E-mail a friendMichael C. Hall
airdate October 5, 2009
Michael C. Hall first made a name for himself in the New York theater scene. When he transitioned to the small screen, he brought along a strong and loyal following. TV audiences know him for his five-season run in HBO's Six Feet Under and star turn in the Showtime drama Dexter—both of which garnered critical acclaim and resulted in Emmy nods. His film credits include the sci-fi thriller, Gamer. Hall grew up in North Carolina and began developing his acting chops in second grade. He's a graduate of NYU's MFA program.
Dexter star talks about the way people react to the show in real life. (:53)
Full Interview (11:57)
Michael C. Hall
Tavis: Michael C. Hall is a three-time Emmy-nominated actor who many know from his role on "Six Feet Under." He now stars on the critically acclaimed drama "Dexter." The show has just kicked off its fourth season now on Showtime. Here now, a scene from "Dexter."
[Clip]
Tavis: A great line, and it still begs the obvious question - why do I like you?
Michael C. Hall: You tell me. (Laughter)
Tavis: I'm trying to figure it out. I'm hooked like everybody else; I can't figure out why, though. You're despicable, and yet I like you.
Hall: Well, I think all bets would be off were Dexter not killing reprehensible people. You could argue that he's saving more lives than he's ending, because he kills killers, for the most part. But yeah, I read the pilot script and I thought, is this really going to work? Is it possible that we could pull this off?
But somehow, I think it has a lot to do with the voiceover element, the fact that the audience is sort of in on the secret that no one else in Dexter's world is in on, and are as a result kind of implicated in what he's doing.
Tavis: Tell me more about how that changes your character, now that he - that was a powerful scene of you sharing this secret with this baby.
Hall: Well, I think Dexter always, as far as sharing the secret goes, relishes opportunities to covertly reveal himself, even though he can't ultimately, and having this baby, he can absorb this information without Dexter worrying that he's going to tell anybody about it.
It's also the first time Dexter's had something that is of him, something that he's thought was monstrous, out in the world, flesh and blood product of him. It's hard to deny that you're a human being if you have a child, because - he doesn't have circuits and wires in there. He's a flesh-and-blood person. So I think it cracks him open in ways that he could only fantasize about and ultimately can't anticipate what it's going to do to him.
Tavis: To your earlier point, which I want to go back to, that he relishes opportunities to covertly share what he's all about, what drives that? What's behind that?
Hall: Well, what's - there's a lot of things about playing the character that are fun, but one of the things as an actor that's really fun with this character is it's rarely an either-or situation. It's usually both - he both longs to keep his secret secret, and at the same time longs to reveal them to the world. He at one time reinforces in himself a belief that he's a monster, and also really craves fundamental human connection.
So there's always - that's why it sort of operates in a gray area, because it's neither black or white. It's sort of a swirl of both. I think the writers have always made a point to give me opportunities to say things that resonate with me as my fundamental truth without revealing to the person I'm talking to what I'm really saying. I guess with the baby it's gone to another step because he lays it right out there.
Tavis: (Laughs) Pretty much.
Hall: He won't tell anybody, you can't talk yet.
Tavis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hinted at this a little bit earlier; I want to go back and pick it up, though. When you first saw this script for this series, take me inside your head. You thought what when you saw this?
Hall: Well, the first thing I thought had to do with the fact that I'd just wrapped up "Six Feet Under" a few months before, and the last thing I thought I'd do was another television series. It's an open-ended commitment, once again, to who knows what. You never know.
Most parts you take have a beginning, middle, and end; this has a beginning and you never know where it's going to go. I also wondered if it could possibly work, because they were trying to sympathize a serial killer. But I took the time to read the book upon which the first season was based; Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly Dreaming Dexter."
Subsequent books and subsequent seasons aren't in sync, but they did base the first season on that book. So I've read that book, I've read the script several times, but I took about two weeks to jump on board. I knew that this was going to require me to spend some time simulating some pretty dark stuff.
But there was also a tremendous opportunity for comedy. At times I feel like I'm a police procedural, sometimes a romantic comedy, sometimes a horror picture. You never know. It depends on the scene you're doing on the given day. So as an actor, ultimately, I couldn't pass it up. It was just too unique a character.
Tavis: Now that you've had a chance to do both, which is something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and something, obviously "Dexter," now fourth season, open-ended, which are you?
Hall: Which do I prefer?
Tavis: Yeah.
Hall: I really - first of all, I have been tremendously blessed, twice blessed, to sign up to an open-ended commitment to a character, in the case of David Fisher, and another character in the case of Dexter, who have such a great deal of complexity and capacity for evolution and change that it doesn't get boring and I feel so well taken care of by the writing staff.
But generally, if I had to choose one or the other I would choose to maybe commit to things that did, in terms of their storytelling, have a beginning, middle, and end from here on out. But I've learned never to say never, because I was saying I'd never do another TV show when "Six Feet Under" ended.
Tavis: To that point, what'd you think of the fact that you go from one to the other and there are people who spend their life in this town trying to move beyond being typecast to find that next role and you go from one right to the other?
