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Tag: Edwin Hodge

  • ‘Parallel’ Exclusive Interview: Aldis Hodge

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    Opening in theaters and On Demand February 27th is the new sci-fi thriller ‘Parallel,’ which was written, produced and stars Aldis Hodge (‘Black Adam’) and his brother Edwin Hodge (‘Bumblebee’). The film also stars Danielle Deadwyler (‘Till’) and was directed by Kourosh Ahari (‘The Night’).

    Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Aldis Hodge about his work on ‘Parallel,’ developing the screenplay, creating a realistic multiverse, playing multiple versions of his character, working with his brother, and Danielle Deadwyler’s strong performance.

    Aldis Hodge in 'Parallel.'
    Aldis Hodge in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.

    The actor also discussed his possible future in James Gunn’s new DC Universe, confirmed that he is not in talks to play Green Lantern John Stewart, and looks back at playing Hawkman in ‘Black Adam.’

    You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Aldis Hodge, Edwin Hodge, and director Kourosh Ahari.

    Aldis Hodge talks 'Parallel.'
    Aldis Hodge talks ‘Parallel.’

    Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about developing the screenplay, the themes you wanted to explore, and creating a realistic multiverse?

    Aldis Hodge: It’s weird, we didn’t even think about the term multiverse, and now, it’s becoming more and more apparent to me that that’s exactly what we were doing. We were just working based off the original film ‘Parallel Forest,’ the Chinese version that we saw, that we were inspired by, and it really came down to the complexities of the relationships. The way they approached it in the original film, I think that they had a genius approach to the emotional depth and subtleties there. We just wanted to do our version of that, but in a way, something that paid homage, or honored the original film, and how it inspired us. The film was brought to my brother and I by Jaylen Moore, from Rumble Riot. Jaylen is a good buddy of ours, and he brought us a really great opportunity, then introduced us to Jonathon Keasey, who was another writer on the project. My brother and I, we got up and we talked to John, and the process between my brother and I, going back and forth, was easy. We know how we work; we just want to get the job done. We had the same goal, the same intention moving forward with this project. Anytime you’re working on anything with anybody, if it’s your family, your partner, your business partners, if everybody has the same goal in mind, everybody has a different route to get there, but if you have the same goal in mind, you’re going to get there. Where my brother had a different approach to certain things, that opened my mind to being able to see different options, and where I had a different approach to certain things, that opened his mind, and we just complimented each other on the journey. I call this a great education. This was school for us, and it was wonderful.

    Aldis Hodge and Edwin Hodge in 'Parallel.'
    (L to R) Aldis Hodge and Edwin Hodge in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.

    MF: What was it like for you to get write, produce and act in this project with your brother and really share this experience with him?

    AH: This was our first time as writers and producers, but we’ve acted together in many projects before, from ‘Sesame Street,’ when we were kids, to ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance,’ to ‘Big Momma’s House.’ We’ve done ‘Showboat,’ we did a run of ‘Showboat’ on Broadway for a long time together. We’re used to working with each other, and we’ve always been looking forward to getting an opportunity to work together again. Here, we just learned a lot on the producing side, how to manage a team, how to really stay in your lane, and figure out how to get people to understand how to approach you, and how to see you. For us, that was the new experience, where we were learning together, and we would go home and just talk about it. We’d talk about the day, and figure out, “All right, this didn’t go so well over here. How do we want to attack that tomorrow? This went right, and how do we keep it going well?” It was constant check-ins, and making sure that we were up to date on everything that we needed to get done.

    Aldis Hodge in 'Parallel.'
    Aldis Hodge in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.

    MF: Can you talk about the first version of Alex that we see in this movie, his relationship with his wife Vanessa, and how he is dealing with her grief?

    AH: Alex number one? I don’t want to give away the cookies, but he is a grieving husband. Him and his wife are dealing with a situation they can’t control. He doesn’t really know how to deal with her, or handle her on it, so he’s just trying to figure it out. He’s at a loss as well, and he is hurting in a way where he needs somebody to be there for him, but he needs to be there for somebody else, and he must figure out what that balance is. He’s going through it, but the relationship between him and Vanessa is very much layered. It’s not easy, because there’s a lot of doubt, a lot of blame, a lot of guilt that they’re dealing with as husband and wife, and they don’t know how to get back to being husband and wife. They’re lost in their grief, and it becomes suffocating.

