LOS ANGELES -- John Lithgow was going to pass on the chance to play serial killer vs. serial killer on Dexter, with vacation plans and his son's wedding awaiting him.
He made it to the ceremony but postponed the trip, and he credits his very understanding wife of 28 years, university professor Mary Yeager Lithgow, with pushing him into the plum job.
"She's the one who said, 'No, you've got to take the role,'" he recalled.
Lithgow guest-stars as Arthur Mitchell, the "Trinity Killer," whose victims come in threes and who both repels and attracts Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan in the Showtime drama.
Tempted to learn how the Trinity Killer has evaded capture, Dexter begins to make mistakes as he deviates from his protective "code," leading to a plot twist in Sunday's episode, Slack Tide.
Lithgow enjoys bringing the death-obsessed Mitchell to life.
"This man is very two-faced, like Dexter. A serial killer by definition is a man who presents himself in a very different way to the world," Lithgow said. "So it's an actor's field day figuring out what you reveal and what you don't."
Theater has been Lithgow's main focus in since 3rd Rock from the Sun ended nearly a decade ago. Productions have included Stories by Heart, a one-man show Lithgow developed and performed at Lincoln Center for two seasons and was bringing to England's National Theatre post-Dexter.
The work combines short stories Lithgow recalls his father reading aloud to the family with anecdotes about the actor's own life. He calls it a "simple but heartfelt evening."
"Basically, I have a conversation with an audience that turns into a performance before their eyes. It's kind of a meditation on the whole nature of performance and why we performers do it and why anybody would want to watch."
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