Original Sin’ Star Christian Slater Talks Current Role and Working with Sarah Michelle Gellar

Take a nostalgic trip down neon pleather lane with your favorite psychopath/serial killer: In the new prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin, Patrick Gibson will play the younger version of Dexter Morgan as he comes of age in 1990s Miami and becomes the serial killer we’ve all come to know and love. And speaking of psychopaths, his father, Harry, will be portrayed by Christian Slaterwho once played one himself in the 1988 film Heather. We recently sat down and chatted with Slater about the new show and all things ’90s, including a former vampire slayer.

What drew you to this role? Were you a fan or did you specifically want to play Harry?

Christian Slater: Well, it was a complete surprise to hear that they were doing an origin story about Dexter, and getting the opportunity to be a part of that universe sounded like a lot of fun. I thought Harry was a great character and definitely deserved to be explored a bit more. I wanted to know a little more about his past. He was only in flashbacks; he was like a ghost. I felt this was a worthy story to tell, and a very interesting character to play.

Are you going to play him as the original Harry or go your own way?

It’s the same writers, so of course there are (similar) aspects, and there are certain scenes that were in the original show that we’ve recreated; but also, at the same time, our director, Michael Lehmann, describes it as a James Bond-type situation. It has all the dexterity to it, but it’s also our own thing at the same time.

I heard it’s set in the 1990s, which is very exciting. How has it been going back to the 90s? Are you enjoying it?

Yes. It’s fun, the size of the computers we have at our desks are fun and the old phones and having to explain those things to the kids here has been pretty interesting.

What’s your favorite thing from the 90s that you wish still existed? They had some cool trends.

What are some of the trends? Maybe remind me what some of the trends were.

Let’s see… Leg warmers, chokers, slinkies, talk to people in person instead of on Zoom.

Yes. Yes, there was definitely more human interaction. Now, of course, I get a lot of it at work, which is great. And at home I have a 5-year-old and a 3-month-old.

Yes, I also have a 5 year old. They will definitely bring you back to the 90s.

Oh you do? Boy or girl?

Girl. We just went trick or treating two days in a row – so much candy. She was obviously a character from Frozen for the third consecutive year.

Oh my God, this is amazing. It’s fantastic. Elsa or Anna?

This year she was Anna. But she was Elsa for the last two years. What were your children dressed as?

They made homemade costumes; my daughter made a flower costume and my son made a sun costume. He must be the sun and she is a flower. It’s going to be pretty adorable.

When your kids are older, they can dress up as your past movie characters.

They could, it could be fun. Well, I dress up for my career, but for Halloween I dress up as Indiana Jones.

What if you dressed up as your character Heather? That would be cool.

Yes, that would certainly be interesting. Good old JD. I just wanted to strap a bomb to my chest and be all bloody, and yes, hide my middle finger. It could work. It’s pretty good.

We have many Heather fans in the office, so I was tasked with asking you if you have any interesting memories from working on it.

Wow. I mean, yes, but it’s been a long time. I think it was good preparation for playing Harry, Dexter’s father. I feel like JD would be the kind of father, the kind of guy who raised a serial killer. I mean, he had a very strange father by himself in the movie, which was an interesting dynamic. But I think just having that kind of background helped playing this character on this show.

I wanted to ask you if that was helpful because he was also crazy and liked to kill people.

Yes, exactly. Also Michael Lehmann, who directed Heatherdirects this show.

Oh, interesting. I didn’t know that.

I hadn’t seen Michael in a long time and it’s great to reconnect like this. It’s just been amazing. We’ve done 10 episodes and it’s been wonderful working together again. The writing has been really interesting and to work with Patrick Dempseywho is another guy I haven’t seen in about 30 years (has been great).

It’s funny. What about Sarah Michelle Gellar? I heard she was on the show too.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is probably the nicest person on planet earth. I mean, she’s so amazing, so sweet, and all she likes to do is exchange baby pictures. Today she just brought out homemade cookies for everyone that all have pictures of our characters from the show. We are nearing the end. So everyone has started bringing in their gifts from home. She is just lovely, warm, generous, the sweetest, nicest person you could possibly imagine.

That’s great to hear. I was a huge Buffy fan. Speaking of Halloween and in the 90s I dressed up as Buffy the Vampire Slayer for probably 10 years straight.

We have people in the crew who carry Buffy shirts and they are pretty excited. As I am, I mean, I think she’s great. I gush a lot, but I really feel it. Also Patrick Gibson is wonderful as Dexter. It’s not an imitation, it’s his own thing, but it’s a wonderful representation of the character. There have been moments where I’ve looked up at Gibson and thought, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s like he’s possessed by Dexter’s spirit at times.

My relationship with Patrick while doing the show has been just amazing. I mean, he’s just a real guy and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of fun. You do the kind of shows that are dark and gory, and that’s how it was here Heather also you spend a lot of time laughing between takes because it’s just so funny and so crazy.

When you do these kinds of darker shows, you really have to find the humor while you’re doing it. I think the special moments are pretty funny. I find that even when I get scared, I don’t scream, I laugh. I’m funnier when I get scared.

Is it a problem when you shop at all? Especially on a dark show?

It makes me think I should have been the Joker or something. I mean, my God, it’s kind of weird. I’m just thinking about it right now. But no, I’m not bursting out laughing unless I screw up a line or something. When we do the scenes, we take it seriously and we do the best we can.

Dexter: Original Sin premieres on Paramount+ on December 13th and airs on Showtime on December 15th. You can learn more about it here.