CBS THE EARLY SHOW (TRANSCRIPT OF MARG’S INTERVIEW)
June 5, 2007
Hannah: Most of us recognize Marg Helgenberger from CSI as Catherine Willows, master crime solver and single woman. But in the new movie Mr. Brooks, she plays Mrs. Brooks, who has no clue that her husband is a cold-blooded serial killer. Marg Helgenberger, good morning!
(Lots of cheering from the crowd)
Hannah: You’ve got a lot of fans out here. I’m a big fan of the movie too. It’s great. Creepy and fabulous.
Marg: Thank you. Yes.
Hannah: But I kept wondering how your character, who’s basically the only decent person in the entire film – how does she not know what her husband is doing at night?
Marg: That was the question I asked myself every morning before I’d dash out to the movie was…was how could she not know? I mean, clearly blinded…
Hannah: I’m going to give you this mike so we can actually hear you. There you go.
Marg: Okay, okay. Blinded by love, you know, which can happen in a relationship, and (laughs)
Hannah: Yes.
Marg: And I do believe that, even though I think Mr. Brroks presents just the perfect man to Mrs. Brooks, and umm the loving husband and father and on and on and on. But I think that somewhere she does know that he’s got a dark side but she chooses just not to go there because I just don’t, I just don’t believe that she’s completely oblivious. But never for a moment believing that it was as serious as, you know, a cold-blooded murderer.
Hannah: Were you in discussions with Kevin Costner about this? Did you play devil’s advocate? Like you know ‘Why doesn’t my character suspect all this?’
Marg: Well, the first time we got together, which was for lunch with Danielle Panabaker, who plays our daughter. It was at the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge, and it was like this classic Hollywood moment with Kevin Costner, and ummm…that was one of my first questions. I said ‘How do I knot…when you go off to do your glazes and you know, your pottery in your…’
Hannah: Supposedly…
Marg: ‘lair. How do I…Why wouldn’t I know?’ And he says ‘Well…’ and he immediately switched to the BTK Killer story.
Hannah: Oh right.
Marg: Because of how people were just completely unaware that this man led this double life. And I, that’s the…you can’t use logic with those kinds of minds because they’re beyond logic and obviously they’re beyond the realm of anyone’s imagination because it’s so disturbing and dark.
Hannah: Right. It sort of take it to another level, because on its most basic level, there are things when you’re married that you keep from your spouse.
Marg: Yeah.
Hannah: Not, not this type of thing necessarily.
Marg: Yeah, absolutely. We all have our…we have to have some little private moments to ourselves, you know (laughs).
Hannah: You mention the daughter…because she’s a very important figure in here, and she comes home from college and offers an explanation to her parents as to why she has come home, and let’s take a look at that scene, okay?
Marg: Okay.
(Clip from Mr. Brooks is shown)
Hannah: Kevin was in here last week.
Marg: I heard.
Hannah: He’s so…he was so fantastic in this movie.
Marg: He’s great.
Hannah: What was he like to work with?
Marg: Awesome, awesome. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had with working opposite another actor. He was incredibly interested in what I had to say, inclusive of my ideas, my thoughts and ideas about the film and ummm, the story, and fun! You know, he’s got a great boyish charm that was highly appealing and umm, you know, we had to play this loving couple and we had a lot of fun.
Hannah: If your CSI character Catherine Willows was involved here though, because Demi Moore never got to this guy in the movie. She was the detective. You would have had him behind bars, right?
Marg: Yeah, I would have. I definitely would have. I would have smelled the suspicion like right away.
Hannah: How do you make it all work? Because here you have CSI, which is so demanding, headed into your eighth season. You have a 17-year old son…
Marg: 16…
Hannah: And your husband is Present of SAG. Yeah, well so your son is what? He’s having a final today, right?
Marg: He’s having a final today. Junior year, yeah.
Hannah: How do you make it all work?
Marg: Well, it’s not easy. I mean, I’m sure, as you’ve headlined, I’ve obviously got somebody to help me but I have…but the final my son is having right now is Japanese. So we’ve had..his tutor is friends with this Japanese calligrapher – we’ve…I had him make up a symbol for me, a Japanese character that says, that represents balance, and I’ve got that right in my room and so I see it every single day because I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s just how do you manage that. I mean, balance in everything lets you just really have all your priorities straight and uh…check in with yourself and make sure that you’re somehow (laughs) managing and not, you know, out of whack.
Hannah: Grounded, yeah.
Marg: Grounded, right.
Hannah: Great to have you here.
Marg: Thanks.
Hannah: Congratulations for everything. The movie’s fantastic.
Marg: Thanks, Hannah. I appreciate that. Great to be here.
Hannah: Marg Helgenberger, everybody!