would choose to blind him when his sight is such an integral part of his work.

Further North, Cato is plotting and planning. After stealing Mr. Donahue’s unfinished biography of Patty Cannon, and giving it to the infamous slave catcher, the two discover that Donahue doesn’t have too many kind things to say about the diabolical red head. He seems specifically perturbed that she has not been able to catch Harriet Tubman. Patty’s blood lust for Harriet is Cato’s way in. He provides her with some information that she did not have previously, the song of freedom. “Heaven’s Door” is actually the opening credits for the series; however, it's not a song from the period (John Legend produces it). Still, songs similar to it are what guided the enslaved on their way to freedom. With the song, Cato is able to find his way into Georgia’s safe house. Unless he’s back in touch with his humanity, things are probably going to get really bad for everyone.

The history books tell us that Patty Cannon was actually a real person. It is said that she lived in a house that straddled the border between Delaware and Maryland, and she made her money by selling free Black people into slavery. This is what she put Cato up to in last week’s episode. However, the real life Patty Cannon would have already been dead during Underground’s timeline. After being arrested for four counts of murder in 1829, the infamous slave catcher hung herself in prison.

In Ohio, white abolitionists have turned their back on Georgia after discovering her Black ancestry. It's amazing how Underground draws parallels to “well-meaning” whites and liberals in the present day. However, Elizabeth is fed up with their treatment. Under Harriet’s guidance, she helps the Sewing Circle devise a plan to steal money from a pro-slavery church on Christmas Day to keep the boarding house up and running. After doing a little sin to help the cause, Elizabeth decides she won’t be stopping there. Determined to do whatever it takes, she blackmails her white comrades into donating to the cause.

Down South on the Macon Plantation, James is preening like a peacock in the Big House. Mistress Suzanna has pitted him against T.R.; a devious plan that I’m certain will play out in years to come. Though he obviously feels guilty about exposing Rosalee, he wants no parts of her escape plan. After all, despite the horrors that surround him, his life is pretty good. He even tells Rosalee that she messed everything up when she ran. Rosalee might be branded and back in her old housedress for the moment, but she and Noah aren’t the same people they were when they first left Macon. They won't be sticking around this time.

Somewhere between South Carolina and the rest of the world, August and another one of Patty’s men have Ernestine tied up in a boat. Though she tries to escape their grasp several times, she and August bond over the memories of their sons. During her last attempt to escape through a thick fog, August kills the other man and he and Stein head back down South. But why though? None of this makes sense, and I still don’t trust August. Perhaps this is his chance to escape Patty Cannon as well.

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'Underground' Recap: Plans Are Shattered In "28"

As the old saying goes, the best-laid plans often go awry. In the seventh episode of season two of Underground, plans are shattered spectacularly. One of the horrors of slavery was the fact that those in bondage could never feel as if they were standing on even ground. There was too much at stake and too many uncontrollable outliers that could tear everything apart at the blink of an eye. Every single character featured in this episode of Underground got the rug pulled out from under them.

As we’ve done for the majority of this season, Underground opens with Bookem Woodbine’s Daniel. Hidden away in the night, he’s teaching a small number of slaves to read. Unfortunately, his secret gets out, and before they even have a chance to act, enraged overseers on horseback surround Daniel and his comrades. From the looks of it, Daniel’s daughter might have been the only escapee. Though the laws varied by state and year, it was forbidden for slaves to read and write. It was also illegal to teach slaves to read or write. For both white and Black people, the punishment if caught could range from public whippings to death.

In “28” we watch Cato revert to his former self. Under the treacherous Patty Cannon’s direction, he’s tasked with capturing sixty free Black people and sending them into slavery. That’s thirty men for his freedom, and thirty men for the freedom of his girlfriend Devi (Rana Roy). When she learns of his plot, Devi is disgusted. She tells Cato that he’s only returned to the States to justify the horrible things he’s done and is going to do. In retaliation, he has her sold away with only 28 people left between himself and his freedom. Like he did when he was a driver on the Macon Plantation, Cato turns his back on his people to look out for his own interest, no matter how despicable his actions may be. Slavery was a horrendous institution, and while he shouldn’t be excused, Cato has learned to turn off his emotions to survive the inhumane and shameful state of his life.

