MARG HELGENBERGER: POWER PLAYER – INTERVIEW FOR CBS WATCH MAGAZINE
CBS Watch Magazine
February 2014
By Brantley Bardin
Marg Helgenberger brings her tough but incredibly sexy Intelligence to CBS’ new thrilling series
Smart, tough and hot as hell, Emmy-winning Marg Helgenberger was a key factor in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation becoming the most popular television show in the world. Now, after 12 years on the show and a two-year sabbatical, Helgenberger is back on TV as Lillian Strand, the chic, no-nonsense head of U.S. Cyber Command in the globe-trotting action/sci-fi drama Intelligence. Lillian’s trickiest task is supervising Josh Holloway’s Gabriel Black, a superagent outfitted with a microchip implant in his brain giving him an all-access pass to the world’s information grid. Helgenberger has described the show as “James Bond meets Frankenstein meets Mission: Impossible,” and so I had to say …
Watch!: From what I’ve seen of Intelligence, Lillian is the new equivalent of Bond’s boss, M.
Marg Helgenberger: Right! Besides Judi Dench’s M, I keep Hillary Clinton in mind all of the time while playing this role. She’s one of my idols, so in practically every scene I go, “How would Hillary deal with this situation?”
Watch!: Well, like Hillary, Lillian is very much in charge.
Marg: She’s not a bitch; she’s just got a lot on her plate and the buck stops with her. She’s always been surrounded by men in positions of power and that’s never easy—there’s still a fair amount of sexism that exists—so she has to be tougher and stronger than the guys.
Watch!: Not unlike CSI’s Catherine Willows. What do people on the street say to you about her?
Marg: Girls from ages 11 to 16 just love CSI because Catherine was such a cool, direct, intuitive lady who shot from the hip. When they see me, they gasp! When Taylor Swift guest-starred [in 2009], it turned out that she was a huge fan of Catherine, too. She walked into my trailer, covered her mouth and squealed, “I can’t believe it!” (Laughs.) I love that Catherine had such an influence on girls.
Watch!: Guys love her—and you—too. I found a slew of YouTube tribute videos entitled everything from “Marg Helgenberger—Hey Sexy Lady” to “M.H.—Sexy Bitch.”
Marg: I’m so flattered that people would do that for me! They’re fanboys and girls—and I’m a fangirl of a lot of people, too. But if I’m at some function and see someone I admire, I’m way too nervous and shy to say what a fan I am. Like, what do you say to Bruce Springsteen?
Watch!: “I want to marry you”?
Marg: Oh, my God—I know, right?!
Watch!: So you’re a music megafan?
Marg: Huge. To the degree that while I was on hiatus, I picked up the guitar again and started taking lessons. I have maybe 25 songs that I can play and sing now—it’s been incredibly therapeutic.
Watch!: So if I said, “Marg, play us a tune,” what have you got?
Marg: I play and sing the Black Keys’ “Little Black Submarines” really well. And I play this Jack White song, “Love Interruption,” and I’m pretty good on a couple of U2 tunes like “One” and “In a Little While.”
Watch!: You’re also a football fiend. On Twitter you posted a picture of an autographed Carolina Panthers football atop a heap of money you’d won from the cast.
Marg: I love football—love it. I’m a Panthers fan, because when I was shooting a movie in North Carolina in 1994, they’d just become a franchised team and my son was a little boy, so we decided, “Let’s root for this team.” I’m also really into the Colts and the Broncos.
Watch!: You ought to team up with Christine Baranski, who once told me what a crazed football fan she was.
Marg: I know Christine and I’d love to go to a game with her. I’d even bet with her on games—that’d be a blast!
Watch!: Go for it! OK, you once said that when starting CSI you felt “magic dust” over its prospects. Do you feel that way about Intelligence?
Marg: I feel it in that it’s smart, entertaining, provocative and timely. We have a good chance, because there’s something in it for everybody.
Watch!: That said, how was it to return to CSI last fall for its 300th episode?
Marg: It was like putting on a pair of sweats and comfy shoes. We always had so much fun.
Watch!: Despite all the gore and guts?
Marg: I think that’s why we had such fun—the subject matter was so disturbing, we had to laugh. I remember being at a landfill in one episode and, I’m not joking, we were slogging in garbage all day long. I mean, ha! What else do you do but laugh? Oh, the glamour.
Credit: CBS Watch Magazine