ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT INTERVIEW WITH MARG HELGENBERGER – MARG IS ‘HAPPY’ WITH HER CSI EXIT (TRANSCRIPT)
Entertainment Tonight
January 18, 2012
Marg: I was happy with the arc, my exit arc. It was action packed. It was bigger in scope than most of our episodes in that it had, you know, the FBI was involved, the military contractors, and hit men, and, you know, action. I kind of got a chance to be a little bit of an action hero in one of the episodes and then the final episode is not too big. It’s a little more subdued and quiet, but also just a delight to play a lot of those scenes because I had a lot of scenes with Ted Danson and in which the two of us are on the run. So we kind of take this circuitous path through Catherine’s past (Marg laughs) by ending up at, you know, my former place of business, a strip club, and I don’t want to give away too much though because you’ve got to tune in.
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Marg: I mean, the last month of the show, you know, every time I tried to imagine, you know, saying goodbye to the crew and I just couldn’t fathom what I could possibly stand there and say. Every time I would think about it, I would start to cry. And so, I guess, by the time I actually did give my speech, I had already played the scene in which Catherine says goodbye to the team so for Marg to say goodbye to the crew I’d sort of gone through it so it was a bit easier, but nonetheless, I still find myself crying about it from time to time because it was a lot of, you know, a big, big part of my life for close to twelve years. And my son was nine years old when I began, he’s now twenty-one and actually — he actually works on the show. He’s a…in the production office. So he’s now what — I’m calling him my lifeline to the show. Gives me all the information that I want.
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Marg: …My, you know… “That’s a wrap!”, the director brought out a hammer and a nail, and they pounded a permanent mark into Stage 24 Universal Studios and that will be my mark forever until, I guess, for eternity, or however long that stage is there. But then I was also given, they had asked me what I…People kept asking me ‘What do you want? What prop do you want to take with you?’ and I said the only thing I really wanted was my vest that said Willows on it and LVPD. As it turns out, they ended up framing my vest, my gun, my ID badge, my watch, and a whole, like, frames of pictures that were taken from each opening credits from each season and crime scene tape and swabs and bullets, into this big huge, like, shadow box kind of a thing. I’ve already got that hung up on my wall in my house, and I love that. It was just — it was a really nice send off. And this really cool cake with these great photographs brought to life and a lot of people showed up that I hadn’t seen in a while. It was great.
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Marg: The people, I’ll miss the most. I just got very, very close, well, you can imagine after spending that much time with a lot of these people. You get — it was such a — best cast I’ve ever worked with. I don’t think a day went by in which we didn’t find ourselves laughing over something, as gruesome as some of the scenes we found ourselves in, we just laughed. And the crew was just so sweet and just a great group of writers and directors and technicians and artists, you know, just craftsmen. But also, I’ll also kind of, I’ll miss Catherine! I’ll miss putting on those clothes and assuming that attitude and being that smart, you know, sophisticated, sexy, swaggering gal, you know. It was a great part.
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Marg: What’s next? You know, I sort of just — I’m not, you know, wanting to race into anything just yet. I needed to kind of step back, take a breath, figure out what it is that I still want. What roles I want to play, what things I want to accomplish in my life other than acting an acting job. So I’m good without racing into anything. I keep telling everyone that I’d really love to, immediately, I’d love to do a play, preferably here in New York City, the ‘Great White Way’, where the great white way exists. And whether it’s a new play or a revival I, as long as it’s just a great production, you know, with the proper team surrounding, to be involved with. And, obviously movies. I’m not opposed to doing another television series either. I just, it’s…I don’t need to race right into that once because I just came off a great one, so… (Clip ends)