    Danielle Deadwyler in 'Parallel.'
    Danielle Deadwyler in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.

    MF: What was it like working with Danielle Deadwyler and building that relationship with her?

    AH: She’s amazing, man. I keep repeating myself, but she was a gift, and she blessed us with her gifts, and I’m just so grateful. For my brother and I’s first time out, venturing into this space, rookies, we couldn’t have gotten luckier having somebody with this talent of this magnitude, and being able to come with so much humility, grace, poise, and just kindness. She’s a sweet person, a sweetheart, and she just also happens to be very brilliant at what she does, so we were very lucky. She’s a rockstar, you know what I mean? Again, we got lucky.

    Aldis Hodge and Danielle Deadwyler in 'Parallel.'
    (L to R) Aldis Hodge and Danielle Deadwyler in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.

    MF: Can you talk about the challenges of playing multiple versions of the same character, and was there one version that you really enjoyed playing?

    AH: That is the challenge, and that’s the thing that drew me to it. That’s the biggest opportunity presented as an actor, from just that isolated lane, being able to figure out how to, in the same space, in the same film, make these several different people, and make them as obviously different as possible. That’s really where the fun lies, because for me, I just chose different emotional groups, and applied them to different versions, to say, “You represent this, and you represent that.” It was the easiest way, because I’m not going to lie, there were some days where I’ll be on set, and I’d get confused. I’m like, “Which version am I playing now?” Someone is like, “Didn’t you write it?” I’m like, “Yeah, I wrote it, but don’t worry about it. Help me figure it out.” I wanted to make sure that I got that right, because just in my career, that’s always been something that I aim for. To play a bunch of different roles as varied and vast as possible and have such a body of work that is just so diverse it cannot be compared or quantified in any similar space, and this is as obvious of an opportunity, and a challenge to do so. I was happy about that. I didn’t have a favorite, but the idea of Alex is just my favorite because the thing that I loved about this was playing the differences, being able to challenge myself with having to be as familiar and equally unique in the same space as possible. I look at films as opportunities to go to the gym, flex my muscles a little bit, and to work out. For this film, what I was trying to work out, or work on was, how sharp and distinct can I be when it comes to really trying to build out this whole person? Usually, you’re on set, you only must worry about playing one person. Even if they’re pretending to be somebody else, it’s still the same person. You only must worry about one perspective. This one, you have a few very different versions, with very different perspectives, and I just wanted to make sure I hit that as much as possible. It’s really the whole idea of Alex that is my favorite.

    'Green Lantern: Beware My Power.'
    ‘Green Lantern: Beware My Power.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Animation.

    MF: Recently there was an online rumor that you might play Green Lantern John Stewart in the new DCU. Is that true? Have you had any talks with James Gunn or DC Studios about it, and would that mean that you won’t return as Hawkman?

    AH: I want to set the record straight. I was doing an interview, and someone asked me about my future in DC. I told them, I don’t know, because that’s above my pay grade. They asked me if I wasn’t coming back to reprise my role as Hawkman, is there anybody else I’d want to be? “What about John Stewart?” I said, well, I’ve been voicing John Stewart in the animated space for a few years now. I always had an affinity for that character, and I think that would be cool, but I’m not having conversations about it. Someone asked me, and I just said, yeah, that would be a cool idea. If that was on their mind, and they picked up the phone, I’d be open to it. Again, that’s above my pay grade. You’re going to have to go talk to DC about that. Ain’t nobody called me about nothing, so we can calm that chatter right there.

    Related Article: Dwayne Johnson Talks ‘Black Adam’ and Why He Wanted to Play the Character

    Aldis Hodge as Hawkman in New Line Cinema’s action adventure 'Black Adam.'
    Aldis Hodge as Hawkman in New Line Cinema’s action adventure ‘Black Adam,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    MF: Finally, looking back at your role as Hawkman in ‘Black Adam’ and making that movie, was it a positive experience for you personally?

