They Would Kill for An Emmy

Michael, how do you prepare to play a character who's so extreme?
HALL: As an actor we're dedicated to simulating behavior, and I guess Dexter has dedicated a lot of his energy to simulating what appears to the world he's in to be authentic human behavior.
WILSON: It's like an actor playing an actor.
HALL: Without the tools that most actors enjoy, having like authentic human emotion. There's research you can do, but there has to be an imaginative leap with any character and certainly with this one, unless you're willing to go out and commit felonies.

Do you feel like you have an obligation to make an unlikable character someone relatable?
HALL: I think the character is very likable, and that's why people like the show. And I think that he's sympathetic because he doesn't quite understand what separates him from the rest of the world, and those are the very things that make him relatable. We all carry secrets—maybe not as formidable as his. But as far as empathizing with characters, I think that's a part of our job, not to judge whoever we're playing.
GRIFFITHS: I think the whole idea of a likable or unlikable character is kind of moot in this television period. They need to be fascinating and interesting and specific and human, even if that's in a way that we haven't seen before. And they're allowed to be flawed, be deserters or be serial killers or pot dealers and nerds, and we just don't use that old-fashioned framework of what a character has to be, and thank God.

Some of your shows took radical new directions this season. John, what did you think about "Mad Men" skipping ahead a year and a half between season one and season two?
SLATTERY: I got to survive; I thought that was good. I had two heart attacks at the end of the last season and I thought, "Oh, maybe they're going to kill me."

Mary-Louise, your character burned down her entire hometown. Was that exciting, or do you think, "My character wouldn't do this"?
PARKER: I really like it when the writers go to extremes. I never really saw a show completely chuck its premise like that before. We're not in the suburbs, because she burnt down the suburbs, and I love that. The more extreme the better. I want to burn down the f–––ing house. Like, that's so who my character is. I try to take the leap as much as I can. And try to save when I have a comment or a request for something bigger. But I loved that; I thought that was awesome. I would have been happy if we had moved to, you know, Queens or something. I would have been a little bit happier than San Diego, but they usually surprise me with things that are pretty bold. And I love those kind of surprises when I open my script—it gives me a little thrill.

But it seems like you have issues with Nancy as a character.
PARKER: It's not so much about liking. I don't sit there and think, "Do I like this person or do I not like that person?" I don't really take the time to analyze it like that. I'm much more concerned with the minutiae of it and my relationship to her. It's like a member of your family—you don't stand back and go, "Do I like you or not?" It's just a part of me, and it doesn't matter to me if I like her or not. I mean, would I hang out with her? Probably not. Do I relate to her choices? No. Am I like her? I don't think so. It's not important to me to feel as though I would like this person.
WILSON: That's the old way of television. Gotta make them likable! You see the casting people say, "He's not likable, she's gotta be sexy and likable and he's gotta be lovable!" And we think about lovable people being broadcast into our living rooms each week, "I love Ted Danson! And I want to give him a hug behind the bar."

Michael, is it true that you tried to get a feel for Dexter by stalking people around New York?
HALL: Oh, yes. I was in New York before we shot the pilot and I went out a couple of nights, went to a public place and endowed someone with really reprehensible characteristics and followed them around. [Laughter]

Rainn, your preparation for Dwight even involved the haircut.
WILSON: Yeah, I basically stole it straight from the English version. I read that Mackenzie Crook, who played Gareth in the original, went to a really bad barber in Slough, where the show was set, and got a really terrible haircut, and I definitely thought, "Well, that's an awesome idea." So I just stole it straight from him, kind of designed the worst, least flattering haircut for myself possible.
GRIFFITHS: Did you go to a barber?
WILSON: I didn't, but I spent a lot of time in the mirror with a lot of Dippity-do, kind of playing with it, and I kind of invented the flip-curl thing. My forehead is the size of, like, a cantaloupe, so I frame it with a little pear. It's really preposterous. But it helped my character a lot.

John, "Mad Men" takes place in a very different time. Did you have to start to drink or smoke more?
SLATTERY: NO, I mean, no. The smoking and drinking and the clothes—people ask that a lot. I think the moment-to-moment stuff is the same. The way I approach it is figuring out where you're going, what you want. And yeah, that stuff informs you: the suits and ties and cigarettes and drinks—it kind of takes on a life of its own after a while.
GRIFFITHS: Did you have to watch '60s movies to work on doing the hat?
SLATTERY: At the beginning of the second year, I was, like, "How the hell do they make a drink while smoking?"