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Aldis Hodge, best known for his roles in Straight Outta Compton and Leverage on TNT, is all set to play Assistant District Attorney DeCoursy Ward once again in Showtime series City on a Hill. He was cast alongside Kevin Bacon, who plays the character of Detective Jackie Rohr.
City on a Hill is set in 1990s Boston and follows ADA Decoursy Ward and FBI agent Jackie Rohr as they form an unlikely bond to take on a group of armed car robbers. Rohr is a corrupt albeit respected agent with an obvious racist persona. Ward is the new black Assistant District Attorney in town, who decides to crack down on the flawed criminal justice system and enlists Rohr's help for the same.
The series first dropped in 2019 and has aired two seasons till date, with the third season set to release at the end of July 2022.
Hodge is a man of many talents. Apart from acting, he takes a keen interest in painting, playing the violin and is also a skilled horologist.
Here, we take a closer look at Aldis Hodge and explore some little-known facts about him ahead of the Season 3 premiere of City on a Hill, which releases on Showtime on July 31, 2022 at 10 pm E.T.
Origin, hobbies and dreams: Some lesser known facts about City on a Hill star Aldis Hodge
1) His origins
In a 2019 interview with NPR, Aldis Hodge spoke about his humble beginnings, talking about how he and his family have been homeless on multiple occasions. He even recalled living in their car at a certain point in time.
Both his parents, Aldis Basil Hodge and Yolette Evangeline Richardson, served in the US Marine Corps. His mother had to raise him and his brother as a single parent. Being a former army personnel, her upbringing of her two sons reflected a disciplined lifestyle and a respect for education. During the aforementioned interview, Hodge recalled how he was always taught that education was not a place of compromise, and his acting career only came second to that.
Coming from a family of army veterans helped him bag films where he was cast as an army personnel. These include American Dreamz (2005), the docuseries Medal of Honor (2019) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016).
2) Not the only star in his family
Aldis Hodge is not the only actor in the family. His older brother Edwin Hodge has also appeared in multiple films, including The Purge film series. His most recent on-screen appearance was in the 2021 Chris Pratt strarrer The Tomorrow War, where he played the role of Dorian, a cancer-stricken draftee on his third tour duty in Iraq.
An interesting fact about the brothers is that their real debut on-screen happened at the same time. Both Aldis and Edwin Hodge starred in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance. In their childhood, the sibling duo had also featured on Sesame Street during seasons 25 and 26.
3) He had dreams of becoming an architect
Aldis Hodge did not come from the most affluent of families and was homeless more than once during his childhood. Since he was deprived of the luxury of having a permanent roof over his head, Hodge dreamed of one day living in a beautiful home.
He thought that he would never have the money to buy a nice house, so he decided to design them instead with the hopes of one day being able to build one for himself. Hodge drew blueprints from the early age of 12, and was soon put into a mentorship program by his mother to hone his skills. He even interned at an architectural firm when he was a teenager.
He soon got into his dream institute, the ArtCentre College of Design in California, where he took a course in Industrial Drawing. This was when he realized that he was not inclined to abandon his acting career to pursue eight years in architecture. He then gradually got into watch designing and later pursued it with his wholehearted passion.
4) He also plays the violin
Outside of his acting career, Aldis Hodge has other interests in the arts and could play the violin as well as the clarinet since his early days. While he eventually dropped the clarinet, he continues to invest both time and interest in the violin.
For his role in Leverage, Hodge had a scene where he had to play a violin solo of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. While shooting for the scene, he actually played the piece. Although what we hear is not really Hodge playing, he is quite adept at it.
When he has some time at hand, Hodge also paints as a form of self-expression. He has experienced many things in his life, and his paintings act as outlets that share those experiences with the rest of the world.
5) He is a self-taught horologist
If you think Aldis Hodge's list of talents end with acting, painting and playing the violin, think again. Hodge has another surprise up his sleeve, and a unique one at that. He takes a keen interest in unique handmade timepieces and is himself a self-taught watchmaker.
And we are not talking about your regular run-of-the mill watches, but exquisite handmade pieces. Given his interest in engineering, architecture and arts, his capability as a horologist is well-founded. He is also set to release his own eponymous brand of watches very soon.
These were some lesser-known facts about the Assistant DA from City on a Hill, Aldis Hodge. If you want to see more of him, don't miss out on the upcoming season of the Showtime series.
He is also expected to be on screen in the upcoming DCEU film Black Adam, where he will be playing the character of Hawkman.
