It's dark. Like, really fucking dark and claustrophobically crowded. Nearly seven thousand superfans are stuffed into Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on this July afternoon, and they’re buzzing with anticipation. What little light there is in the room is from the smartphones prepared to capture what happens onstage. The nerds know it’s a huge moment for DC Comics. The House of Batman and Superman has had a bumpy few years. But now DC is hyping what it hopes will be its new blockbuster movie: Black Adam (out now), about an ultrapowerful antihero who was imprisoned five thousand years ago and unleashed in the present day.
Smoke seeps into the room, and suddenly there’s Black Adam himself: the Rock, on a pedestal fifteen feet in the air, in full formfitting costume. The worshippers gasp and cheer. But the joint positively vibrates a few minutes later when Aldis Hodge sprints onto the stage—beaming but not in costume—to join the panel. The actor plays Hawkman, a beloved Justice League staple who, until now, has never gotten his due on the big screen. He’s finally ready to take off. So is Hodge. Weeks later, over Zoom, I ask him what he thinks about getting a louder roar than Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. “Not bigger than the Rock,” he says, a look of shock on his face. “Not bigger than DJ!” Well, it was bigger. And it only underscores the fact that Hodge, thirty-six, has landed the role that could catapult him to a new level in Hollywood. He confesses, “When I first booked the job, I didn’t realize then how much love Hawkman had, right? The pressure came on a little bit.”
You might know Hodge for his character’s hacking (and wisecracking) skills on the TNT series Leverage. Or for nailing the impossible task of becoming Jim Brown in 2020’s One Night in Miami. Or for trading blows with Kevin Bacon on Showtime’s crime drama City on a Hill. In short, he has the kind of CV—combined with a ripped physique—that sets one up for a coveted role as a superhero sporting ginormous golden wings and a mace.
In public and onscreen, Hodge exhibits radioactive levels of charisma. But one-on-one, he’s reserved, deliberate, focused—and driven. As we chat, he reels off a long list of hobbies and ventures, including Hodge Brothers Productions, a company he runs alongside his older brother, Edwin (a fixture in the Purge films). “When you called me? I’m literally in the middle of finishing a new pilot that we’re trying to create, develop, and move. . . . I don’t have a personal assistant,” he says seriously. “I need one.”
Hodge was born in North Carolina, a child of two Marines. Edwin started acting as a kid, so Aldis wanted to try it out, too. His mom said okay, with one caveat: “If you’re going to go on these auditions,” she told him, “don’t do it half-assed.” He didn’t. But he never stopped cultivating new passions, either—from playing violin to studying architecture. Midway through our conversation, Hodge drops this nugget: He’s a horologist. What? “I’m a watch designer.” He loves the challenging combination of “physics mixed with chemistry and methodology and micro-mechanical engineering.” His company, A. Hodge Atelier, is in the final stages of developing a debut prototype.
This article appeared in the Oct/Nov 2022 issue of Esquire
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“It started back when I was seven,” Hodge adds of his horology origin story. “I wanted to be an architect. Really, because when I was growing up, people would always be like, ‘Oh, you want to be a rapper when you grow up?’ … I went to school for architecture. I couldn't continue my tutelage, because I would've had to quit acting. So I just moved into watch design, because I enjoyed the intricacies of watches.”
Of course, Hodge's 76-odd hustles will presumably have to continue to make room for Mr. Hawkman—should we see Hodge's super-powered counterpart pop up elsewhere in the DCEU. When we're still talking Black Adam, Hodge says, "It sort of sets the tone for any future narratives that come beyond after this. You know exactly why and where they're coming from." Future narratives? I ask. "Yeah. I mean, that's something if these things get a life beyond this film, which would be fantastic. This, I think, is the great foundation for that." There you go, kids. Should the opportunity for Hawkman to duke it out with Black Adam's post-credits-cameo-who-must-not-be-named, it sounds like the gameness is there.
Hell, why wouldn't it be? Black Adam offers the unique and unusual opportunity to hang with frickin' Pierce Brosnan, who plays the teleporting, future-seeing Doctor Fate. "Pierce was the last cast member that we found out about," Hodge says. "I think, they were holding that as a surprise." What's it like hanging with 007? "Man, Pierce he's just smooth as hell. Just so classy. And the casting couldn't be more perfect." While we're on the subject of Black Adam castmates—don't sleep on the film's breakout, Quintessa Swindell, by the way—I couldn't help but try to snag Hodge's mandatory The Rock workout anecdote. Hodge gives a rather serious, bodybuilder-curious answer. "I did call him about a couple things in terms of me getting myself together. I was getting size, but wasn't cutting the fat in the right areas. 'So I hit him and I was like, 'Bro, what's the deal?' He put me onto a nutritionist."
Hodge’s excitement—for Hawkman, the watch prototype, his family, even the nutritionist—is palpable. But then he turns serious again, pondering some wisdom someone shared with him recently. “If you’re too busy,” he says, after waiting a beat to make sure he has the words exactly right, “you don’t have time to get rich.” Aldis, man, it might be time to hire that assistant.
Photographs by Menelik Puryear
Styling by Nick Sullivan
Grooming by Tara Lauren for Epiphany Artist Group, Inc.