    AH: Honestly, it was one of the best sets I’ve ever worked on. The cast was incredible. I have so many great memories from that film, from that film family. Shout outs to everybody. Honestly, we had a great time. DJ (Dwayne Johnson) is great, him and his whole camp are great. I miss my people, from Noah (Centineo) to Quintessa (Swindell) to Mr. Pierce Brosnan, the coolest brother in the room, Mo (Mohammed Amer), and Sarah Shahi. Everybody was dope on that set. I’m happy that we got a chance to get at it, because it was one of the best experiences of my career.

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    What is the Plot of ‘Parallel’?

    Parallel follows the story of Vanessa (Danielle Deadwyler) who takes refuge at her family’s lake house to grieve after suffering the loss of her child. Accompanied by her husband, Alex (Aldis Hodge), and his brother, Martel (Edwin Hodge), Vanessa attempts to regain her sense of normalcy after the tragedy. But soon after their arrival, she experiences an aberration when she is attacked by a parallel universe’s version of herself. Faced with the reality that multiverses exist, she must reconcile the fact that these parallel gates will either hold the key to releasing her grief or trapping her forever.

    Who is in the Cast of ‘Parallel’?

    • Danielle Deadwyler as Vanessa
    • Aldis Hodge as Alex
    • Edwin Hodge as Martel
    Aldis Hodge, Danielle Deadwyler and Edwin Hodge in 'Parallel.'
    (L to R) Aldis Hodge, Danielle Deadwyler and Edwin Hodge in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.

    Other Movies Similar to ‘Parallel’:

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  • Chris Pratt: Would You Sacrifice Yourself for the Future?

    Chris Pratt: Would You Sacrifice Yourself for the Future?

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    Read on for more from the cast of the movie.

    Moviefone: What were your thoughts when you first read the script for The Tomorrow War?

    Edwin Hodge: I enjoyed the script. I enjoyed the script so much that I just… I wanted to be a part of it after the first audition. When you’re looking at things in black and white, you only have your imagination to kind of really create the body, and trying to envision what this film would be, based off of what I was reading, it wasn’t that. It was so much more at the end a,nd I’m just happy to be a part of this adventure to be honest with you.

    Jasmine Mathews: Oh, I loved it. I mean, it’s not often that you find a script where you go, Ooh, and ah, and oh my god. Within two pages of… So I loved that and I thought it was so original, the take that we have on time traveling. And I also thought the fact that we have these sort of bad, powerful women holding space, and I’m up against these, and it’s not even up against, you have total bad-ass women, and you have men who are in power, but they’re not conflicting with each other. There’s no sort of ego or power struggle happening. I thought that was really fresh and refreshing, actually, and it made me want to be a part of it.

    Keith Powers: For me personally, it was just reading it. I was just like, “I really just want to be a part of this.” It was so fun to read, and I was just like, “Man, this is everything I wanted as a kid.” This is what I grew up watching, living. This is the type of actor I want to be, I want to be in these types of films. So it was a no-brainer once I read it. And I was like, “Oh, this is original, it’s fun.” I was like, “Hey, sign me up. I need to be on it.”

    Yvonne Strahovsky: I felt the same way. I couldn’t put the script down. It was such a page turner. I loved it and I had the same experience watching it. I thought it was just like a wild coaster ride of cool, amazing, fun, emotional, everything.

    MF: It’s funny that you say that when you actually watched the movie, do you take yourself out of it and just see yourself as a character? Or are you thinking about yourself in that scene? How you could have done things differently?

    Strahovsky: I’m definitely watching my scenes that way, but definitely in the first part of the movie, I was watching it with my husband, and we both forgot that I was in the movie until I came on the screen! We were so involved in what was going on, and then I went, “Oh, I’m in it, I’m in it.” So that was a good sign, I think.

    MF: At the top of the film, this question is posed, would you sacrifice your present for the society’s future? And I was thinking, man, like if I were in this situation, what would I do? Like if I had the choice, and it’s just a real honest question about selflessness. So, Chris, was this a question that you thought about when developing your character for the film?

