Sarah Michelle Geller stepped out of her comfort zone to play a badass scientist, Tanya Martin, in Dexter: Original Sin. Although she’s played formidable female characters before, including Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the actress found Tanya particularly satisfying.
On Saturday, August 3, at Comic-Con, the actress chatted about her upcoming film and character with Variety. “I’m the scientist. You believe me as a scientist, right? I do science-y things,” she said.
Explaining why this role was so important to her, Geller revealed that the prequel takes place in the 90s, and she’s the forensics expert at the Miami Metro Police Department, a job rare for women to get at the time. “I’m used to playing these formidable women, and she’s no exception, but she’s almost an even bigger exception because women didn’t run departments in those jobs,” she said. “They certainly didn’t run the science departments, and they certainly didn’t do it in Miami.”
Geller added that her character had to be “tough” to be around guys and take her stand. Her character was in a challenging work space, but she, on the contrary, enjoyed being the only girl on set. “It’s actually my dream job!” she added.
During the interview, the cast, including Geller, Christian Slater, Molly Brown, and Patrick Gibson, spoke about the sudden resurgence of Dexter, which has topped the Neilsen charts in the last two months. Dexter: Original Sin is a prequel to the original show, which aired on Showtime from 2006 to 2013.
“It definitely compliments the original show, but it also gives more insight into those characters… even Dexter didn’t know certain things had happened prior to him being born,” said Slater, who portrays Dexter’s father. The actor added that despite being interconnected, they are in a different universe and have the liberty to explore new ideas.
Gibson, who portrays young Dexter, played by Michael C. Hall in the original series, talked about wanting to bring his own unique take to the character. Gibson revealed that he had several conversations with Hall about their character and what he could do differently. “This incarnation of Dexter exists before anything I did. It belongs to him — not that he needs me to tell him that,” he added.
Dexter: Original Sin will premiere on Paramount+ With Showtime in December.