Hall: The stars just lined up. Michael Cuesta, who directed the pilot episode of "Dexter," was a director on "Six Feet Under" and thought of me. Bob Greenblatt, who was a producer on "Six Feet Under" and went over to produce for original programming on Showtime, thought of me. I think they did that independently.
They put their heads together and I got the offer to do it, and yeah, I was really thankful that "Six Feet Under" came along, but I was aware when it ended that some people's imaginations began and ended with an idea of me as a sort of fastidious, uptight funeral director. I guess in a lot of ways, that character was Dexter's first victim. (Laughter)
Tavis: Nicely put.
Hall: Of course, now everybody thinks I'm a serial killer.
Tavis: Yeah, exactly.
Hall: But I'm not.
Tavis: And you get greeted on the streets in what - we were cracking jokes before we went on camera here about being nice to you when you walked on the set, but how do you get greeted now when you walk down the streets?
Hall: The people who are really freaked out probably don't say anything at all, so I don't hear from them. (Laughter) People are generally pretty sane. They express their enthusiasm about the character, the show, wonder when it's coming back on if it's not on.
But yeah, sometimes people sort of give me a nod, like, "Keep up the good work." (Laughter) "I like what you're doing." Which is - interesting.
Tavis: Is that literal or figurative?
Hall: Well, I don't know. (Laughter) Or like, "I got some people I could tell you about."
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughter) Back to your earlier notion of sympathizing a serial killer, beyond the obvious, which we've already discussed, which is that he's at least killing other serial killers, he's killing bad people. Beyond that, how do you go about sympathizing, softening up, a serial killer? How do you go about doing that?
Hall: I think, yeah, along with the obvious, I think the writers have done a good job building in things that move Dexter to places that he never anticipated going. So I think you sympathize Dexter the serial killer by making him relatable, by putting him in situations that we can all relate to, along with the fact that he has secrets.
We can all relate to having secrets, along with the fact that he sometimes feels that he's inauthentic or fakes human interaction - we can relate to that. Beyond that, yes, Dexter is a serial killer, and the idea of being a father to him is daunting, but the idea of being a father is daunting to any new father, and I think the writers put him in situations that are crazy to consider because of what he does by night, but are also overwhelming and difficult to wrap your mind around no matter what you do, no matter what your secrets or lack of secrets.
So there's something relatable just about the day-to-day life that he when we meet him is cultivating, but I think he develops a connection to that life that he's built up to create a picture that goes beyond the pragmatic, and he starts to experience a real human connection to those things. I think that helps sympathize him.
Tavis: Give me the back story, the Michael C. Hall back story. Before we knew you on "Six Feet Under," your story was - you were doing - tell me about your life.
Hall: Well, I did plays from the time I was pretty young, like second grade was my first play in church, and I think, looking back, I always -
Tavis: I take it you weren't playing a serial killer then.
Hall: I was not playing a serial killer in the church play. It was a play called "What Love Is," and I was the guy who asked God to visit him, and in the form of people in need God visited. He at the end said, "Where were you, God?" And God reveals himself through an angel, saying, "I was all those people."
Tavis: Far from a serial killer.
Hall: And I was the guy.
Tavis: Yeah, you were the guy.
Hall: Yeah, and my parents were impressed that they could hear me in the back of the auditorium. They knew something was up. But I - looking back, I think it excited me more than anything I did as a child, but I grew up in an environment where I didn't even know where real actors who I saw on TV or movies or professional stage productions came from. I thought maybe it was another planet.
So I didn't think of it as a legitimate option for myself, but I went to college, I took an acting class there, realized again that I had a greater interest and aptitude there than anywhere else, and then was encouraged to apply to grad school and applied and was accepted at the NYU Grad Acting Program. So I got my MFA there and started acting professionally on stage both regionally and off-Broadway and eventually Broadway in New York.
I was cast to play the emcee in the Broadway production of "Cabaret" that Sam Mendes directed. I did that for 16 months, over 500 performances, and it was during that time that I auditioned in New York for "Six Feet Under" and that was -
Tavis: And the rest, as they say, is history.
Hall: Yeah, yeah.
Tavis: So Broadway is in the offing again at some point?
Hall: I hope so, yeah. I certainly imagine so. It's a difficult thing to negotiate when you're shooting a TV show, because it's usually a commitment that's on the shortest side six months, and it's hard logistically just to work it out. But I definitely want to return to the stage.
Tavis: And because I'm curious, the Michael C. stands for? The C stands for?
Hall: Carlyle, it's my middle name. There's a Michael Hall in SAG somewhere. I think he's the same reason Anthony Michael Hall has an Anthony at the beginning of his name. But yeah, it's a family name.
Tavis: It works though.
Hall: Yeah.
Tavis: Yeah, as does the show, like you don't know this. "Dexter" is now in his fourth season on Showtime, starring one Michael C. Hall. Michael, nice to have you on.
Tavis: Yeah, it's a pleasure.
Hall: Yeah, it's a pleasure.
Tavis: And thanks for being so nice to me. (Laughter) I appreciate that.
Hall: You don't have any secrets you're keeping, do you?
Tavis: Yeah, we all have secrets, but nothing I should die for.
Hall: That's right, I'm sure.
Tavis: (Laughs) Not at your hands, especially. But thank you for coming on, good to see you.
Back to October 5, 2009