WOMAN OF MYSTERY
More Magazine
May 2003
by April Smith
After solving the country’s most gruesome TV homicides each week on ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” Marg Helgenberger shows no evidence of slowing down. Crime writer April Smith investigates.
As I arrive at TeeJay’s Bar and Grille in Las Vegas, I find myself at the scene of a terrible accident. Only moments before, an elderly woman had driven her Jaguar directly into the restaurant’s front window. Now, the bodies of unwitting diners are strewn everywhere; blood splatters the walls. The car is sitting, improbably in the middle of the room, a wreckage of broken chairs, half-eaten hamburgers and shattered glass.
The police have already cordoned off the area, and as I watch, a striking blonde woman in a black quilted jacket methodically photographs the damage. She is Catherine Willows, a member of the city’s crime-scene investigation unit. Given her calm, stoic gestures, there’s no question who’s in charge. Within moments, Willows will discover some intriguing evidence inside the car: a sophisticated global positioning system lying on the front seat. But what would a grandma be doing with a GPS? And why would she drive her car through a plate-glass window?
And so the mystery begins.
Fate has led me to this place. I write dark, psychological thrillers, inventing crimes and twisted characters conceived to challenge the likes of Catherine Willows. This is what has led me to travel through a driving Los Angeles thunderstorm to TeeJay’s, a locale on the set of the mega-hit TV show ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.’ I am here to compare notes on subjects as diverse as women criminologists, autopsy summations, television violence and even pet hamsters with Marg Helgenberger, Willows’ real-life alter ego.
In a TV universe of faux millionaires, Walter Mitty pop idols and centerfold survivors, ‘CSI’ has emerged as a series for grown-ups: a crime drama in which a team of coolly detached professionals use high-tech forensic science to solve grisly homicides. With hard-boiled plot lines, soft-spoken characters and the most sophisticated visual gimmicks in the medium, the program that critics initially deemed too cold and far-fetched swiftly became the number one show in prime time. This season, CBS produced a spin-off, ‘CSI: Miami,’ which has also found a spot in the top ten.
If you’ve seen even ten minutes of ‘CSI,’ you’ve most likely ridden a laser beam, sped through a blood vessel or followed the spiraling trajectory of a bullet through a human brain. With its MTV-style editing, ultra-graphic images and carefully designed palette of cool blues and fluorescent greens, the show “has tapped into a new postmodern aesthetic,” says director Richard Lewis. “But remember, this is noir. On ‘CSI,’ it’s always night.”
At the center of this Nielsen juggernaut is a 44-year old mother from Nebraska, who finds it “endearing” that families sit down to watch her show together. “It’s appointment television for a lot of people,” Helgenberger says as we make our way through the storm and up the steps of her mondo trailer. “That always touches me.”
The actress’ on-set home is outfitted like an elegant hotel room, complete with a wide-screen TV, creamy leather couches, gold-brocaded walls and crystal lamps. Thanks to a scented candle, the place smells of earthy cloves and pine. There’s also a bedroom and a study, but we settle in the kitchen. Snapshots of Hughie, Helgenberger’s 12-year-old son with husband Alan Rosenberg (who stars on ‘The Guardian’), adore the refrigerator.
“People have always liked a good mystery,” the actress says of her shows’ remarkable success. “The public’s fascination with forensic science came to a head in the Nineties, with high-profile cases like the O.J. Simpson trial.” She pauses, cradling her cup of herbal tea. “But the reason people stay with it – if I may be so bold – is that the show is damn good. It’s incredibly stylish.”
Helgenberger is clearly enjoying this time in her life. A working actress since 1982, she is by no means an overnight sensation. She has appeared in a succession of diverse projects, from small screen to big screen, from ‘Ryan’s Hope’ to ‘Erin Brockovich.’ And ‘CSI’ isn’t even her first groundbreaking television series: In 1990, she won an Emmy for her performance as a drug-addicted prostitute in the ABC drama ‘China Beach.’
All the same, it is the role of Catherine Willows that has made Helgenberger a household name (mouthful though it may be). Consider the evidence: Since the show’s debut in 2000, her bombshell-with-a-brain personal has captured the public’s imagination in a way not seen since Dana Scully hung up her holster on ‘The X Files.’ Sought after by magazine – last year, ‘Esquire’ deemed her a “Woman We Love” and ‘People’ anointed her one of its 50 Most Beautiful People – Helgenberger has also been a favorite with late-night talk-show hosts. (In February, David Letterman took a belt of whiskey on air to steady himself after she told a particularly bawdy story.) Then, of course, there are the requisite fan shrines online; one bills itself as “the premier site dedicated to the talents of Marg.”
It’s been quite a journey for a girl from North Bend. The daughter of a government meat inspector (now deceased) and a registered nurse who has recently retired, Helgenberger is the product of a loving, closeknit family. Born Mary Marg, she was named for an orphaned baby whom her mother encountered during her medical training. When I inquire how she’s managed to get by in Hollywood with such an … unusual name, she just laughs. “No one’s ever asked me to change it,” she says. All the same, she notes that her considerably shorter first name is constantly mispronounced – so for the record, the “g” is hard, as in “target.”