Rosalee and Noah return to the Macon Plantation to discover nothing is as it was before. Ms. Ernestine has been sold away, the drunken overseer that tried to attack Rosalee is still alive, and James has been taken under Mistress Macon’s wing and brainwashed. Though Noah tries to get Rosalee to see reason, after their initial plan proves useless, her emotions, desperation, and determination get the best of her. When she goes to get James from the Big House, he raises the alarm, and she’s captured and branded for her crimes. In the midst of this, Noah discovers that she’s carrying his child.

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Underground Recap: Harriet Tubman Stands At the Center Of ‘Minty’

As a guide, warrior and no-nonsense champion, Aisha Hinds’ Harriet Tubman has been a visceral force during this season of Underground. Teaching Rosalee how to move cargo undetected and working with Georgia and Elizabeth’s abolitionist sewing circle, “the most notorious runaway" has integrated herself among all aspects of the cause and in “Minty,” we finally get the full view of her life and backstory. In an unprecedented move on television, Underground chose to put the spotlight on one character to drive the entire episode, and Hinds’ performance was exhilarating and masterful to watch. In a 19th century “TED Talk” of sorts, the audience meets the woman behind the legend as she paints an intricate tapestry of her childhood and how she became General Tubman. Born Araminta Ross around 1820, Tubman discusses the sisters that were sold away from her, and the horrendous abuse that she suffered as a child after bring hired out by her master to different estates. Even as a young girl, though she was often sickly, Harriet had a rebellious streak. She was mischievous and would use small acts of defiance to assert herself despite the conditions of her bondage. For Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beacher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin didn’t even scratch the surface of the horrors of slavery.

For Harriet, it was not just about abolitionists knowing her story; it was about them contemplating and fully understanding the violence of the institution of slavery and bondage itself. Despite her spunk and acts of resistance, Tubman came to realize that there could be no triumphs under slavery. Bolstered by rumors of her own sale to another plantation, Harriet decided to run for her freedom. However, as we learn in “Minty,” her actual journey to freedom did not begin the very first time she tried to run with her brothers. Though she only got a mile away from her plantation that first time, it sparked an inferno in Harriet that could not be doused. After befriending a white abolitionist, Harriet embarked on the journey that would lead to her tenuous freedom.

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Underground Recap: A Surprising Return And Unexpected Twist In 'Things Unsaid'

The second episode of the second season of Underground, “Things Unsaid” opens with Daniel (Bokeem Woodbine), the slave we initially met in the season premiere, the one who was teaching himself to read. He enters his cabin to greet his wife and infant child. Excitedly, he reveals to his wife that he’s learned to read and write. His wife stares down at the small piece of parchment where he's etched the word, “LOVE” and rips the paper to shreds, reminding him that this could get them killed. Back in Ohio, Elizabeth sits on the courthouse steps screaming and wailing, staring down at the blood stain where John’s body once laid. Meanwhile, at the Hawkes’ home, Rosalee rushes through her tasks of preparing some herbs for some of the injured escaped slaves to take on their journey, tears steadily falling from her face. Pastor Grant, an abolitionist conductor, arrives to pick the cargo up. Seeing Rosalee in distress, he reminds her to focus on her family. He tells her, “Elizabeth is going to need you.”

At Georgia’s boarding house, Harriet and Rosalee discuss a plan to move forward and help free more slaves. In the middle of their conversation, Harriet passes out, which alarms Georgia. Starring down at the scar on Harriet’s forehead (she was hit in the head with an iron as a child), Rosalee assures her new friend that these episodes are normal. She also asks Georgia to send Elizabeth a wire apologizing for her absence. It looks like Rosalee isn’t taking Pastor Grant’s advice to stay back and help Elizabeth through her grief. When Harriet comes to, she announces, “The plan has changed.”

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Interview: The Cast & Crew Of Underground Talk Tumultuous, Heart Racing Second Season

 

“We make ourselves free by the choices we make.” The inaugural season of WGN America’s stunning series “Underground” followed the Macon 7 as they made their harrowing escape from the shackles that bound them to the Macon Plantation in Georgia, to the free states in the North. A captivating series that has shined a bright light on the Underground Railroad, the horrific and morally corrupt antebellum South, and the abolitionist movement, the second season of “Underground” is out to prove that season one wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg. With higher stakes, heart-shattering storylines and the emergence of real-life historical figures, season two fleshes out the movement in a whole new way.

