During a recent interview with PopCulture, Stonestreet spoke about going from comedy to drama.
“It’s all about just kind of finding the truth of the character,” he explained. “And I’m not like an actory, actor person. I don’t know the whole method thing. My whole method is trying to find the most relatable part of the character I’m playing to myself. I lived experience. So I can bring truth to that character. Well, a little hard when you’re playing a serial killer. I don’t have any experience playing a serial killer.”
Stonestreet further shared, “So it really goes in the same direction that I’ve treated other things. It’s written down on a piece of paper that I’m a serial killer. Right? So the audience knows that. So I don’t have to play a serial killer. I have to play a person that is believable enough for you or anyone else in the world to get close enough to have me choke them out. “
To create that character, which he found to be “disarming but yet so creepy,” Stonestreet said, “Well, those things I can kinda relate to is how to be charming and how to be likable and lovable. And then I just let the serial killer part make its own world. It’s just its own thing.”
Stonestreet guest-starred on Dexter: Resurrection as serial killer, Al Walker or Al Jolly. He was part of Prater’s Serial Killers, which is a group of loyal serial killers who were bankrolled by billionaire venture capitalist Leon Prater.
His signature “move” was to cut his victims’ ponytails and keep them as part of a collection.
Al managed to escape unharmed from Dexter.
Last month, Stonestreet discussed his character’s fate with CBR.
“Nobody really ever gets away from Dexter. That’s a reality,” he explained. “I mean, when I was sitting there, on set, I was like, ‘How many people have gotten away from Dexter?’ And producers [were] like, ‘Not many.’ So who knows what’s in Al’s future is all I can say about that.”
Regarding whether Al knows about Dexter’s secret, Stonestreet said, “I don’t think he did, but Clyde [Phillips, creator] and Scott [Reynolds, writer] really can — that’s a great thing about being writers, they can say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what we thought all along.’ I don’t believe so, and that’s a testament to just Michael and Dexter being good at their job.”