“Cross” star Samantha Walkes says filming the Season 1 finale of the hit Prime Video series was a “beautiful” collaborative experience between the cast and crew.
“We all sit at that table in the cabin [where] me and the kids [were],” Walkes, who plays Elle Monteiro, began, saying it was the episode’s director Carl Seaton who wanted to bring everyone together for the creative brainstorm. “We sat there for like an hour discussing what we think needs to happen how this needs to play out, what this should look like, what should it sound like, what are the things that thrill us, that are hiccups that we don’t understand? Are there holes in the script?”
“It has to do with [director] Carl Seaton and the way that he directs. He loves discussion,” Walkes continued. “We would just swap off, and it was a very collaborative experience. It was beautiful.”
In Season 1’s Episode 8: “You Had Me at Motherf—r,” a lot goes down. Aside from the takedown of Ed Ramsey (Ryan Eggold), Kayla Craig’s (Alona Tal) questionable meetup with Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill), fans finally learn who was behind the murder of Alex Cross’ (Aldis Hodge) wife, Maria (Chaunteé Schuler Irving): Peter (Ryan Allen) and Miss Nancy (Karen Robinson).
That’s right, she was playing in the Cross family’s face the entire time, delivering one of the most shocking and terrifying twists on TV. Walkes says the entire cast learned about the show’s ending together, including Hodge, who also serves as executive producer.
“[Creator and showrunnner] Ben [Watkins] loves surprises, so what he would do is he would give us redacted scripts until we had our table reads together,” Walkes explained. “I was in L.A. at the time when they were doing something different with the ending, and they just kind of braced me for impact. They were like, ‘Get ready!’ And I was like, you can’t do that to me!'”
Throughout Season 1, fans watched Alex grapple with the loss of his wife, a struggle that ultimately impacted his ability to strengthen his bond with Elle. But Elle’s love and grace for Alex never yielded, and ultimately he committed to therapy in the finale. However, Walkes said Alex and Elle will have new challenges to fight together in Season 2.
“Buckle up, because what you love and fall in love with in that love story that is very turbulent, but passionate and real,” Walkes explained.” I talk about real love a lot when I do these [interviews] because when we think about true love, I don’t believe in that. I believe in real love where it’s like, excuse me, my French, balls to the wall. It is unapologetic — we can’t pick and choose what we want to love about this person. It’s like, ‘if I want you, I want you, period.’ And so what you fall in love with in the first season will continue to be tested. And so it’s a good ride to watch.”
All eight episodes of “Cross” Season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video.
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