Ryan Eggold on Transforming Into a ‘Psychopathic’ Serial Killer for ‘Cross’ and Creating Ramsey’s ‘Ken Doll’ Look

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “Cross,” now streaming on Prime Video.

After playing the very likable Dr. Max Goodwin for five seasons of “New Amsterdam,” Ryan Eggold was ready to jump into something new. While “not necessarily looking for something darker,” Eggold was intrigued when “Cross” showrunner Ben Watkins came to him with serial killer Ed “Fanboy” Ramsey.

“It’s been a while since I played a villain, and I’d certainly never played anything this psychopathic, masochistic, detached and cold,” he tells Variety. “My initial impressions of him were just that kind of ‘American Psycho’ vibes, American exceptionalism to an unhealthy psychotic degree, and sort of this amazing representation of greed and power, and being hungry for power. The kind of person who’s capable of manipulating other people without remorse, without empathy — certainly reflective of certain figures we see today.”

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In the series based on James Patterson’s novels, Aldis Hodge portrays Det. Alex Cross, who spends the first season hunting down Ramsey, a serial killer he finds out is kidnapping victims, then giving them a makeover to look exactly like famous serial killers — before then murdering them.

“Once it got into the sort of the serial killer aspect, it was reminiscent of many serial killers history, like, Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer — these killers who are capable of a great deal of charm to lure people in,” Eggold says.

Eggold has the charm down, but it was tougher to tap into the darkness of Ramsey, who spends most of the season tormenting his last victim, Shannon (Eloise Mumford), physically transforming her into famed serial killer Aileen Wuronos. The actor tried solely to focus on the purpose of the character, not thinking too much about how disturbing his actions were.

“Playing a serial killer, you’re not there to champion remorselessness or a lack of empathy, you’re there to show and remind the world why we need heroes like Cross, and why family, connection and love are so important,” he says. “Because I think the only way you turn out this way — without empathy, without remorse — is that lack of love, family, connection and community and things like that. There’s a recklessness that you can embody.”

The role wasn’t easy to shake off at the end of the day, especially after many months of filming.

“By the end, I was surprised that it became really heavy. I would have to show up and be like, ‘I’m sorry. I’m gonna pull your tooth out today.’ Your body doesn’t know that it’s not real when you’re screaming when Eloise is screaming and crying,” he says. “It does start to wear on you, and I was excited to take that off when we finished.”

Physically, it was Eggold who chose the bleached blonde hair that Ramsey donned throughout the show. “I thought, this guy is going to such great lengths to curate the image of his victims that he would apply that same kind of meticulous curation of appearance to himself in some way, particularly in an artificial way,” he says. “He’s trying to be this all-American Ken doll when he’s anything but, so I thought he’d try the blonde hair, blue eyes, Mr. Perfect look. It’s sort of that Patrick Bateman-‘American Psycho’ element of perfection.”

As for his future on the show, which has already filmed its second season, Eggold says he has discussed options with the creator and that the “possibility exists” of the serial killer returning.

“Aldis is this immovable mountain of a force in the scene to push against, and he’s just terrific, not to mention handsome and charming,” says Eggold with a laugh. “Cross is such an intelligent character, and Ramsey, for all his faults and his psychotic qualities, I think he is somewhat intelligent. I think those two minds meeting in some kind of collaborative effort while being such different people would be really fun to play.”

When he signed on to “Cross,” however, he was interested in the fact that it was one season. He wasn’t quite ready to jump into something long-running after 89 episodes of “The Blacklist,” followed by 89 episodes of “New Amsterdam.” The latter ended nearly two years ago when — to the surprise of both viewers and those involved in the show alike — it canceled by NBC after five seasons.

“At the time, was I ready? Yes, very ready. So I remember at the time thinking we made five great seasons, and that’s a good run. I love this group of people, I love this character. I love what the show stands for. I’m happy to leave it and go sleep in my bed for about a week,” he says of the show being cut short in an abbreviated fifth season.

“With time and working on other things, it only makes me appreciate more how unique and special that group of people who made that was,” Eggold continues. “I think in a perfect world, if I could go back in time and do it exactly as I wanted, I’d add one more season and call it six. There are a few things I would have loved to put a button on, and to explore that we kind of rushed a little bit because we were wrapping up.”