Growing up, Helgenberger was often cast in high school plays, though she never harbored any serious acting ambitions. She started off at a state college, determined to become a nurse like her mother, but soon found herself gravitating toward playacting. Two years later, she transferred to Northwestern University’s celebrated speech program, working during the summer in a meat-processing plant to help pay her tuition. (The exercise would prove to be good training for the more grisly moments on ‘CSI’; “I saw carcasses all the time,” she says.)
In 1981, Helgenberger was living in Chicago for the summer, “waitressing and going to clubs,” when a talent scout for ABC daytime television spotted her in a theater production of ‘The Taming of the Shrew.” Impressed, she invited Helgenberger to audition, but the would-be actress felt that she should graduate first. Six months later, she was flown to New York, where she was instantly offered a role as a rookie cop on ‘Ryan’s Hope.’ In 1988, after four years on the show and a short-lived series on CBS, she was tapped to star in ABC’s Vietnam-era ‘China Beach,’ which won her an Emmy two years later. After a series of schmaltzy television movies and forgettable films (save a moving turn as a breast-cancer patient in ‘Erin Brockovich’), ‘CSI’ came along in 2000.
Helgenberger knew she wanted to play Catherine Willows the moment she read the pilot script. “I thought, ‘Wow, damn, there’s a lot to play there,” she says of the character, an ex-stripper and single mother. “Catherine’s path could not have been easy. It took a lot of courage and discipline and focus and commitment.” She placed a call directly to Jerry Bruckheimer, the show’s producer – and CBS offered her the part without requiring an audition.
If ‘China Beach’ provided an excellent education about the psychology of a hardscrabble character, ‘CSI’ is the consummate advanced degrees. Since joining the show, Helgenberger has climbed through landfills, performed scenes in a tank of cold water, witnessed autopsies and researched execution chambers (while the show has not taken a stand on capital punishment, the actress hopes the series’ portrayal of the issue “got people thinking”).
Although her role as willows often demands that she remain unemotional, Helgenberger admits to being “unsettled” by the number of young female victims graphically killed every week. “There is an over-abundance of women as victims on our show,” she laments. “I’m glad my producers keep strong tabs on the beautiful corpses.”
Despite her passion for her job, Helgenberger maintains that she doesn’t “ever want my career to completely consume my life – but it’s right on the border.” She is quick to credit “a wonderful woman in our lives” named Carole Garcia (spelling the name, to make sure Garcia gets her due), who cares for her son when she and Rosenberg are off shooting. Hughie, she notes, doesn’t come to the set as often as she would like – but when he does, “I always allow him to bring a couple of buddies,” she says. “The thing they enjoy most is the prop truck. It’s filled with whack stuff, like boxes of condoms.” She laughs. “Anyone who’s seen our show knows I’m constantly on the jism trail,” she says. “But as far as the boys are concerned, the condoms are more about water balloons.”
From the moment we meet, it’s obvious that Helgenberger is my kind of gal: a straight shooter with smarts. She could easily play one of the tough maverick FBI agents in my books – but tellingly, her makeup artist refers to her as “a mensch.” The focus of our careers is remarkably similar: We share concerns about turning violence against women into entertainment, and we both found our livelihoods early on. But Helgenberger also has to deal with the effects of fame. These days, she’s a regular in tabloids, and was recently disconcerted at the sight of herself in an “upscale tabloid,” caught by a photographer looking “totally schlubbed out” on the way home from a yoga class. “I’d rather go to the market and be a real person,” she says. “Who wants to be hounded by a lens in a tree?”
But the actress is aware that being stalked by paparazzi comes with the territory. Though she’s uncomfortable about the effect on Hughie (who feels his mom is often “mobbed”), she’s accepted the liabilities of fame. Although the movie-star lifestyle is clearly not a priority, there’s a certain pleasure Helgenberger takes in the new opportunities ‘CSI’ has afforded her. She giggles when recalling the entourage of makeup artists and stylists who attended her when she appeared on ‘Letterman’ last winter. “It wasn’t like the old days,” she says, “when it was just me, a tube of mascara and a blow-dryer!”
The rain is falling softly now. The assistant director announces that the ‘CSI’ crew is ready to shoot exteriors of the smashed-in restaurant. I leaved a signed copy of my latest novel on the coffee table in Helgenberger’s trailer, next to a reference book called ‘Cracking Cases.’ Outside, we shake hands and say good-by, talking kids, mourning the loss of Hughie’s pet hamster. The actress turns up the collar of the black jacket and walks into a mist colored red by the lights of the emergency vehicles. It may always be night on ‘CSI’ – but for Marg Helgenberger, a new day is dawning.
*A scan of this article, along with additional photos from Andrew MacPherson, can be found here.
