Uma Thurman calls herself a “fan” of the Dexter franchise, which has been going on for decades across various iterations. While the movie star felt that the scripts she was offered for the sequel series Dexter: Resurrection were “brilliantly constructed,” she had a nagging question in the back of her head: “Do they need me?”
One conversation with showrunner Clyde Phillips settled any qualms.
“We had a Zoom for a good hour-and-a-half, and I found him to be so brilliant and fascinating,” Thurman tells Gold Derby. “This is a very serious person, and the kind of artist that I would like to do a turn around the sun with. That was how I onboarded. And then I got to meet Michael [C. Hall] and Scott [Reynolds] and Marcos [Siega] and this whole fabulous team that had been working together for a long time. It’s a very warm environment.”
Thurman plays Charley Brown, the mysterious right-hand woman of billionaire Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage), on Dexter: Resurrection. Because the character “shows no cards and has a deeply conflicted existence,” Thurman must deliver a performance that’s “entirely masked,” she says. “She’s holding the reality of her internal struggle without asking for any sympathy or understanding from anybody. That’s what I sunk my teeth into.”
Stepping into an already-established TV show for the first time proved to be an “interesting” experience for Thurman. “Normally, you’re making a movie with a group of people that are just brought together and are all finding their footing,” she begins. “In this case, I’m brought into a finely oiled machine that knows who it is and what they’re doing and makes clear, fast, clean decisions. That was maybe a career first for me. I live for doing new things. It’s thrilling.”
Her first day on set, “I was bullying a serial killer,” she laughs. One of Charley’s duties involves inviting people into Leon’s secret society of murderers and making sure they abide by his strict rules. Despite all that, “I don’t consider her a villain,” Thurman declares.
“I’ve played some heroes, and I’ve played some villains, and I’ve played some regular people. I normally have empathy for who my character is. We have to realize that even people that we see as villains do not understand how or why they necessarily could be seen so. It’s part of what makes it interesting. She certainly has done some tough things, but she actually has a deep integrity.”
Charley is “used to being one step ahead of others,” but that all changes when she comes into contact with a mysterious stranger named Dexter Morgan. “She’s met her match,” Thurman concedes. “She does not understand Dexter at the beginning of the series at all. She’s someone who doesn’t mischaracterize people very often, and that’s another interesting thing to explore with the character.”
Most of her scenes are with Peter Dinklage, a four-time Emmy winner for Game of Thrones. “Sharing the screen with Peter, whose work I have admired for my entire life, was actually quite surprising,” she reveals. “I know his work so well. I know his voice. I’ve seen him transport me so many times. But when I was doing my first scene with him, watching him work and hearing his voice live in person literally took my breath away. I had one line, and I blew it! I fixed it, but that’s what it was like: he made me forget my job.”
Dexter is known for violence and gore, but that’s nothing new for Thurman. “I’ve been covered in a lot of blood in my career, and I’ve been choked more than once,” she chuckles. “But working with Michael, whether he was choking me or sitting across from me at a table, is really such a fine pleasure. He’s a beautiful actor, and the kind of actor that brings out the best in everyone around him, and he’s so subtle and naturalistic and strong. I like having that rub off on me.”
Season 2 of Dexter: Resurrection is filming now in New York City, and Thurman is mostly tight-lipped about what fans can expect. Mostly.
“I’m allowed to say, with great pleasure, and it’s my honor, that I will be seeing you again,” she teases. “I thought that Season 1 was just epic, and I was like, ‘What are they gonna do? Where’s it gonna go?’ And I’m not disappointed. I’m excited for the fans. I’m having a blast.”
The Oscar nominee for Pulp Fiction (1994) will be on the Emmy ballot for Dexter: Resurrection. She has already received a nomination for this role at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Awards.
Thurman also opens up about the recent re-release of the two Kill Bill movies into a single project, dubbed The Whole Bloody Affair. “I mean, can I be honest? It meant a lot to me,” she says. “Having these iconic films debut way back in the early 2000s, and seeing how so many different generations of fans — men and women, but women in a very interesting way — were impacted by them, and seeing them re-released in the cinema and put together and re-experienced by a whole new generation, it just meant so much to me. In a certain way, I felt like, ‘Man, it’s all been worth it.’ Some of these things stick, and some of these things have impact. I feel grateful.”
