On- and off-screen changes for Marg

may192009 Australia’s Herald Sun has a new article on the changes happened to Marg both on and off the screen during season 9 of CSI with quotes from both Marg and her former CSI co-star William Petersen.

CSI’s Marg Helgenberger sees change, on-screen and off

May 19, 2009 12:00am

MARG Helgenberger has gone through a year of personal and professional upheaval. Her hit show CSI lost its lead actor, and she also filed for divorce.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation lost lead actor William Petersen and, in March, Helgenberger filed for divorce from her husband, actor Alan Rosenberg.

Helgenberger, 50, cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split with 58-year-old Rosenberg.

The pair, who have an 18-year-old son, Hugh, separated in October, with Helgenberger’s agent saying, “Marg and Alan have decided to take some time apart. They love and respect each other
and remain committed to their family.”

Helgenberger says a personal cost comes with working 10 months a year on CSI. It is hard to juggle the work-life balance.

“I think any time – a mother in any profession – it is a juggling act,” Helgenberger said in a previous interview with the Guide.

“It usually works, and kids adjust. Let’s face it, when they are teenagers, they don’t want you around that much any more. They want to be independent.”

“My son is travelling to college in another state, so there are a few things to juggle.”

“Perhaps he might end up going down the acting path, but we are really intent on him going to college. I think it’s a great opportunity to mature. It just makes you understand yourself and become a better person.”

The changeover from William Petersen’s Dr Gil Grissom to Laurence Fishburne’s Dr Ray Langston on CSI has also forced adjustment from Helgenberger.

There is always the chance that a big cast change like that can lead to a ratings drop but so far, so good – CSI is averaging about 19 million viewers a week in the US.

Petersen confesses to missing Grissom.

“I have spent more time with Grissom than I have myself,” he says.

“The hardest part is that I miss the cast and crew. It was kind of like a nice divorce.”

Petersen says his replacement, Fishburne, is “a great actor and a great guy.”

Now Petersen says he feels “free to do a lot of acting – particularly in the theatre, my first love.”

But he also suggests Grissom could return to CSI in a guest appearance.

“I may drop into the show,” he says. “We are looking at possibilities.”

In many ways, CSI has been a victim of its own success. It has not only spawned two spin-offs, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, but has led to an explosion of forensic-based crime shows and characters.

For Helgenberger, who plays Catherine Willows, the best way to overcome that is for her show to explore the personal lives of its characters even more.

“Obviously, the show is what it is. It is plot-driven and in every episode we solve a crime,” she says.

“But, especially now, many shows look exactly like we do – so we’ve earned the right to be a little bit more inventive, a little bit more exploratory. So I’m hoping that it keeps continuing.”

Helgenberger originally planned to be a nurse but decided to act after performing in a university production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

A talent scout spotted her for soap opera Ryan’s Hope, but it was her role as Karen “K.C.” Koloski, a heroin-addicted prostitute, in China Beach that shot her to fame.

CSI has continued that stardom, but the show’s grisly subject matter has changed her outlook on life – and death.

“Seeing a real autopsy was an eye-opener for me,” she says. “The coroner’s office is littered with corpses in varying degrees of decay. When you’re hovered over a body and a Y-incision is made, you can’t quite believe it. It almost seems like it should be illegal.”

“It makes you analyse and think about the mind and the soul and the heart and the emotion – where that all ends and where just the physical aspect begins.”

“You’re looking at a corpse very analytically and taking the brain out and the heart out and discussing it. You’re just so completely aware it’s just a physical thing. The soul has gone somewhere.”

“Life and death are endlessly fascinating.”

Source: Herald Sun