John Lithgow almost passed on Dexter role

To hear John Lithgow tell it, the promise of an Italian vacation almost trumped the chance to join the Dexter cast this season.

The actor and his wife (shown here arriving at the Staples Center for a Lakers game this spring) planned to travel the Mediterranean after their son’s wedding this summer, Lithgow told the Associated Press in a recent interview. If he took the part of Arthur Mitchell on the Showtime series, he wouldn’t be able to make the cruise.

Lucky for us, Lithgow’s wife told him to skip the vacay and he became Dexter Morgan’s new foe, The Trinity Killer.

We’re in for a big plot twist involving Trinity this Sunday, according to Internet scuttlebutt.

Says Lithgow: “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. So it’s an actor’s field day figuring out what you reveal and what you don’t.”

For that, he’s turned to news stories about real-life murderers.

“Every one of these stories, you read it and think, ‘My God, how could this possibly happen? How could a human being behave this way?’—which in a way is really liberating,” he said. “You can’t outdo the truth.”

He sure comes close as Trinity, though. Want proof? Check out how two-faced Lithgow can be in the clip from Sunday’s episode, “Slack Tide,” after the jump.

Image: Fame Pictures