Michael C. Hall: From ‘Six Feet Under’ to avenging serial killer

PASADENA, Calif. - It’s taken more than therapy to help actor Michael C. Hall play the odd characters he has introduced in his career. From a kindhearted gay undertaker to a psychopathic serial killer is a broad jump for anyone, even the most ruthless actor.

But Hall is a kinder, gentler sort. He was a shy kid who lost his father when he was 11 and “lived in my head” when he was a boy.

Hall has never been cast the way he looks. The actor, who played the empathetic younger brother in “Six Feet Under,” is now starring in Showtime’s “Dexter,” premiering Oct. 1.

Dexter is a friendly, charismatic expert in forensics for the Miami Police Dept. No one suspects that in his other incarnation he is an avenging serial killer. He doesn’t just murder at random, but picks victims who will escape the long arm of the law one way or another.

It’s not the kind of role you’d imagine for the baby-faced Hall. Still, his first big break seemed very exotic territory for the son of an IBM executive who grew up in various towns in North Carolina.

Hall was cast as the cynical emcee in the Broadway production of “Cabaret.” “My big break came when I did a workshop of a Sondheim musical that Sam Mendes directed,” says Hall, who’s dressed in black pants and a black shirt over a gray T-shirt.

“And it happened at a time when he was looking for somebody to replace Alan Cummings who was the lead in `Cabaret.’ I was called at noon to come at six for a work session. And I sang a few of the songs and worked with the choreographer and they gave me the job that evening. That night I went to watch the show.”

Playing in “Cabaret,” was a heads-up experience for him. “It forced me to visit for the first time, in a conscious way, my relationship with the audience,” he says.

“I had to step on that stage and believe that that club was mine and that audience loved me and I loved them. I came to realize playing that part and being forced to cultivate that sense of the audience that, up to that point, I’d had a sort of adversarial relationship to the audience and thought they maybe had their arms folded or were waiting for a reason not to like me. So I think that was really good. And that in turn helped me develop a better relationship with the camera.”

When he first paraded onstage as the emcee, it marked a turning point. “That was - more than any other moment, even when I got `Six Feet Under’ - when I thought, `OK, this is for real. This is happening.’ I was horrified.”

Horrified maybe, but he made a go of it. As a result, Alan Ball, the creator of “Six Feet Under,” was looking for someone to play the gentle David in his unorthodox television show. Hall auditioned twice for the part in New York. “Then I had a third and final screen-test day and that was agony because I flew to L.A. and there were four or five actors up for the part of David, and he parts of Nate, Claire, Keith, Brenda. We were all going in with different combinations. I basically went to my father’s funeral 20 times in the course of the day. I was worn out. But I found out the day after I got back to New York.”

Hall, who’s currently separated from his actress-wife, Amy Spanger, says he wasn’t worried about portraying a gay man in “Six Feet Under.”

“I recognized that it was an open-ended thing. And who knew where the story would go? And I recognized it was HBO and the pilot itself ended in a very emotional scene, and it ended in a kiss between the two characters. But five pages into that pilot script I recognized it was unlike anything I’d ever read, period. Not just TV scripts but film scripts and even contemporary plays I’d read. Any misgivings I had in terms of will I be typecast? were completely overwhelmed by an awareness of how strong that material was.”

An only child, Hall, 35, was born in Raleigh, N.C. because of his dad’s job the family moved within a triangle area of the state often. “I think that has a lot to do with a sense of movement. I think I had a shyness about me,” he says. “I think I discovered acting as a way to break out of that and as a way of belonging, a sense of being special.”

When his father died of cancer that not only changed his life, it changed his nature.

“My mother is a survivor who’s had a lot of things happen in her life that have been very trying,” he nods. “She communicated to me when my father died that she was not going to be some pitiful, victimized widow and I was not going to be a pitiful, victimized, fatherless son. She never articulated that to me verbally, but it was crystal clear that that was her point of view,” he says, tapping the arm of his chair.

“She was both parents to me. She’s the biggest reason I am who I am,” says Hall.

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Old pro Ted Danson is back on TV, this time as a therapist on ABC’s new sitcom “Help Me, Help You.” This new character is halfway between Danson’s egocentric Sam Malone on “Cheers,” and his curmugeonly doctor on “Becker.” But this kind of role is easier, thinks Danson.

“‘Becker’ was hard, actually, for me. Kind of fun, but hard. I like playing someone who desperately wants the world to like them. It’s closer to home ...”

Even though Danson has been working almost steadily since “Cheers” started in 1982, he says he’s not ready to quit. “I enjoy going to work. I really do like that. I love that process. And I have-like the rest of the world-mortgages to pay. There’s a reason to work, for me. But I love going to work. I love going to work and, as a group, trying to find out what’s true about something and then tilting it a little bit and being ironic or funny. I love that as the preoccupation of my day.

“But I lead the Life of Riley. Those (early) sitcoms ... were three weeks on, one week off, 9 to 3 jobs. That’s hardly a job. That’s not a workaholic. That’s a dilettante. I think I’m now about to earn my keep. I think the arm has come full turn here. I think we are doing 14-hour days and no weeks off.”

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The CW is sporting an intriguing new show called “Runaway,” airing on Mondays. Donnie Wahlberg plays a family man who has been unjustly accused of murder. When the real killer is faced with exposure he threatens Wahlberg’s children. Wahlberg and his TV wife (Leslie Pope) are forced to flee with the kids, sequestering themselves in middle-America as they go.

Wahlberg admits that he has a slightly haunted look, which lends itself to the character.

“While I may look young and dashing and handsome, I do feel very world-weary,” he says. “I have lived probably more lifetimes than I could ever have dreamed of, so far. But I think what I’m really able to bring in the character is I’m a parent. I have two children of my own. I have a wife at home. And, you know, growing up sort of in the street, growing up around dangerous circumstances, it’s not hard for me to imagine what it would be like to live this way. I think I’m certainly able to think about it on different levels because I’m a parent ...”

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The originators of “Gilmore Girls” have gone the way of the dodo and the show boasts a new commander on the bridge. David S. Rosenthal is helming the series this season, which airs Tuesdays on The CW.

While he promises big changes, Rosenthal says he intends to maintain the tenor of the show. “I am expanding the writing staff this year,” he says.

“There are eight writers on the staff this year, which I’m pretty sure is the biggest staff the show has ever had; a group of really talented, experienced writers, a good mix of comedy, drama writers. As far as the voice and tone of the show, one of the reasons I wanted to come to `Gilmore Girls’ and one of the reasons I spent last season working on `Gilmore Girls’ was because I so loved the tone and style of the show, and it’s so specific and so funny, and also yet so touching and moving. It’s something that I really responded to, just personally as a viewer, but also professionally as a writer. So, yeah, my intention is to keep that going.”

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© 2006, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.