'Cross' Season 2 Stars Explain the Deeper Layers of Episode 6's "Down and Dirty" Pool Fight
She is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association.
[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Cross.]In episode six of Season 2 of the Prime Video series Cross, FBI Agent Kayla Craig (Alona Tal) is still working to protect powerful and wealthy businessman Lance Durand (Matthew Lillard) from Luz (Jeanine Mason), a vigilante on a mission of vengeance who has him in her crosshairs. But Kayla is realizing that mixing work with pleasure by getting intimately involved with Detective Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) was a mistake that’s put her in a position to make some uncomfortable choices. At the same time, Kayla has been using former police officer turned prisoner Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill) to participate in some questionable tasks that he seems to enjoy a bit too much.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Tal and Gill discussed just how calculated both Kayla and Bobby Trey are in their actions, what their characters think of each other, exploring Kayla relationship with Alex on a deeper level, having fun with the awkward moments, and Bobby Trey’s style. They also broke down what it was like to be a part of the physical fight between Kayla and Felicia (Amanda Brooks) around the pool, getting scrappy, and why it’s sometimes worth pulling on the low-hanging fruit.
Working With FBI Agent Kayla Craig in ‘Cross’ Is Like Living Amongst the Tornadoes for Bobby Trey
"No regrets."
Collider: Your characters are connected this season because Kayla decides she needs Bobby Trey. How quickly do you think she regretted that decision?
ALONA TAL: Immediately. I don’t know. She’s calculated. She knows it’s a calculated risk. But you’ve got to do what you got to do, and she knows that.
It feels like he probably regrets that whole situation more than she does.
TAL: Possibly.
JOHNNY RAY GILL: It’s a journey. No regrets. You’ve got to live amongst the tornadoes.
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Matthew Lillard joins the cast for Season 2 of the hit series.
What do you think he thinks of Kayla, especially the more things she has him do?
TAL: Yes, what does he think of her?
GILL: I think Bobby Trey sees her as an agent of chaos and as an agent of the system that he doesn’t agree with in many respects. Working on some of the stuff with the soldiers reminded me of the Tuskegee experiments, and people know what that is. There are parts of this where he does not think she’s the best person, and that’s interesting coming from Bobby Trey.
TAL: And if you don’t know what the Tuskegee experiments are, you should look them up.
GILL: It’s complicated. It’s also great to highlight care and concern for our military brothers and sisters that have gone through so many things in so many different types of conditioning, and who often aren’t taken care of when they come home and are subjected to doing things that, a lot of times, they don’t want to do.
The Relationship Between Kayla Craig and Alex Cross Deepens on a Personal Level in ‘Cross’ Season 2
"Those are fun scenes to explore."
Alona, Kayla and Cross get together this season, which feels inevitable enough that she even makes that comment to him. What was that relationship like to explore? What was it like to find that with Aldis Hodge?
TAL: Painful. Like pulling teeth. No. Anytime I get to peel another layer and expose another part of the complicated dynamic between any characters, to be honest with you, it’s enjoyable, albeit sometimes uncomfortable. Those are fun scenes to explore, but also really uncomfortable to shoot because it’s work. It’s so interesting to see how these two people, who really communicate and jive on a psychological profiler level, then take it elsewhere and communicate there. How does that dance happen?
There’s a funny moment between Kayla and Cross in episode four when she says, “Go get ‘em, tiger,” and then she instantly regrets doing so. What was your reaction to that line? Was that scripted?
TAL: Yeah. Anytime I get to have foot-in-mouth moments, it's fun for me. I love when characters have a lot of humor, especially characters that deal with such dark subject matter, because that’s the juxtaposition that is the most interesting in life and leads to the most well-rounded, relatable, interesting characters. She’s cool and smart, and then she goes [and steps in it]. She knows it’s dumb, and it’s okay. It’s awkward, and it can be awkward. Making a meal of it is what we want. That’s what I want. So, I enjoyed that we made a moment of it.
