“You would lose all of that kind of charm that Dexter had,” Patrick told The Wrap.
During last month's Dexter: Original Sin panel at San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that Hall would not only reprise his role in the sequel series to Dexter: New Blood, titled Dexter: Resurrection, but he would also narrate Original Sin. According to Patrick Gibson, he's been spending a lot of time listening to Hall's voice.
Speaking with TheWrap, Paddy joked about telling an audience of 5,000 fans that he falls asleep to Hall’s voice to perfect his own performance, but noted that it’s essential.
“He has a very specific kind of tone and intonation itself. So I spent a long time studying that,” Gibson explained. “And then honestly, once we go on set, it’s like, you kind of have what comes out, come out.”
Ultimately, he didn’t want to mimic Hall exactly, as Hall was the one who originally defined the character: “so idiosyncratic and himself.”
“And I think, if Dexter was like a mirror impression, you would lose all of that kind of charm that Dexter had,” Gibson said. “So it was really just about having it not bump with the voiceover and sound like the same person, but 10 years, 15 years earlier.”
Molly Brown, who portrays Dexter's sister in Dexter: Original Sin, took a different approach from her co-star. She didn’t listen to Jennifer Carpenter’s voice while falling asleep, but she did rewatch the original series. In fact, she was in the middle of a rewatch when she got the audition for Deb. However, after landing the role and finishing her binge, she realized she couldn't let herself be too influenced.
“I think what it is, is there’s an element of you have to let that go,” Brown shared. “Luckily, the writing is so strong that like, who Deb is, her voice, is just, it’s already in the script. I think there even was a moment where I was like, ‘Well how would Jennifer Carpenter say this?’”
She continued, “And I had to get out of that because it’s like, I have to do my Deb. But I think that it still is who she is, because it’s a lot of the same writers and it’s already there.”
Photos: Mat Hayward