In late January, I traveled to Los Angeles, California to screen the first episode of the new season of “Underground” and to chat with the cast and crew ahead of the season premiere. I sat down and spoke with the series’ creators and writers, Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, director Anthony Hemingway, and cast members Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Rosalee), Aldis Hodge (Noah), Jessica De Gouw (Elizabeth), Alano Miller (Cato), and Amirah Vann (Ernestine). Season two newcomers, Jasika Nicole (Georgia) and Aisha Hinds (Harriet Tubman) were also present to discuss America in 1858, the high stakes of the series, and the challenges they faced as actors delving into this tumultuous period.

Aramide Tinubu: Jurnee, what was it like to step back in Rosalee’s shoes after seeing her go through so much in the first season of the series? Did it affect you differently because you were pregnant while filming?

Jurnee Smollett-Bell: It was definitely unlike anything I’ve ever done before. Physically, “Underground” is already the most physically challenging role I’ve ever done in my life. But, then to be seven months pregnant doing it. (Laughing) Luckily I had a great support team. But, I love Rosalee so much, and I think she’s just changed so drastically. She’s grown up; she’s a woman now. Not only is she a woman, but she is a warrior and a soldier when we see her in season two. I think she always instinctively had that, but now out of desperation she had no choice but for it to come out. She’s lost everyone that she loves, Noah, her mother, her brothers, the Macon 7. Even though she’s attained her own freedom, she realizes that it’s not so free. How can she really live in the North when everyone else is in bondage? So, when she meets up with Harriet; Harriet trains her to be a solider, and that’s what she’s become; gun-slinging Rosalee.

AT: Aldis, what always gets me about Noah is the fact that he is constantly fighting for freedom, he never stops. He’s always got a plan; he’s always got something up his sleeve. How do you get into the mindset to play someone who is always searching for more, who is always trying to figure his way out of a situation?

Aldis Hodge: I’m always searching for more in my real life. (Laughing) Coming up where I came from and especially being in this business for such a long time, it’s always a fight going on. You have to readjust your strategy as the times change or as you change personally. So, going into this, I really just try to play into the fact that Noah’s fight comes from his idea of himself. He understands his value. I carry this character knowing that he walks as if he is free. Mentally he knows he is free; he knows his value, he knows who he is as a man. He just has to convince everyone else around him. But, knowing your worth set in a situation where all they do is take it and try to strip that from you, you’re going to be a little bit aggressive. You’re going to be agitated and a little bit feral, but at the same time, he has to be strategic with how he goes about it. I just carry him knowing that he is free and he understands exactly who and what he is, given the time frame.

AT: Was there a specific moment that really shocked you during this season? I know there are always twists and turns, but was there anything that really stunned you to your core and shifted the way you understand your character?

JSB: Oh boy, yeah.

AH: (Laughing) There are some moments we can’t talk about just yet. But the answer is YES, and you’ll see it later on in the season.

JSB: I know that as Rosalee, I end up doing a lot of questionable things. Just like Ernestine knows how to work the system, we see that Rosalee knows how to as well. But sometimes in doing that you hurt the people closest to you. Even though your intentions are very pure. In your mind, you’re justifying yourself because you love them. So there are a lot of risks, a lot of secrets and a lot of questionable actions. In the first episode, one thing that did actually emotionally shock me to my core was the scene with John, when Rosalee is yelling at him about Noah. John has this naïveté that somehow the justice system is going to be just for a man that looks like Noah. As I was saying these words, I realized, “Oh my gosh! I could be saying this right now! How many of my brothers and how many of my sisters could I be saying this about?” That was just something where it was like, “Man. Yes, we come far, but we’ve got so far to go!”

AT: Let’s talk about the women of “Underground.” For Amirah what shocked me the most about Ernestine’s storyline in the first episode of this season was seeing how violence gets permeated back down into the Black community. It’s the violence against Black people in general and then with your character specifically, Black men towards Black women. How did you feel during that scene?

Amirah Vann: One of my favorite scenes is actually between Robert C. Riley who plays Hicks and myself later on in the season when Ernestine actually brings that up. So Misha and Joe brilliantly address those issues of how race in America in a grand scheme is affecting the daily lives of everyday individuals. It’s always so interesting to say, “I know, I get what you’re trying to say. I don’t know if I can digest it and apply it to my everyday life.” But, the idea that the writers are aware of how that permeates everyday life, I think it’s just brilliant writing.

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Image: WGN America