MARG ON LARRY KING NOW (TRANSCRIPT)
September 25, 2015
Larry King: One of the driving forces behind the CBS series CSI- Crime Scene Investigation was Marg Helgenberger’s role as Catherine Willows. A role that has gotten the actress 2 Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Now after fifteen years, CSI is ending its run as the fourth longest and one of the most successful drama series in television history, with a 2-hour movie special on September 27th and Ms. Helgenberger returns to CSI.
Larry King: Ah, 2 part question. Why did you leave and why are you doing this special?
Marg: I left midway through season 12. They just finished season 15. And I left mostly because I kind of was just a little burnt out actually. I needed to take a break. It felt, as great as the show was and the character was and all of that, I felt like it was sort of becoming part of my identity a little bit. So I left and, of course, I missed everyone terribly and the structure of the show. But cut to end of season 15 and CBS decides to cancel the show, which I felt badly for everyone. And but then they said we’re going to have this series finale. And we’re going to ask William Petersen to return and we’d love it if you would return. Why not? I mean it was such an important 12 years of my career, and my life.
Larry King: How did they write you out?
Marg: I was given a job offer with the FBI and so I took it. Got me out of Vegas. And that’s how I’m brought back into Los Angeles, I’m sorry Vegas, Because I had been with the L.A. Bureau.
Larry King: If you left in midseason, was that a crushing blow to them? Did you just go to them and say ‘I’m burnt out, I want to leave?’
Marg: Well, I mean, I didn’t necessarily use those words. I believe I said I need to take a break. I didn’t necessarily say ‘burnt out’. I mean, yeah of course they encouraged me to stick around. They…one of the producers would get down on his knees everyday and say “can I change your mind?”
Larry King: Why did that show and the other shows, CSI L.A, CSI…what are you going to end up with CSI: Nebraska? Why did that show work?
Marg: It worked for a number of reasons. I mean, you know, I think the public cannot get enough of mystery shows. And CSI had a new spin with the use of all the science and all those…what we ended up calling the ‘CSI shot’, which was to show the bullet through the body. And just the way we made science really fun and interesting and the use of flash backs. So it was, you know, it was a real 20th, 21st century Sherlock Holmes because…we premiered in the fall of 2000. And so it just got millions of viewers from out of the box.
Larry King: They say it helped the crime people too because criminals got to say ‘Hey they use this too’.
Marg: I’ve heard before but, you know, what you must know, most criminals are pretty stupid.
Larry King: Also the show was heavy in sexual content. And physical and murders. Violence.
Marg: Yes, there was a lot of that primetime stuff that you can’t really do in daytime. You know, I think they really would try to lay off some of the graphic imagery after a while because it got pretty intense.
Larry King: Do you know why they chose Vegas as the spot for the first one?
Marg: Because the show was created by Anthony Zuiker, who’s a Vegas born…
Larry King: I’ve met him.
Marg: You’ve probably interviewed him, right? He’s from Vegas and, right, prior to the script being picked up by CBS and developed by Jerry’s company, Jerry Bruckheimer’s company, he was driving a tram at the Mirage hotel. And so talk about a…not necessarily a rags to riches but, you know, definitely.
Larry King: Do you think when they spun it off to other cities it hurt the original?
Marg: At the time, when we first heard they were going to do the CSI Miami, the cast was a little disappointed about that because we felt like we were the only game in town and some of our specialness was going to be dissipated and, to a certain degree, I guess it was. But I have to say, our ratings kind of sky rocketed through season 5 and, by then, they already had CSI: New York. It just was one of those shows that people couldn’t get enough of. Though I completely understand the business decision that went into ‘Let’s spin it off, let’s spin it off again.’
Larry King: How’d you get the role?
Marg: I wish I had an interesting story. It was simply my agent had read the script and sent it to me and said, ‘This is, I think this is a great show. Read it immediately, get back to me’, which I did and so we just started the wheels in motion. And I had already had a relationship with CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer and so CBS signed off on me and then I had the meeting with Jerry and Anthony.