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Lillard will face off with Aldis Hodge when the Prime Video hit returns.
The thing that I find so compelling to watch about Bobby Trey is that he always seems like he’s teetering between mad genius and completely insane, which makes him unpredictable. How did you view him? Is he aware of how other people view him?
GILL: No. He’s inside his own story. He is teetering on the edge, and it’s fun to play a character whose foot is just barely touching the edge of the cliff.
TAL: He’s pushing buttons on people and triggering people when he does these things. You don’t think he’s aware of it?
GILL: I think he’s very calculated, of course, but I don’t think he’s concerned with the views of what other people think of him or those kinds of things.
TAL: That’s the distinction.
GILL: He’s aware of the effect, but everything is calculated. He’s not concerned, but he’s aware.
Between the accent, the vocal inflection, the wardrobe, the look, the physicality, and how it all comes together, it feels like you’ve really thought about and spent a lot of time on who Bobby Trey is. Is he inspired by anyone in particular? What have you enjoyed about finding all those layers to him?
GILL: Thank you. He’s not inspired by anybody in particular. It was just puzzle pieces that came together to build this mountain of a man. It started with him being from Shreveport, Louisiana. How do those people sound? How do they talk? Where do they come from? Being in the military and being a detective, and wanting to get his family’s land back, those are all the things that I researched. I was very academic with it. It’s the first time I’ve ever created a character from a metaphor, that metaphor being capitalism. It was a gift to be able to put all those pieces together to create a very charming, cunning, psychotic, ruthless cat.
TAL: I have to say that the personal style that Johnny Ray brings bleeds into Bobby Trey, just in a very different manner. He’s a man of specific taste and flair, and I love that he brings that to his character alone.
Alona Tal Hopes That Kayla Craig Will Get Into More Scrappy Fights in ‘Cross’
"I really liked doing the physical things."
In episode six, Kayla goes to see Felicia, the woman under the deepfake, and they get into a physical fight around the pool. What was it like to shoot all of that?
TAL: I wanted more, is all I have to say. Amanda Brooks, who plays Felicia, is a dear friend of mine, and I was so excited when I found out that she was in it. She’s so utterly fantastic and talented. There are multilayers to why it was fun. I really liked doing the physical things that I got to do in episode six, and I wanted more of it. Because it’s not necessarily that Kayla is this G.I. Jane, but knowing that she can get scrappy when she has to is also another layer that I discovered and enjoyed.
GILL: That was actually one of my favorite days on set, watching you guys film that fight scene. It was great to watch, from the stunts to you guys deciding how to fuse those moments with your characters. I was just watching on the monitor from the wings. I like my fight scenes down and dirty.
TAL: Same!
GILL: If we’re going to fight, we should fight realistically, down and dirty. It was nice to see you guys get after it, especially as women. Sometimes people think the womenfolk is always dainty, but uh uh uh. Y’all was outside. I was in the wings like, “Okay, they cookin’.”
‘Cross’ Star Unpacks Luz’s “Bizarre” Episode 4 Love Story: “These Two Crazies Are Perfect for Each Other”
"I was just so grateful to get to do it," says Jeanine Mason, of her Season 2 arc in the Prime Video TV series 'Cross.'
That was the best revival of, “Bye, Felicia” that I’ve ever seen. I loved that.
TAL: Thank you! I do realize it’s a little bit of low-hanging fruit, but I will eat it.
GILL: Yeah, it was. I remember when I read that in the script, I was like, “Oh, okay.”
TAL: I think Ben was seriously waiting for the opportunity to be able to throw back to that one. I think he wrote her as Felicia so that that could happen. That’s what I’m choosing to believe.
- Release Date
- November 14, 2024
- Network
- Prime Video
- Directors
- Craig Siebels, Nzingha Stewart
- Writers
- Ben Watkins
- Franchise(s)
- Alex Cross
Cast
-
Alex Cross -
John Sampson
- Creator(s)
- Ben Watkins
- Seasons
- 2
Cross is available to stream on Prime Video.
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