Doing ‘Dexter’: Patrick Gibson’s Portrait of a Serial Killer as a Young Man

When Patrick Gibson was auditioning to star in Dexter: Original Sin, there were a few items that never came up but probably should have. The first was his comfort level with the sight of blood; the series is a prequel to the Emmy-winning mid-aughts dark comedy about an avenging serial killer, to which gore, however tastefully done, is integral. The second was the matter of The Wig. The prequel’s timeline directly coincides with the original’s infamous flashback to Dexter’s first kill, during which Michael C. Hall dons a hairpiece not dissimilar to that of Lord Farquaad’s (plus, it’s stringy) — Gibson, as his fans well know, has a signature look of blond curls.

Luckily for all involved, Gibson, the 29-year-old Ireland-born actor who broke big in The OA and starred in The Darkest Minds and Shadow & Bone, is a very cool customer. He’s not at all squeamish, instead finding the filming of the gruesome kill scenes to be rather therapeutic. “That sounds mad,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s when Dexter is finally himself, and has dropped his mask, so it’s quite relaxing.” And though the show’s creators didn’t broach the topic of the wig — which, in the prequel, reads a bit more Jerry Garcia — until after the actor signed on, he found humor in his drastically different look. “I put that wig on and thought I looked bloody gorgeous, like, ‘I’ve arrived.’ ”

The offer to audition for Dexter: Original Sin came during what Gibson describes as a quiet period between roles. He shot to stardom at the still-tender age of 21 when The OA became one of Netflix’s early original hits, but he has taken care to pace himself ever since. “I was starting to feel like I was on a conveyer belt of doing audition tapes when this script came through,” he says. “I was worried about the idea of a prequel, but then I read it and was like, ‘Oh, no — this is sharp.’ ” After eight or so auditions, and after a photoshop mockup assured the creators that a dye job and brown contacts could improve his resemblance to Hall’s, Gibson broke his dry spell. And though he was relieved to learn he only had to wear the wig for a few scenes (Dexter gets a much-needed haircut early in the series), he found the more tempered makeover portion a bit off-putting. “They dyed my hair red, and that was weird for me at first,” says Gibson, who will keep his crimson locks until filming wraps in late November. “They did my eyebrows, too, so I had [visible] eyebrows for the first time in my life. I had to learn how to act with them.”

Original Sin is part of Showtime’s recent creative pivot, focused heavily on expanding existing IP — spinoffs of Ray Donovan and Billions also are in the works — and it enters the Dexter canon under the watchful eye of its dedicated fandom. The group’s love for the show has been tested by an original series finale widely viewed as disappointing and even brutal, as well as a reboot (2021’s New Blood) that failed to take off. “I’m not sure if I’m fully prepared for this because I don’t know what’s to come, but I know that once it’s out in the world, it doesn’t really have anything to do with me anymore,” he says. “I’m hoping I can bring some of myself to this character while also honoring what he did.”

Meanwhile, The OA, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s sci-fi phenomenon, remains one of the most requested reboots the world over. It ran for two mind-blowing seasons before Netflix inexplicably ordered a cancellation, cutting off the narrative after a huge cliff-hanger centered on Gibson’s Steve Winchell. Fans picketed the streamer’s L.A. headquarters (a visual precursor to 2023’s Hot Strike Summer), circulated petitions and even purchased a billboard in Times Square calling for the show’s return.

“That whole time was so wild, and it’s so crazy that I was in something that meant that much to people,” he says, noting that he still stays in close contact with the show’s creators (and, last year, his close friend and fellow Londoner Harris Dickinson starred in their long-awaited follow-up, A Murder at the End of the World). When pressed, he admits that he still remembers The Movements, a dance-like sequence that became integral to the show’s supernatural plot. “It’s in a quiet place inside me, and I think that will be the case forever,” he says. “I’m still very confident that they will be used again at some point. I don’t feel any rush for the show to come back, but I think it’s in our human nature to want to close the loop on stories. This will niggle for a long time, and we want to finish it.”

When The OA first came out, Gibson had to figure out how he wanted to show up publicly. He found doing interviews quite difficult, not knowing how to act when the light shined on him and not his character. He’s learned as he gets older that the antidote to a life in the spotlight is stricter self-privacy; where he used to regularly post personal pictures of his actor friends and girlfriend Maude Apatow on Instagram, he’s pulling back as he nears the release of Original Sin in December. “I think about the actors I loved growing up, and they kept their anonymity. I didn’t hear much about what Philip Seymour Hoffman was having for breakfast,” he says before adding, “Not that I’m putting myself in the same category.”

He also relies heavily on his peers — Dickinson, fellow Irishman Anthony Boyle — for levity. “When things are tough and someone hasn’t worked in a while, I’ve found people who are really supportive of each other. We’re there to remind each other that we’ll get another job.”

This story appeared in the Nov. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.