Sarah Michelle Gellar stepped out of her comfort zone to play Tanya Martin, a dangerous scientist, in Dexter: Original Sin. Although she has played several strong female characters before, including Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the actress found playing Tanya particularly satisfying.
The actress spoke with Variety about her upcoming film and character at Comic-Con on Saturday, August 3. “I’m a scientist. You trust me as a scientist, right? I do science stuff,” she said.
Explaining why the role was so important to her, Gellar revealed that the prequel takes place in the ’90s, and she’s a forensics specialist at the Miami Metro Police Department, which was a rare job for women at the time. “I’m used to playing these formidable women, and she’s no exception, but she’s almost a bigger exception because women didn’t run departments in those jobs,” she said. “They certainly didn’t run science departments, and they certainly didn’t in Miami.”
Gellar said it was “tough” for her character to live among the boys and stand her ground. Her character was in a challenging workplace, but in contrast, she enjoyed being the only girl on set. She said, “It’s literally my dream job!”
During the interview, cast members including Gellar, Christian Slater, Molly Brown and Patrick Gibson talked about the sudden resurgence of Dexter, which has been topping the Nielsen charts over the past two months. Dexter: Original Sin is a prequel to the original show, which aired on Showtime from 2006 to 2013.
Slater, who plays Dexter’s father, said, “It definitely pays homage to the original show, but it also gives more insight into those characters … even Dexter didn’t know that there were certain things that happened before he was born.” The actor added that despite being interconnected, they are in a different universe and have the freedom to explore new ideas.
Gibson, who played the young Dexter in the original series, played by Michael C. Hall, talked about wanting to bring his own unique take to the character. Gibson revealed that he had multiple conversations with Hall about his character and what he could do differently. He said, “This incarnation of Dexter already exists before anything I’ve done. It’s his – not that he needs me to tell him that.”
Dexter: Original Sin premieres in December on Paramount+ with Showtime.
