Samantha Walkes is stepping into her purpose as one of the most talented figures in the industry. Starring as Elle Monterio in the hit series Cross, she delivers a performance as complex as the landscape of Washington, D.C., where the story unfolds. Adapted from James Patterson’s celebrated novels, the show takes audiences into the life of detective Alex Cross, but it’s characters who bring depth and dimension to the narrative.
For the Canadian-born entertainer, her portrayal was a balance of showcasing independence, while still being deeply connected to the show’s protagonist, played by Aldis Hodge. “I created an entire world for Elle,” she shares. “Memories from her childhood, her history with Alex Cross—it was about building a person who could stand on her own while weaving seamlessly into this larger story.” Her immersive approach to character development, including working closely with a political psychologist on set, allowed her to explore not just her character’s personal struggles, but also the nuanced dynamics of her relationship with the widowed father of two.
The show, which rocketed to number one on Prime Video shortly after its release, is as much about community and representation as it is about mystery. The immediate resonance of the show with viewers feels like a culmination of the intense emotional labor that went into bringing it to life. “I could feel it on set—that this show was going to heal, it was going to change people,” she reflects.
From the vibrant authenticity of its setting to the layered themes of justice and healing, Cross marks an exciting new chapter in Walkes’ career. In an exclusive interview with ESSENCE, she dives deeper into her transformative experience on the series.
ESSENCE: I wanted to congratulate you on the success of Cross—it’s a great series. How do you feel about the reception that the show has been getting thus far?
Samantha Walkes: I haven’t been sleeping. I’ve been napping in periods. It’s so overwhelming to have this show jump to number one in just days of its release. However, I will say that I remember shooting season one and there’d be moments where we would finish a scene or finish something very intense that happened in season one. And I remember always coming back to a place of stillness, which is what I try to do and just, not remove myself from the set, but just find a space where I can just come back to me and just assess the work I’ve done.
In those moments of stillness, I could feel the divine say, “this is going to heal, this is going to change people, this is what your community needs right now.” And I could feel it’s like knowing something without knowing it can be true. We’ve all had those moments where it’s like, “no, I need to do this thing and I can’t tell you why, or I have to leave and move this.” These moments where you’re just like, “I just know this and I don’t have any data to support it. I don’t have facts.” And I just remember one time specifically with Aldis just being like, “you know this is going to change things.” And so the reception of it, I’m like, oh, this is what it was, how hungry and thirsty our community is specifically for seeing these kinds of relationships portrayed on screen.
Elle is a very complex role in my opinion. What steps or what methods did you take to bring such a multi-layered character to life on screen like that?
So, I do a process where it’s called absorption and it’s basically creating an entire world for Elle. I’ll create memories from her childhood, the first time she met Alex Cross as a kid, their reconnection through high school, then again in college, then falling out of touch, and then all of these memories about her own life that she’s built apart from this man, because part of why I was so eager to play this role is because it wasn’t just an extension of the lead character. They built an entire story around just her history alone. So, I just took that and just made all of these other threads and rooted her in even more of that. I think part of understanding the psychology behind dating a detective who is also a black man in America, who is also a widower of two kids, I had the opportunity to, it was extended to us to have these therapists on site for us because dealing with suicide, we’re dealing with all of these things and just in case it was triggering for any of the cast and crew, we had access to this. Well, this person that they hired ended up being a political psychologist. So we would start talking about the things, the content, how heavy it is, how am I handling it as Samantha as the performer, going into these conversations with my castmates, my colleagues.
Then, it kind of morphed into asking her about the psychology behind dating and then how do we do that and what’s the cognitive dissonance that has to exist in someone like Elle who is an activist, to still build these bridges to his heart, to make it a point to say, I want this relationship. So it went from her assisting me as Samantha to her assisting me as Elle. And so we kind of had this beautiful, well-rounded relationship throughout the season where I could ask her questions on anything and be like, this is where I see this going. And she could fill it out for me too. So there was also that that really helped.
That’s an interesting process that you broke down. I wanted to ask—what do you think was the most challenging aspect of playing Elle?
Not having an answer to a lot of the unknowns. It’s funny, just as human beings, when there’s a question mark, we get really uncomfortable and we think that we’re not safe. We see that as an insecurity and therefore if I don’t have an answer for that, that puts me in danger. And what I realized when I was breaking down certain things, even that dinner party scene where it all goes left, there’s all these unknowns, now it’s become, “do I really know who you are?” But I do know you and I know what you’re capable of and I know who you could be if you chose you. And so all of these unknowns though made me uncomfortable with Samantha.