    Chris Pratt: Well, yeah, for sure. Would… the question being, would you sacrifice yourself for the good of mankind?  Yeah. I think that is… the best way to answer that question, I think is like, I don’t know that Dan necessarily was sacrificing himself for the good of mankind as much as he was doing it for his daughter and for his wife and for the people who are close to him. And so that’s really, I’d say, the difference between this crop of soldiers who were brought to the future to fight versus, say, the conscription of the young men who went to fight in World War II. These were kids… those are kids that got sent to storm the beaches at Normandy and to fight in the Pacific.

    It’s the kids who got sent to Vietnam, and for this group, they’re all over 30. They’re all like 30 and above and so, these are people who have children and I think that if you’re not a kid, but rather someone who has kids, you look at the world in a little bit different way. You’re not necessarily doing anything for the good of mankind, you’re doing it for the good of your children and so, I think that might be a fundamental difference between… and to answer that question, yeah, Dan makes his choices based on what’s going to save his wife, his life, his child and that’s what he lives for.

    Sam Richardson:  For Charlie, I think you find out…. Without spoilers, he doesn’t have much in the world. So, it’s just he’s sort of, I’m drafted, and he’s a seemingly generous person anyway and very caring and very emotional and honest. So, I think some sort of thing like that, I think a greater good being that, I think that would have appealed to Charlie. And he would, even as unprepared and scared as he was the whole time and vocally scared about it, he’d still do it.

    I consider Charlie to kind of be what most people would be in a situation like that, right? A person who’s unprepared for war. A person who has never even batted an eye at the idea of serving military service or any sort of thing like that, is now thrust upon them. And it’s not like a draft in movies, like Vietnam War drafts… [With those] It’s young people. It’s teenagers. It’s just like, oh, you don’t know what you’re going to be in life. So, this draft, we’ll see… and it’s about young lives getting cut off early. [But] in this one, it’s people who’ve lived their lives and are full adults. I’m not that, I’m a bus driver, or I’m not that, I’m a chef, and now I’m a soldier. So, I think that’s a fun thing for Charlie, he’s what you and I would do if we got sent into this situation.  And also he’s a geologist!

    Strahovsky: I think that’s an easier question to answer if you’re a parent, and you know you’re leaving the world behind to a part of you, your lineage, your children. The stakes are a lot higher, which is exactly the thing that Chris Pratt’s character deals with. He’s got a family, and he’s got a young daughter, and what’s he going to do? That’s exactly the question, and he’s going to go try to save the world for his baby girl.

    MF: Was this a discussion that was had amongst you as actors, prior to going into this project?

    Powers:  Yeah, I think, like you said, it’s crazy that you said it is a thing where you’re seeing like, “Okay, how much do I care about humanity actually?” It’s easy for our generation to kind of get selfish and not think about something like that. It’s like, “Oh no, I’m not about to fight in a war.”

    MF: Well, we’re told to live in the moment, right?

    Powers: Exactly.

    MF: Live in the present, enjoy your present, don’t think about the future so much.

    Powers: You know what’s crazy, I think that would become our present though. It’s like, “Yo, this war that has to happen in the future, and this is our new present..”

    MF: We won’t have it, but you might.

    Powers: Yeah, I think it’s just putting, I don’t know it’s like the ultimate unselfish thing to do is to give up your present to be like, “No, I need to fight for humanity, the future of humanity.” Yeah.

    Mathews: We all kind of did it, though, with the pandemic, right? If you want to know how selfless you were, just look at how you were in the pandemic.

    Powers: That’s so true.

    Mathews: People were still going out not wearing masks, some people really stayed true. Because we were all on this common goal of beating this virus, which was a war in and of itself. We just didn’t have a visible creature. So if you ever want to know how selfless and self-sacrificing you are or would be in the situation, just look how you were in the pandemic.

    MF: The director, Chris McKay really wanted the film to feel real and when someone watches this movie they may think green screen, visual effects, CGI, but there were actually a lot of real sets, practical effects. What was it like being in these intense scenes with the White Spikes?

