Dexter: Resurrection actor Jack Alcott is taking the death threats he received for playing Harrison Morgan in New Blood in stride. The story that began in Dexter is now continuing on Paramount+ in Resurrection, but that wasn't the first attempt to continue the tale of Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan, a blood splatter analyst working for the Miami Metro Police Department. Before picking up his twisted antics in the Big Apple with Resurrection last year, 2021's New Blood took place in the small town of Iron Lake in upstate New York.
Unlike the current Dexter sequel series, New Blood was only ever intended as a 10-episode limited series to give the successful psychopath a definitive ending. It primarily acted as a father-son story between Dexter and his son Harrison, who he had in the original crime show with his late wife Rita, and sent away to live with his then-girlfriend Hannah McKay in Argentina upon faking his death.
Unfortunately, Harrison, now a teenager played by Jack Alcott in New Blood, became a controversial character in his time in Iron Lake. Much of the series explored Harrison's own Dark Passenger and violent urges, but many found he came across as a moody teenager. Those criticisms worsened in the finale when he "killed" his father, Dexter, upon seeing him as a cold-blooded killer, something many found hypocritical given his own violent actions earlier in the season.
The Direct spoke exclusively with Harrison's actor, Jack Alcott, on the red carpet at the 53rd Saturn Awards, where he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series. Speaking on his divisive presence in Dexter: New Blood, Alcott revealed he "got death threats" for a "solid year" after the show aired:
The Direct: "I feel like your character did get a lot of hate after [Dexter: New Blood's] ending. How did you handle that? And then, have you seen that change now that 'Resurrection' has come out?"
Jack Alcott: "Yeah. I mean, I got death threats for, like—Jesus, a solid year after 'New Blood.' And there were a couple that were concerning, but most of them were, 'I'm gonna Dexter you on a Dexter table.' A lot of that. And that was upsetting initially, but the more I got it, the more I was reminded that... you don't need everybody to like you."
Alcott took those twisted death threats as proof that he "did [his] job" and managed to make viewers "feel some type of way about it:"
"I think, as an actor, as a storyteller, you want to just affect your audience. And so, if you did want to kill me, then I think I did my job. I made you feel some type of way about it. So, I started taking that as a compliment. I definitely prefer this, the character being liked to the character being despised."
Fortunately, Jack Alcott's Harrison Morgan was instantly better received in Dexter: Resurrection than New Blood, as most fans agreed that he was portrayed as more of a charismatic partner to his father, not an angsty teenage obstacle. The sequel series also revisited some of New Blood's stranger ending decisions.
Dexter's father-son duo are stronger than ever going into Resurrection's sophomore outing, leaving viewers eager for the series' return this fall. Jack Alcott himself fits into that category, as he told The Direct that he is "chomping at the bit" to be filming in New York.
Asked to tease what comes next for Dexter and Harrison in the Big Apple, the actor cryptically hinted "there's gonna be a lot going on" in Dexter: Resurrection's next batch of episodes.
LATEST NEWS
TRENDING
