GET SMART: MARG HELGENBERGER
chicagosplash.com
By Splash Staff
March 2, 2014
The Twittersphere has spoken — and it has dubbed Marg Helgenberger a total and complete badass. It’s a title that the Northwestern grad and star of CBS action drama “Intelligence” is extremely proud of. “I love it, ” says Helgenberger, 55. “Personally, I don’t [consider myself a badass], but I love being thought of as that as a character.”
“Intelligence,” which premiered in January, follows Gabriel, an unpredictable agent at an elite government cybersecurity agency who’s had a computer chip implanted in his brain, giving him direct access to the global information grid — basically transforming his mind into a supercomputer. Helgenberger plays Lillian Strand, who oversees Gabriel’s missions while managing the challenges that a human-computer hybrid presents. (Like your Facebook account, Gabriel’s brain can be hacked and infected with all sorts of nasty viruses.) “The show is epic badass-ery,” Helgenberger says. “The suspense level is pretty intense. Every episode there’s a time clock and there’s always something at stake.”
Fans of the show will recognize the famous redhead from her 14-year role as Catherine Willows on the uber-hit series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” but the actress’s credits go far beyond that: She won an Emmy Award for her role as K.C. Koloski in the ’80s drama “China Beach,” and has appeared in classic movies like “Species” and “Bad Boys.” Even before her small-screen success, Helgenberger was rubbing elbows with bigwigs — though she didn’t know it at the time. “I was [at Northwestern] with a few people who are doing quite well,” she remembers. “Julia Louis-Dreyfus and I played hookers together in ‘The Threepenny Opera.’ I played Low Dive Jenny and Julia was one of my girls.” She also shared the stage with “Shawshank Redemption” star Clancy Brown in “A Streetcar Named Desire (he played Finch; she played Blanche DuBois) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris in “Taming of the Shrew.”
Still, “CSI” stands out as Helgenberger’s most significant role yet, something that might intimidate most actors in her position. But the down-to-earth star is determined not to fall victim to industry pressures. “I don’t think you can compare a show you left to another show. So much has happened in the 14 years since ‘CSI.’ The kind of success it had right out of the gate — that doesn’t happen very often,” she says. And in typical badass fashion, Helgenberger is confident in the choices she’s made and at ease about the future of her career. “You just put faith into everyone else’s abilities and the rest is fate.”