Marg Helgenberger on the Big Challenge the Team Faces When 'CSI: Vegas' Premieres
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Originally, Marg Helgenberger was only supposed to appear on Season 2 of CSI: Vegas—it may be why they sent her off to spend time with her daughter Lindsey (Katie Stevens), but then as so often happens, things changed and TPTB made her an offer she couldn’t refuse to return for Season 3, and, happily, she plays a significant role throughout the entire season.
“Last season I had built-in breaks by design, because I wanted to be there when my grandson was born and I got married,” she tells Parade in this exclusive interview. “I had my two episodes off here and two episodes off there. I was able to live my life and regroup, and this is [the opposite of regrouping]. It was like, ‘Whoa, fasten your seat belts.’ It just was jump on that train and hang on.”
So, in the premiere episode, Catherine Willows is back with the team as they search for forensic evidence to try to clear their colleague Josh Folsom (Matt Lauria), who’s under arrest for the murder of Kahn Schefter (Shane Callahan), the man responsible for killing Josh's mother.
“They definitely deal with that in the first two episodes,” Helgenberger says. “It stretches out; it concludes at the end of episode two. No one really comes out and says anything but there are doubters and there’s people that seem to be thinking, ‘How do we get him out of this situation?’ I don’t think Catherine ever doubts. I think because both characters came from Vegas, they connected in that regard. I think Catherine has always been a believer in his innocence.”
Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS
But belief isn't proof, so the team has to follow the science to find the truth. Cases where it’s a colleague in jeopardy like Josh hit harder as they are more emotional for the actors to play, and on CSI: Vegas, Josh’s arrest isn’t the first time that Catherine has had to deal with a co-worker in trouble.
“The first part of last season when I was dealing with this young woman who I was mentoring who went missing, I had so many emotional scenes to do in that, so I can’t compare the two, because I’m not as connected to one of the team as I was to that young woman who was like a surrogate daughter to me,” she says. “[That said] everybody pulls their weight and tries to figure out how to get to the bottom of [Kahn’s murder]. And we do, like we always do, you know?”
When we spoke, Helgenberger was about to begin filming the seventh of the ten episodes for the season and she hadn’t yet been notified if anyone else from the mothership would be returning, so the possibility of seeing another familiar face will have to wait until Season 4, if there is one. But there is a new cast member this season with Reggie Lee joining the cast in the recurring role of Zhao, the new undersheriff.
“He’s great,” Helgenberger says. “I’ve only been in the first episode with him. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but he was on All Rise, too. We didn’t have many scenes together because he was in the prosecutor’s office and I was overseeing all the judges, but he’s a doll. He’s a really good actor too.”
During our conversation, Helgenberger also spoke about what it’s like to work with Paula Newsome, who plays Maxine, the head of the CSI: Vegas lab; how she attended an autopsy when she first landed the role of Catherine Willows; and how landing roles on quality series like Ryan’s Hope and China Beach have helped with the longevity of her career.
Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS
The Las Vegas lab is run by very strong women. Catherine is working with Maxine but Maxine is the boss, but on the other hand, Catherine is responsible for most of the expensive equipment in the lab. They said in the first season that she arranged with the casino owners to raise money to create a really good lab. How do they work together?
First off, I always think of them, especially when we are solving crimes together, Paula and I, I always feel like she’s my bestie, right? The two of us are as if we were like teenagers solving some crime that happened in high school, you know what I mean? So, there’s that camaraderie, but obviously, the stakes are much higher.
I don’t think she actually ever thinks that she’s the overlord of what I do, so I don’t have any feelings whatsoever about she’s the boss and I’m the underling. I think she feels the same way. That’s what I’ve been trying to play with this season, is why would a woman of my character’s age and means do this kind of work because it’s pretty grueling and people usually retire long before because it takes a toll.
And I think it’s just made me go deeper. She’s a woman who’s really obsessed with this work and it means a lot to her, and it means a lot to her to really follow the evidence and get to the bottom of everything. So, every season, every episode, every scene, you’ve got to always keep digging deeper with what you’re presented with.
It makes sense for Catherine to be in Las Vegas because her daughter Lindsey is there.
For sure, yes. She had been in the series finale, and she actually had been a CSI, but it wasn’t gratifying to her. Which of course is very disappointing to Catherine because I really had high hopes for her becoming a mini me. So, I deal with a little bit of that friction in this season, but I don’t know how deep. Like I said, I hope they bring her back, that would be great.
Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS
Related: Good-bye CSI: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Crime Drama
So back in the day when you started this, you actually went and watched autopsies. Does that stick with you even now? Does it really help you with your character still?
It does. Yeah, that’s one of those things you never forget. You can’t unsee it, you can’t un-smell it. It’s a pretty intense smell because it’s the smell of decay. There were corpses in various degrees of decay, which is pretty eye opening. Actually, the coroner at the time, I think he has since passed, his name was Dr. Gary Telgenhoff and he actually gave me [kudos] at the end of my autopsy witnessing. He said there’s some big burly dudes, like detectives or whatever, come in and just pass out, hit the floor because they can’t take it.
But yes, it’s something that I always still think about and I still think about the handbook that Anthony Zuiker gave us for the pilot. It was this handbook that was called The Homicide Investigation.
It’s incredible the effect this show has had. Not only was it popular but it changed how juries think, it incentivized kids to learn science, it’s had such a huge impact on the culture. Can you remember day one, did you have any idea what this would mean?
I truly believed when I had read the pilot and then I saw it cut together, I always believed in the show and knew it had potential to become a big hit. I did not, could not have predicted it’d become a global sensation and there’d be a term called the CSI effect, and that young women would want to become criminalists. That is something that I still am very proud of that they were inspired to become criminalists because of watching the show. I didn’t anticipate that. For something to become that big, you just have to ride the wave and enjoy it. And I still am!
Ryan’s Hope, which was your first TV job, was one of the quality soaps and then you went to China Beach, and you won your Emmy for that. Do you think that the quality of the work is what gives you longevity? Does it help that in addition to being talented that the projects are also quality ones?
Absolutely, of course. But it’s also if you’ve got a good work ethic, which I do. I never hold up the set, I’m there to work, I’m there to be a team player, I don’t rock the boat too much, and if I have issues with the script, of course I speak up. But it’s a matter of I’m very lucky. I won’t deny that. Luck plays a big hand in it for sure.
Right. But luck needs a little help from preparation, you know?
Preparation, yes. And I think I was always, since a child, I’ve been a hard worker, I’m not afraid of hard work. I worked in the bean fields, the corn fields and the meat packing plant, so this seems like, “Wow.”
That Midwest work ethic, right?
Yeah, exactly, that’s what it is.
CSI: Vegas premieres its third season tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