Larry King: Here’s a showbiz question.
Marg: Okay.
Larry King: Why didn’t you change your name?
Marg: Why didn’t I change my name?
Larry King: It’s not a box office name.
Marg: I wish I had changed my first name honestly.
Larry King: Why?
Marg: Because it gets mispronounced all the time. It get mispronounced as Marge all the time and it’s Marg. So I wish I had changed it to Margo.
Larry King: I said Marge.
Marg: Yeah. It happens all the time.
Larry King: Why didn’t you change it though?
Marg: Why didn’t I?
Larry King: Yeah.
Marg: I didn’t really give it much thought.
Larry King: No.
Marg: There’s something about having grown up in Nebraska and people are just kind of salt of the earth.
Larry King: Of course in the old movie days, they would have said ‘Come on you can’t be, you know, you gotta be.’
Marg: You know what? When I was still in Nebraska, one summer I was weekend weather girl and they had me change my name. Because the anchor team consisted of Harvey Knocklinger and Joyce Eisenminger, so it was going to be the Knocklinger, Eisenminger, Helgenberger Report. So they made me change my name. I changed it to my grandmother’s maiden name, which was McCarty.
Larry King: That’s nice.
Marg: So it was Margi McCarty. Now I should have kept that. Margi McCarty.
Larry King: Yeah, you would have been something.
Larry King: Up next…what can we expect in this series finale? We’re going to show you a clip too.
(Commercial Break)
Larry King: The series finale 2 hour special will air September 27th. William Petersen’s back, right?
Marg: He is. Billy, as we call him.
Larry King: What’s it like? I love him as an actor.
Marg: Yeah, exactly.
Larry King: Even when he kind of plays an evil guy. I was in a movie with him called The Contender.
Marg: Oh, I didn’t even know that one.
Larry King: He was supposed to be the President and they found out he set up a whole big scheme to get himself…
Marg: Oh, I’m sorry, that’s with Joan Allen.
Larry King: Joan Allen.
Marg: Yes, okay.
Larry King: I interviewed Joan Allen in the movie.
Marg: Oh okay, okay. Yes. That’s right. He was the bad guy.
Larry King: He was the bad guy. What was he like?
Marg: He was great. I mean, I adore Billy. I mean, you know, he’s very gregarious and very welcoming to everyone. And really cared a great deal about the show. I mean, we all did, but he certainly has that infectious enthusiasm.
Larry King: Well, what can we expect in the finale? What’s this plot?
Marg: Well, let’s see. So I don’t get into trouble by revealing too much…An incident happens in Las Vegas that brings the whole team back together. And I, having been a Vegas native, and it’s involving a casino, I’ll say that much. And my father played by Scott Wilson had been a casino mogul so there was a few connections that brought me to Vegas for this…to be a part of the team. Billy’s character, I think, it was because it just involved so many….oh, I know, because it involved this fan favorite character, Lady Heather, played by Melinda Clarke. She becomes one of the suspects. So he’s got a lot of information we wouldn’t have…because he kind of had an intimate relationship with her.
Larry King: Are you in the final scene?
Marg: The very final scene? I am not. I’m not in the very final scene, but close to the final scene.
Larry King: Let’s watch a clip from the series finale of CSI.
(Clip from CSI shown)
Larry King: Drama.
Marg: That was the final crime scene of CSI. It actually brought tears to my eyes shooting that scene for a number of reasons. Just seeing the whole team there gathering the evidence.
Larry King: Didn’t that role type cast you? Didn’t it?
Marg: Type cast me?
Larry King: Well, by that I mean, while you were doing this very successful series and were so prominent in it, were there movie roles coming your way or other roles coming your way that weren’t just solidly CSI?