And then I was like, wait, we should lean into that because it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. It doesn’t mean that she’s unsafe. I don’t have to wrap this up in a bow and know exactly where Elle is going, what she’s choosing, where her heart is at every point in this scene. Because in real life we don’t know those things. So leaning into that and releasing that and having to tell my body, you’re not unsafe, you’re fine. This feels wrong because you don’t have an answer. But it’s not wrong, it’s not unhealthy, it’s just that we don’t know and that’s okay. We can sit in that insecurity and not move, not pivot, and just wait for more to come.
I’m noticing sometimes you say Samantha, sometimes you say Elle. It’s almost as if you fully kind of immersed yourself in the role, which I know a lot of actors do. Was it difficult to disassociate at times after you finished filming?
No. All of the memories and everything that’s ever scarred or traumatized Elle in her life and made her this person, nothing I took from my own. I built a wall that was completely separate from Samantha. But what ends up happening is, and I think this is what you’re picking up on, is because I’m still learning, I feel like I’m always a student of my craft still. I’ll have these moments where I’m like, “oh, why does that hit different or why do I feel that?” And it’s actually Samantha’s insecurity that is coming through. It’s actually me feeling uncomfortable and not Elle. So I have to justify that, I have to go through that and feel, not replace, but shift the lens so that I can access her in a way that is separate from me because she’s taught me a lot about myself. Like this woman has opened up a dialogue within me to start having. And so that has also been a blessing in disguise, which I didn’t plan on.
There’s a very talented cast on Cross, and Ben Watkins, he was the one who helmed it all. Did you learn anything specifically from anyone or just working on set?
I think one of the best things was watching my colleagues take all of the space. Sometimes as black people, we are not afforded the space in the room. So our psychology is not to take it initially, right? For instance, a very popular testing of this is walking down the street. A sidewalk is built for pedestrians.
Yes.
We will walk on the street and we are actually more conscious of our bodies and how much space we take up that we will actually move in the appropriate direction if someone is in the middle of the sidewalk walking towards us. But I’ve watched people who are not of the diaspora and they take all the space, they take all the space and then you have to make an adjustment. And so I watched my colleagues take all the space unapologetically and I realize that that is actually the key to grounded, rooted performances because if you take all the space, it means you’re also taking your time.
So you have to give breath to every word. You have to give breath to every moment so that the audience can come and journey with you completely. If you move so fast and you’re not having all of the thoughts, and I’m not talking even the dialogue, just the inner dialogue of that part and that, it won’t translate in the same way. So one of the best things I learned just watching was just how much space people took. And I was like, “I want this for my life. This is how I want it to be.”
So I have a question too, and please correct me if I’m wrong. I know that the series is set in Washington, D.C., but y’all filmed mostly in Toronto…
Predominantly, the production was shot in Toronto. They shot a few days in D.C. to get those really iconic shots.
Okay. So, because D.C. is almost like a character in itself for the show, how do you think the production was able to recreate the essence of DC and how important is the city to the series?
Oh my God. I’ll answer the latter part first. It’s incredibly significant. I remember we were at Comic-Con in New York a couple weeks ago, and one of the reporters was a D.C. local and the look on his face as he asked us questions, and it’s that look of “I feel seen.”
It’s not just these white pillars and it’s real D.C., it’s what I know it to be, but the world doesn’t get to see us. And the way he talked to us, it was like, it almost made me emotional because that is the power of representation as all of a sudden we are all included in this story on this ride together. I think what they did very well was because of the state of the industry, what they did was they put the money into our production quality, the way that they rebuilt Ben’s Chili Bowl down to the cracked tile on the left side of the second booth. They really did take time and were intentional about the effort they put into making sure it looked real. And I think too–our audiences are so smart, and I don’t think we give our audiences enough credit; in our writing that is.
This show does that. One of our producers is a D.C. local, and he came up to Aldis all the time and told him, “say it like this.” You know what I mean? And listen, that slight adjustment, already I’m seeing on socials. And again, representation matters. Now all of a sudden they’re along for the ride, even if he doesn’t do it every single time the right way, he did that one time. You know what I mean? And so it can also translate very well, even though we were in Toronto.
We touched upon this a few couple of times in the conversation too the themes in Cross and the things that it addresses and how important it is to our community as well. What do you hope that viewers can take away from your character as well as the larger story of the series?
I really want people to keep these conversations going. I think it’s so easy to get distracted. I mean, we just came out of an election. There’s always so much to talk about, and I think what I would love to see is we deal with not just social justice, we deal with men’s health, we deal with community. I would really love for these themes to then follow you into the dining room, over coffee with friends and girlfriends and just keep that conversation going as to what you’re seeing so that we can continue to break barriers and expand our minds and expand ourselves.