Michael C. Hall on ‘Six Feet Under’ Legacy & When David Bowie Asked Him About Death (Exclusive)
24 years ago, on June 3, 2001, the first episode of Six Feet Under aired, taking viewers into the world of the Fishers, a quirky Los Angeles family who pondered existential questions about life, love and death while operating a funeral home. Michael C. Hall took home an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of fastidious, anxious middle child David Fisher, who over the course of five seasons transformed from a closeted people-pleaser to an emotionally complicated father and husband, in a performance that is often considered the first realistic gay male lead character on television.
Though today he is best known for his work on Dexter and its spinoffs — the newest of which, Dexter: Resurrection, premieres July 13 on Showtime (July 11 on Paramount+) — Hall’s first major role still holds a place in the hearts of fans. He spoke with ReMIND about how Dexter and David overlap, and what David Bowie thought was the major theme of Hall’s career.
HBO/Everett Collection
Between Dexter and Six Feet Under, you’ve spent a large chunk of your career around fake corpses. Does that get any less weird for you?
Michael C. Hall: It’s a curious thing. When I was getting ready to do the David Bowie musical, Lazarus, I met him and actually had a conversation about the fact that I just completed shooting an independent film with Rebecca Hall, a film in which her character shoots herself on television at the end. It’s called Christine — not the Stephen King one.
And David shook his head and looked at me and he said, “Man, what is it with you and death?” And I didn’t really know how to respond. I mean, I certainly never had some sort of mission statement that said that I needed to be surrounded in one way or another by dead bodies. But it has worked out that way. I’m just riding the wave. I didn’t make the wave.
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I do see a lot of similarities between Dexter and David Fisher, though, like the meticulousness and the compartmentalizing. Did you ever find yourself drawing upon David when you first started Dexter?
I mean, any similarities, I guess, took care of themselves? The external manifestation of the character is certainly different, but I can appreciate that there’s a degree of secretiveness, a degree of fastidiousness, a degree of compartmentalization that exists for both of them, obviously in different contexts. But characters who have some sort of fundamental conflict about them are the interesting ones, so that I was drawn to both, I suppose. And I don’t know, if I’m called upon to embody characters who have that about them, so be it.
I love Six Feet Under, by the way. It’s so good. I think it just had an anniversary. It premiered 24 years ago? How do you feel about that?
That’s wild. Yeah, we did some sort of collective Zoom meeting for the 20th anniversary. I can’t believe that was four years ago, let alone that it was 24 years ago that we started making it. It was an amazing time.
You’ve also died a lot. They keep killing you in everything. Wha has been your favorite way of dying so far? Or maybe not favorite, but most difficult or challenging?
I guess I got sort of drowned in the Hudson River in Kill Your Darlings. That movie, while I was still not quite totally dead, I was submerged into the Hudson. That was difficult just in terms of getting into the Hudson River in the middle of the night over and over again. And it was also a pretty gnarly way go.
Jessica Miglio/Sony Classics/Courtesy Everett Collection
How did you not get pneumonia?
It was in warmer months. It was pretty cold though. They had these sort of temporary hot tubs that we would go sit in between takes to stay in the warm water. Really luxurious.
I feel like I would have nightmares after that.
Well, you don’t have to have a nightmare if you just live it.
But do you relive it in your dreams, all these different horrific ways you’ve been killed on television?
No, not really. I mean, I certainly have troubling dreams, but none that sort of literally evoke anything I’ve simulated on screens. Not really.
You can also compartmentalize just like your characters.
Yeah. I mean, I think it’s ultimately a form of play. It’s a very sort of deep focused kind of pretending, and I never totally forget. I’m pretending, thankfully.
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