SO NICE IT’S CRIMINAL
Lifetime Magazine
May/June 2003
By Deborah Baer
Marg Helgenberger stars on TV’s number one show, but she’d rather go to her son’s basketball game than a premiere. That’s just one of the reasons we love her.
A mint-condition, butter-colored 1971 Mercedes convertible circles an unassuming French bistro on otherwise ritzy Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, California. The woman at the wheel hides behind sunglasses and a floppy bucket hat. Is Britney Spears looking for a parking space? Maybe it’s Cameron Diaz! Nope. Minutes later, Marg Helgenberger walks in positively radiant – and sincerely apologizes for being 20 minutes late. The 44-year old star of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is dressed in a shirt from Urban Outfitters, Seven jeans with the cuffs rolled up to mid-calf and Nikes. Her hair is fresh from the shower damp, and she wears very little makeup. It’s tempting to be jealous of how effortlessly beautiful Marg is, but it’s impossible not to like her – especially when she picks a restaurant where the bill comes to $23.21. She orders an Asian chicken salad and an Arnold Palmer (half lemonade, half iced tea). Then she settles in for a spirited two-hour gabfest about the show, her 12-year-old son, Huey, and husband Alan Rosenberg, who stars on TV’s The Guardian.
Lifetime: You grew up in a small town in Nebraska. Did you live on a farm?
MH: I wish I had. Oh, just being in an open space or around animals and crops – I loved that feeling. I don’t know if I ever want to run a real farm, because that’s hard-ass work! I barely even garden! But I wouldn’t mind being among fields or organs groves. Whatever you grow up with, you always sort of yearn for – open space, acreage. I guess that’s what I’m haunted by.
Lifetime: Speaking of haunting, you have to do some pretty gruesome stuff on CSI. What’s the creepiest so far?
MH: I’ve seen an autopsy or two. The coroner’s office in Las Vegas mostly has boring, nondescript cubicles, but then you go through a door or two, and it’s a chamber of horrors! Corpses everywhere. Yesterday we unfortunately shot at a landfill. The director had us climb down mounds of trash and pick things up every now and then. We had gloves and boots on, but it was disgusting. What are you gonna do, though? You gotta suck it up. I could see the fun in doing something like that. So I said, “Let’s see who can pick up the grossest thing on the way down as they’re filming.”
Lifetime: So much for the life of a glam TV star!
MH: I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but on the show we do a lot of squatting. Doing that for a few hours, your knees just feel like crap.
Lifetime: You do crouch down a lot! How do you deal with the pain?
MH: I spin. I lift weights. I have a trainer named Patty from Argentina. I was inspired by her great legs and great ass! I find yoga’s helpful if we’re doing a lot of crawling around. Poor [co-star] Billy Petersen – having played college football, his knees are pretty much spent. He’s been complaining about his hips the last few years. He was going to have surgery, but I said, “Start doing yoga.” In fact, he took it up this year. He said, “I’m telling ya, football practice, nah. This yoga is really hard!”
Lifetime: You’re well-known for playing women with an edge, like Catherine Willows on CSI and KC Koloski on China Beach [for which Marg won an Emmy in 1990]. Are you like them in real life?
MH: I’m more shy and retreating – and probably nicer than a lot of the characters I play. That’s sort of boring. But the whole red-carpet thing and vying for a picture in a fashion magazine makes me nervous and uncomfortable. That’s why I’d rather sneak in and sneak out. That’s what I tend to do, if I can.
Lifetime: Do you like the power that comes with playing strong female characters?
MH: Yes, I do. The first time I really felt the power of CSI was during the first season. A mom came up to me in a diner and said, “I just want you to know that my daughter wants to become a criminalist because of you and your show.” And that’s when I thought, Wow. If we’re inspiring teenagers, we’ve got something.
Lifetime: What would people be most surprised to know about you?
MH: Besides the fact that I once worked at a meatpacking plant? I like to think of myself as a champion of the working class and that’s why I try to make the roles I play as heroic as I possibly can. I’ve always thought of acting as a job. I’ve never thought of it as better than or less than anything else. Obviously I make a lot more money than a lot of people in blue-collar positions, though.
Lifetime: You’re part of the trend of sexy, grown-up women getting plum roles on TV. We’re thinking Edie Falco on The Sopranos and Rachel Griffiths on Six Feet Under. Do you think there’s a new appreciation for women who’ve lived a little?
