The renowned actress reveals details about her role in the Dexter prequel!
Sarah Michelle Gellar, one of three iconic 1990s actors to join Dexter: Original Sin, recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her role as Tanya Martin in the prequel, which is set to premiere in December 2024.
What it was like stepping into the distinct fashion and hairstyles for their characters in this '90s-set series?
"It's funny — I think it's a different '90s than what I knew because I was like, 'I don't remember this hairstyle,'" Gellar says with a laugh. "But I played a teenager in the '90s, not an adult in a business environment, so maybe that is how people dressed in the '90s. Maybe that is how they wore their hair. They wore a lot heavier makeup in the '90s in Miami, oh boy. It's a lot of blue eyeliner and blue mascara. It's a lot of shoulder pads, and I like rocking a good pair of shoulder pads — it's the closest I'll ever get to looking like a linebacker."
Sarah — who admited that she's a "basic b----" for thinking Season 4 is the best season of the original Dexter — says her role is to be the "comic relief" in Dexter: Original Sin.
"It's fun to sort of inadvertently be the character that teaches Dexter everything that he needs to know to really be a good serial killer, but all the while not knowing that you're doing it," she explains.
However, Tanya is not merely a source of amusement—she is also a highly determined woman who has had to overcome challenges to reach her current career position.
"In the early '90s it was very rare to have a female head of a department, let alone a female head of a department at Miami Metro," Gellar says. "So she has to be really tough and a little bit one of the guys to be able to have made it that far and have thick skin."
Gellar enjoyed diving into this role because it's "a completely different type of character" than she's typically played.
"Normally, even though I play a lot of badasses, they always have this very sensitive side," she says. "And I guess she has one too. We're coming into an episode where you'll learn about her love for animals. But she's definitely had to work harder to get where she is than everybody else there."
The actress also revealed that she's "living [her] teenage dream" working on a set with Patrick Dempsey and Christian Slater. "I was talking to my high school best friend the other day, and I was like, 'Could you imagine if someone would've told us when we were in high school that one day I would be spending every day with those two?'" Gellar says with a laugh. "And she was like, 'No, we would never have believed it.' Can't Buy Me Love and Heathers and Pump Up the Volume, I mean, that was my teenage years!"
Since both she and Dempsey and are portraying new characters in the franchise, unlike the others who show up 15 years later in the original series, there’s a strong chance they could eventually find themselves on the receiving end of Dexter's soon-to-be-favorite knife.
"It's Dexter — everybody should be worried," Gellar says. "Even some characters in the first one that you never thought would be victims of his wound up being his victims. So can't ever be too careful on a show like this."
Source: Entertainment Weekly