    Powers: Yeah, I think it was amazing.

    Mathews:  So helpful.

    Powers:  I think it literally was… I love that our film is kind of a hybrid of that. You got the CGI, but then you got the real sets and real situations. I have to be a hundred feet on a .50 cal gun and I would just… I’m afraid of heights.

    MF: Are you?

    Powers: Yeah, I’m super afraid of heights. So I had to really put that to the side and be like, “Okay, I got to get into it.” But that really helped for the scene, that stuff helps. That’s what you need, that rush. It was like, I just got to get out there.

    Mathews:     Yeah, it just helped ground you into the reality of the world more. We shot in Iceland, but even when we went back to the stages in Atlanta, they set the temperature to below freezing on onset just to emulate the Iceland setting.

    Powers: Yeah, it’s crazy.

    Mathews: So it was super helpful because it just makes it less taxing on the mind because you’re already in the scene.

    Richardson: It’s incredibly valuable because it helps you make mistakes. It lays them out right there for you. It’s like watching a thing explode is easier than, like, pretend like what’s an explosion supposed to be? If you can feel the heat of an explosion, you can react to the heat of the explosion. So, it was really cool and really great to see. It really helps you feel like you’re in the movie you’re watching the movie, but outside of yourself, you’re watching yourself in the movie in like a really cool way. I really appreciated that.

    Hodge: It’s one of those days where you’re playing against these monsters and parts of you is like, would I really survive this? Like, is this… no, it’s not going to happen.

    MF: My answer is no, I would not survive.

    Hodge: Yeah, it’s like, no, we definitely wouldn’t survive it, but the idea of community and banding together to fight this huge invasion, we can kind of rest and settle in the idea that we would at least try to support each other in this fight. I mean, it’s crazy. I don’t even want to think about it.

    Pratt: Yeah, I mean… and just practically the making of this, it’s just a massive undertaking.

    Hodge:  Massive undertaking.

    Pratt: We had so many shoot days, so many long days… wet and cold and rainy and late and smokey and physical. And it was just really… I remember being in it and thinking to myself like, “oh my God, we have 80 days left.”

    Hodge:  Left!

    Pratt: Like this is so hard! It was just a lot of work, but it’s really fun, and I’m certainly not complaining, and I’d happily sign up to do it again. The point being, it’s when you’re in that fight, and this is by means no comparison to people who really go to fight in war.

    Hodge:  Exactly.

    Pratt: When you’re in that fight, when you’re in that battle day-to-day, you just have to look at the guy next to you, make sure they’re doing fine, march forward, get to the end of the day, and don’t focus on the forest. Just focus on the tree that’s right in front of you, and so that’s really what it felt like on a day-to-day basis.

    MF: The aliens in the film, of course they aren’t real. I would like to know filming those scenes when you are fighting with them, what was that actually like for you as an actor?

    Richardson:  It’s really cool. When we did the table read early on in the process, we got to see a digital render, an early render of what the monsters would look like, and they were frightening. So it kind of helped to know what you were afraid of and know what that sound was going to be like. And maybe in some cases it helps you to kind of put an overlay in your mind, over a guy in a mocap suit and a puppet, to kind of legit be scared of him. Cause you’re like, “Oh… I know actually what that is supposed to be.” And oh my God, it’s so creepy and scary. And it’s fast. It’s cool.

    Strahovsky: It’s all the things. It’s really fun. You have to get over the fact that there’s nothing there very quickly, but I also found it incredibly liberating. You get to do your thing with nothing in front of you and just use your imagination to it’s wildest limitations or non-limitations, hopefully. So it’s really fun. It’s extraordinary watching the process to just how many different takes with the prosthetic, the unitard, stunt guy being an alien then with nothing at all. And then the clean slate with nobody in it and how they piece it together. It’s just fascinating.

    MF: Right, it’s tough because it’s not like you’re just speaking to someone who’s not there. You’re actually getting hands-on with the creature.

    Strahovsky: Yeah, and creating a physical fight. So, yeah. It’s fun.

    ‘The Tomorrow War’ is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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