MH: Well, yes, but I also feel that television has always been so much kinder to women than the movies, especially to women over 30. I know there were days when I said, “This is it. I’m washed up.” But honestly deep down I never really felt that. I guess I believe in my skill as an actor.
Lifetime: Your mom is a breast cancer survivor. Do you worry that you have the gene?
MH: Yeah, obviously I’m sort of predisposed to it. I started having mammograms long before I hit 40. I must have had my first one around 30. I was trying to be ahead of the game.
Lifetime: So your mom’s OK?
MH: Yeah, she’s doing great. A 22-year survivor. She’s a pretty strong lady. I’ve been involved in various causes over the years to honor my mother and her survivorship. My husband and I hot a charity golf tournament every year to raise money and awareness.
Lifetime: You and Alan have been married for 13 years – an eternity for Hollywood couples it seems! How have you managed to make it work?
MH: You have to really allow a person his imperfections, quirks and oddities without letting them get to you.
Lifetime: What’s one of Alan’s imperfections that drives you bananas? One that you can say without getting in trouble.
MH: That he’s just so disorganized! He’s never had a Filofax, even though we’ve gotten one for him. Forget about a Palm Pilot – he’d just lost it.
Lifetime: So you don’t let those things bother you.
MH: I don’t much anymore. He beats himself up about it if he loses a credit card or an ATM card, which happens a fair amount [laughs]. I don’t know how it happens! But he’s a really good man. He still makes me laugh after all these years. And he’s the romantic one.
Lifetime: What does he still do for you – that’s not X-rated, of course.
MH: Right! Well, first off, he has unbelievable taste in jewelry.
Lifetime: Your wedding ring is beautiful [It’s a classic emerald cut with a band of diamonds].
MH: He gave it to me for our 13th wedding anniversary last year. He tried to replace the original ring five years ago with a bigger one because he said he didn’t have any money when he first proposed. And I said, “You know what? I still love my other one.” He understands my personality and my style. He says I’m “classy and sassy.” Did you see the car I drove today? Alan gave it to me for Mother’s Day. It’s something I’d never buy for myself. He knew I loved old sports cars. He’s a keeper.
Lifetime: Is Alan secure about your success on CSI? Is he jealous that you bring in some serious bacon?
MH: He’s really happy for me, but he also loves to say, “I’m going to use the Marg Helgenberger credit card on this purchase.” [laughs].
Lifetime: How does your son, Huey, feel about having such a famous mom?
MH: He’s not at all boastful about it. He’s like, my mom and dad are actors – that’s what they do for a living. Many times he’ll say, “Why can’t you guys have regular jobs?” For instance, when we can’t get away. With a lot of other jobs you’d say, “I’d like my vacation to work around my son’s spring break.” I can’t ask for that.
Lifetime: How do you make time for him? It must be very difficult.
MH: My life is overscheduled. That’s why I was late. I’m so sorry! It’s all good – I’m not complaining. But it’s tricky. I just have to be very organized, prioritize everything and not freak out. That’s the key. Otherwise I’ll be bitchy to people when it’s just about the fact that I didn’t get, like, the shopping done.
Lifetime: What’s an ideal day for your family when you have a day off?
MH: My husband coaches my son’s basketball team. We’d go to one of the games – hopefully they’d win-then we’d take the boys out for dinner and a movie. They’re all really good boys, which is kind of cool. Well, there’s one that gets in trouble a little bit, but he’s cute, so we let him get away with it.
Lifetime: Are you and Alan on the same page about parenting stuff?
MH: The big struggle is chores. And maybe this is just kids in general, but there were no ifs and or buts in our house growing up. It’s part of that Midwestern work ethic, the small-town thing. Alan’s not really all that good at disciplining Huey. Let’s face it, most guys are perfectly content to lie on the couch with the remote. They could spend all day like that. I try not to be judgmental, but it’s hard when you’re trying to instill a work ethic in a boy.
Lifetime: In what ways has your life changed drastically since CSI became the number-one drama on TV?
MH: My name got referenced on The Sopranos! They butchered it really good, too! I’ve been mentioned on Hollywood Squares and Jeopardy! I’ve been in crossword puzzles since China Beach, but when you get mentioned on Jeopardy!, you really think you’ve made it.