Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet and David Dastmalchian Take Us Inside Dexter’s Serial Killer Dinner (Exclusive)

Dexter: Resurrection just pulled off a serial killer dinner that will go down in TV history — but how did Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet and more of the show’s guest stars prepare to play these fictional villains?

During the Sunday, July 27, episode of the Showtime series, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) tricked his way into an underground event hosted by billionaire Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage) whose side hobby included collecting serial killer memorabilia and hosting get togethers between like-minded — and murderous — people.

Stonestreet, 53, was introduced as Al a.k.a Rapunzel, David Dastmalchian plays Gareth or The Gemini Killer, Ritter’s character Mia Lapierre also went by Lady Vengeance and Neil Patrick Harris is Lowell or The Tattoo Collector. The episode felt quite ambitious to pull off between the star-studded cast and the subject matter, which Ritter, 43, Stonestreet and Dastmalchian, 50, exclusively broke down for Us.

“For me, I was just trying to play the role of a human who happens to have a very dark side,” Stonestreet explained exclusively to Us Weekly. “So we’re all regular people to each other in that room. We all understand each other’s lives.”

Stonestreet didn’t want to push his performance too far, adding, “So nothing extra special. I didn’t put any necessarily mustard on the fact that I’m a serial killer. Maybe just a little mustard on the character itself.”

Dastmalchian, meanwhile, added details that were left unsaid by Gareth.

“Do you ever go to a dinner party and on the way in you suddenly are just struck with anxiety and just paralyzing fear of like, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to do this?’ I feel that way often when I’m walking onto a set,” he quipped. “So it was great to just use that energy and walk into the set with all these actors who I admire and look up to — even the ones that I was already friends with — and go use that energy. Because Gareth’s little defense mechanism he’s going to put up is just be an asshole.”

As for Ritter, she recalled trying to be “there as truthfully as the character” as possible.

“For me, Lady Vengeance is untrusting. She is incredulous about everybody. She’s there for the money but she’s also very intrigued by the new guy,” she told Us. “Just playing the truth of that [was my approach]. I think just the bigness of this cast in this room and how it felt so iconic and over the top and glamorous and special, all of us just had the time of our lives.”

Ritter called her time on the show a “career highlight,” adding, “It was very special to have that much talent in one room. You’re with Michael C. Hall, it’s Uma Thurman, it’s Peter Dinklage, it’s Neil Patrick Harris. It was so exciting and it just felt like a stacked cast to be a part of — and I felt like a kid in a candy store.”

Dexter: Resurrection is available to stream on Paramount+ Fridays and airs on Showtime Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.