'Fleshing out' dark Dexter drew Michael C. Hall in
PUSSS...@aol.com
NEW YORK - Michael C. Hall, best known to fans of Six Feet Under as a
repressed mortician, is now earning kudos as a carefully controlled
Miami blood-spatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer on
Showtime's dark Dexter.
Based on a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, Dexter wraps up its first
season Sunday (10 ET/PT). It ties Weeds as the pay-cable network's
most-watched series in years, and Dexter has already been renewed for a
second season, due next fall.
Fans of the first novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, may have predicted
basic plot points of the macabre season, which involves Dexter Morgan
trailing the Ice Truck Killer, his ritualistic dismemberment of other
villains who've escaped justice for their deeds, and - this week -
his recovered memory of his traumatic childhood.
"I thought of him immediately" for the role, says Showtime
entertainment president Robert Greenblatt, also an executive producer
of Six Feet.
Dexter "has to have charm and charisma, but also be someone you could
believe would do those heinous things." And Hall, he says, plays the
role with just the right mix of calm creepiness: "When he's on the
screen, you're not sure what's going on behind his eyes, and that's
compelling to me."
Hall, 35, who grew up in Raleigh, N.C., studied theater at New York
University. He got his big break on Broadway, replacing Alan Cumming as
the emcee in Cabaret, then moved directly to Six Feet, his only
previous TV role. (He later co-starred in Broadway's Chicago with wife
Amy Spanger, from whom he split earlier this year.)
He wasn't looking for another long-term gig, especially one so
emotionally taxing: "The last thing I thought I'd do was another
open-ended commitment," he says, "and obviously, this would require me
to really sink my teeth into it."
Sinking into his role in an interview here, Hall says Dexter remains
true to the novel, though some specifics vary: "The skeleton is there,
but there's a lot of different meat on the bones."
And he says that Dexter broadens his profile beyond uptight David
Fisher. "This afforded me the opportunity to play a different character
and really flesh him out."
Dexter has changed over the course of this season's 12 episodes: "When
we meet him, he doesn't know what makes him the way he is, what compels
him to do the things he does," Hall says. "He's resigned to it, but
there's also a seed of curiosity to define what makes him tick." But
gradually, "you start to get a sense this guy cultivates whatever
persona he feels the situation calls for," Hall says.
Fans are conflicted: "Some people express a sense of guilt that they
are drawn to the show. Maybe the guilt is more intense because they
find themselves identifying with and liking the guy. And then there are
some people (for whom) it satisfies some sort of inherent sense of lone
justice."
How long can Dexter last? That depends on how long he can moonlight as
a killer without being caught, though he's already arousing suspicion
from some colleagues. "It's not the kind of thing that can just sort of
spin its wheels," Hall says. "I don't see it going for five or six
years." But he jokes it could morph into a sequel to HBO's prison
drama: "Dexter could get caught and it could turn into a serial-killer
Oz."
CATCHING UP WITH THE REST OF THE 'SIX FEET UNDER' GANG
Rachel Griffiths, who played Brenda Chenowith, Nate's love interest,
now plays Calista Flockhart's sister on the ABC drama Brothers &
Sisters.
Frances Conroy, who played mom Ruth Fisher, was recently in The Wicker
Man with Nicolas Cage. Her next movie, Humboldt County, is due in 2007.
Lauren Ambrose, who played David and Nate's sister Claire, has made a
handful of small movies and is filming one now called Tonight at Noon.
Freddy Rodriguez, who played embalmer Federico Diaz, is in the current
film Bobby and will be in Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez's
Grindhouse.
Messalina
PUSSS...@aol.com wrote:
> By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
> NEW YORK - Michael C. Hall, best known to fans of Six Feet Under as a
> repressed mortician, is now earning kudos as a carefully controlled
> Miami blood-spatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer on
> Showtime's dark Dexter.
>
He is so freakin' amazing in this. He really is a stellar actor, every
week I am blown away by him in this role.
Mez
CliffB
He should get the Emmy, but it will probably go to Mcsleamy or whatever
they call him from that yawnfest heartthrob medical show.