Something we have all been waiting for has finally happened. Dexter is set to return
to our screens eight years after the show was last aired. What is even more exciting:
Michael C. Hall will reprise his role as the avenging serial killer in a limited series.
As the premiere is scheduled for 2021, we have collected some truly fascinating,
weird and even terrifying facts about the show and its cast that will help you pass this time.
As long as we have already started talking about Michael C. Hall,
how about we tell you he was not the first choice for the series.
Jeremy Renner was initially offered the part but he turned it down because at the time
he had just played the serial killer in a film. So, he said:
“I can’t do any other serial killer movies or TV shows.”
Did we mention that Hall was not even the second choice? After Renner the producers approached
Matthew Broderick, James Spader, Ben Stiller and John Cusack. All of them turned the role down.
Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter were married
The show ran for seven years, so the cast members had enough time to get to know each other well.
Hall and Carpenter played a brother and a sister, but their relationship got a far-from-sibling
direction. After two years of dating they married on New Years even in 2009 and… got divorced two
years later. Thus, they had the whole whirlwind of emotions starting from falling in love and
ending with the signed divorce papers. None of this has affected the show, though.
Hall underlined:
"We certainly pride ourselves in being professionals. We work on the same show
but we're not in every scene together. We don’t see each other on set as often as you'd think."
Hall kept his cancer secret
The actor was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 38 and kept his diagnosis to himself
for the whole of series 4. According to the show's executive producer Sara Colleton, Hall,
who lost his father aged 39 to cancer, didn't tell anyone in his crew about his cancer, because he
didn't want them to feel sorry for him and stop the production. He began treatment the day after
they wrapped the 4th season. His then-wife Carpenter was there for Hall all the time.
Having lost his hair due to chemotherapy, the show star wore a wig for season 5.
A death almost happened on set During the filming of Dexter
episode The Damage A Man Can Do, actor Jimmy Smits accidentally stabbed a stuntman with a real knife.
According to reports, Smits, the newest cast member of Showtime's drama,
thought he was wielding a fake knife on set and proceeded with the script, deadly steel
in hand. Fortunately stuntman Jeff Chase was wearing a small piece of plastic over his heart,
which Smits struck with the knife. Otherwise, the whole thing would have ended on a tragic note.
Chase who was left without a scratch revealed: "Jimmy was devastated and couldn't stop
apologizing. I told him, I felt more sorry for him than me."
One character played by two people (and you didn't even notice)
Due to restrictive child labor laws in the film and television industry,
Dexter's son Harrison was played by identical twins, Luke and Evan,
for 29 and 25 episodes respectively. The boys started young in the business,
yet got the opportunity to play the parts of exciting characters of different TV series.
Another instance of two people involved in playing one and the same character,
concerns Angel - a Lieutenant so loved by the show fans and played by David Zayas.
David whose character has managed to survive through all eight seasons of the show
sometimes employed his son, David Zayas Junior, as his stand-in. Stand-ins are standard Hollywood
practice, with reverse shots, or angles where a character's face can't be seen. As you can see,
the two look very much alike, so you don't blame yourself that you didn't notice the difference.
By the way, a fun bonus fact about Zayas Senior: he had been in real police before becoming an
actor. In one of the programs he recalled taking acting classes in his 20s while working as an
officer in New York. His colleagues in the police department had no idea about his childhood dream,
except for his partner who would read lines with him while on patrol. Aaahh!! Isn't it sweet?
Cast members didn't know if their characters would survive
The series executive producer Sara Coleton explained why they never told major cast
members when their characters would be killed off. Even Julie Benz who played Rita had no idea!
"It has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever been involved in…
But you can’t tell them at the beginning of the year, because it’s just too hard for them
to spend a whole season knowing this, and it would somehow affect their performance."
It was even harder to bring it eventually to them.
Coleton compared the experience to announcing a death in the family.
How blood was made Blood spatters and pools played an extremely
important role on the show, so not surprisingly there was a special art of blood-making.
The blood used on set was made up of maple syrup, food coloring, peppermint oil and dawn dish soap.
Peppermint oil was required to scare off bees when they were filming outside.
The prop master on Dexter explained: "There’s nothing worse than someone
lying next to a pool of blood, and all of a sudden they’re worried about being stung."
Why the dish soap, you might ask? It actually
helps the fake blood wash easily out of clothes. What can we say? Bravo!
Now the pools of blood: they are made from acetate,
and can be picked up and thrown into any blood circle Dexter creates.
It feels a lot like plastic, and is about as thin as a few sheets of looseleaf paper.
Just in case this whole thing sounded easy:
It takes 12 hours to set up a typical Dexter kill room.
The name Dexter was picked for a reason
In Latin dexter means right, or right-hand. The opposite of the right hand would be sinister.
This refers to Dexter's Dark Passenger - the nickname he uses to characterize
the murderous side of his personality. So the metaphor goes as follows: Dexter is the
"normal" personality that he shows to everyone else and Dark Passenger is his sinister side.
The finale wasn't random
The ending of Dexter is on the list of the most hated show finales in the history of television.
Let us say it is somewhere in the top alongside the last episode of the Game of Thrones.
The writers actually wanted to end the series with Dexter getting caught and sentenced to
death - this is how he would be freed from his Dark Passenger he had been trying to suppress.
So, they came to the show-runners with this perfectly logical ending that was totally
destroyed. The executives wouldn't kill off the title character, just in case they ever want to
revive one of their most popular shows. And look, after almost a decade, they decided to do so.
In case you hated the finale, we hope this is at least some consolation for you now.
That's all for today! We hope you enjoyed our new video.
Stay with Rumour Juice and let's be waiting for the new season together!