The actor talks about being a likable serial killer (who now has a baby) on Showtime’s criminally engrossing series

As Dexterheads into its fourth season, its eponymous hero has married his girlfriend, fathered a son with her, continues in his job as a Miami Police Department blood splatter expert – and keeps up his secret hobby as a serial killer of other murderers. This year, he tangles with a wily adversary played by John Lithgow. Michael C. Hall, who has received two Emmy nominations for his portrayal of one of television’s most complex characters, is as tight-lipped about spoilers as Dexter is about his after-hours activities.

Here’s what Hall has to say about his role in this exclusive iF interview.

iF MAGAZINE: When you did your first press conference for Dexter in 2006, you seemed a bit intimidating. At this party, you seem a lot more relaxed talking about your character and the show. What’s different now?

MICHAEL C. HALL: I don’t really remember what I was thinking that day. I do know that we didn’t know what the response to the show would be, so I was probably somewhat guarded as a result. I didn’t know what the questions would be, I didn’t know if people would be disgusted by the show, I didn’t know what to expect. So I don’t know. There was not a conscious choice. I might have been enjoying the fact that I was shedding one character [SIX FEET UNDER’s David Fisher] for another.

iF: You’ve made Dexter, a serial killer, really likable. Is that attributable to the writing on the show or is it the way you play him?

HALL: I think it’s both. It has to do with the way the character is written, it has to do with the way the character is presented, it has to do with the kinds of people he kills and it has to do with the way it’s played as well. It’s a collaborative thing.

iF: How long did you have to think about it before you took the role?

HALL: Two weeks.

iF: What caused your hesitation in accepting it?

HALL: Well, I knew it was an open-ended commitment. I’d just finished a television series that lasted five seasons. The last thing I saw myself doing was another television series. So I just wanted to make sure I had a sense of how I was going to tackle it.

iF: Dexter is based on a series of books by Jeff Lindsay, but the series and the books are fairly different. How do you feel about the divergence between the two?

HALL: We certainly honor where he started, but he certainly has moved forward in his way and I just try to stay on top of it and negotiate the twists and turns. If it’s [too] close to the books, people read the books and know what to expect. Also, I think a book is one thing and a television series is something else.

iF: Are there any plot and/or character developments that have surprised you?

HALL: Sure. The fact that [in second season] he was entertaining the idea of rehabilitation was not something I anticipated, but I thought it was very interesting. I think as an actor, sometimes actors get a role on a show, they get some success, and the next thing you know, they’re saying, “Oh, my character wouldn’t do that, my character wouldn’t say that.” But I think the real work is in really making sure that that is in fact true before you say ‘no’ to something and trying to negotiate the twists and turns that are presented to you.

iF: Are you finding it easier or harder to go with Dexter’s fluctuations as the character progresses?

HALL: Both. I think when you play a character, for a long time, you start to know it on a cellular level, and you have to get out of its way, in a way. At the same time, negotiating twists and turns that I never could have anticipated when I started requires a new kind of consideration and focus. So it’s sort both.

iF: A lot of times, Dexter will be acting one thing, thinking that he’s thinking another thing and actually feeling some third thing. Do you actually have to sit down and break it down for yourself top level, middle level, bottom level?

HALL: Sometimes, you have to break it down, sometimes you have to leave it to the moment.

iF: Given that Dexter began his relationship with his now-wife Rita, played by Julie Benz, in order to maintain an appearance of being ordinary and average, and given that he continues to maintain to himself and to us that he doesn’t have actual feelings, does Dexter know/do we know that he’s heterosexual, since if one were pretending to be average, one would probably pick a heterosexual relationship.

HALL: I think yes [Dexter is heterosexual]. I mean, I don’t think it’s a question he’s ever asked himself, and for that reason, I think he certainly is. He’s never had to stop and think about it. He is a biologically heterosexual human man.

iF: The audience knows what Dexter is thinking primarily through voiceovers. When voiceovers are part of a scene, do you do the voiceovers first, or do you just have in mind what’s in the script?

HALL: Well, we record a scratch track for the voiceovers, for the editors, and then when we do our final ADR [automated dialogue replacement] session, I re-record it to picture, just because sometimes there are certain transitions, certain changes in focus or looks or cut points that coincide with changes in thought that you can’t really capture if you do it blind. Sometimes the voiceover is exposition and you don’t really need to think of it. Sometimes it’s more living thought, so you try to [think about it while playing the scene]. It varies.

iF: And do you ever get grossed out by anything on the show?

HALL: No [laughs].

iF: Did you think you got anaesthetized to gore from all those years of the funeral home in SIX FEET UNDER?

HALL: Maybe. While I didn’t realize it, I was perhaps preparing for it.

iF: How long can Dexter keep outsmarting everyone?

HALL: I don’t know. We’ll see. He’s a remarkably capable guy.

Source: IF