Marg: For the most part, just because it’s a very long season…we shot 24 episodes a season, one time 25. But I did shoot a couple of films while I was doing the show. I did a film called In Good Company with Scarlett Johansson and Dennis Quaid. I did a film called Mr. Brooks with Kevin Costner, and a film with Val Kilmer. So I would squeeze something in.
Larry King: Oh good.
Marg: Yes.
Larry King: You started with Tootsie though. Was that your first?
Marg: Somehow that is on my IMDB page. I was not in Tootsie. I wish I had been in Tootsie — I think that’s a brilliant movie.
Larry King: So why is it on your IMDB page?
Marg: That wasn’t my fault. I have no idea. No, my first film was Always. It was a Spielberg film.
Larry King: Yeah, good movie.
Marg: Yes, thank you. I felt honored to be a part of it.
Larry King: You’ve been in a long time. Has it changed a lot pro the female side?
Marg: Television,for sure, has. I mean, there’s enormous amount of great roles for women in television. Films not so much, you know. They just don’t make as many films as they used to, to begin with. And they don’t make the big character dramas as much as they used to either in film. That’s mostly where it’s been my bread and butter in television and I feel very, you know…it’s a good time to be a woman in the business. In the television industry.
Larry King: Well, there is gender inequality, right?
Marg: Yeah.
Larry King: How do you explain that in kind of a liberal city like L.A.?
Marg: The only thing I can really say…I don’t have the answer but there still are a great deal of executives that are men and they tend to make a lot more than their female counterparts as well, so I think it just kind of extends to whether they’re actors or they’re directors or they’re writers.
Larry King: Do you see an end in sight of that?
Marg: I sure hope so. I mean, I think maybe in the film industry…I think Jennifer Lawrence is now making the same amount as men that work with her, because she’s so successful and she’s so talented. So one can only hope, right?
Larry King: Was it emotional to come back and do this?
Marg: Of course, but I think my big emotional process was when I left the show in back in 2011. That was like, a month, several months where that went on…Just crying and processing and so on.
Larry King: Ever regret it?
Marg: No, I never did. Never did, no. I mean, I was surprised by how much I missed the structure of doing an episodic television show because there’s the whole process of reading the script, breaking it down, custom fittings, etc., you know, and then shooting it. But no, no regrets. I didn’t even miss the character. I thought I would, but coming back to do this final episode, I realized once I put the suit on and boots on and the swagger I thought, ‘Damn, she’s pretty bad ass.’
Larry King: Coming up…does Marg have a favorite candidate in the Presidential race and we’ll play a game of ‘If You Only Knew.’ Stay with us.
(commercial break)
Larry King: The final episode of CSI will air on September 27th, as a 2 hour movie. Marg Helgenberger returns for that movie. And we’ve seen a clip and very anxious to see it. Are you following the election? Are you involved in politics?
Marg: I’m somewhat involved in politics. I’ve actually missed both Republican debates. The last one I recorded. I mean, I was working both times. So I recorded the last one, the first one I forgot to. I’ve seen clips, of course. It’s just been a busy time in my life. But, yes, I mean, politics can be maddening, it can be entertaining.
Larry King: Do you have a candidate?
Marg: I do, I do. I’ve always loved Hillary Clinton and I think she’s the right person for the job.
Larry King:She’s formidable.
Marg: Yep.
Larry King: You’re also an advocate for gun control, are you not?
Marg: Sure, of course, yes.
Larry King: How do you explain this country we have all these killings — high schools and elementary schools and tragedies — and nothing happens.
Marg: You know, it’s a shame. I was in Cuba last November actually before the travel sanction, anyway, and, you know, that’s a Communist country, but the crime rate is very very low in that country and they, I think…a lot of it is because there’s no guns. People can’t get a hold of guns. I mean there are murders that take place with machetes from time to time, but they’re usually crimes of passion.
Larry King: Seems insane. You just get a gun.
Marg: Yeah. Canada, you know, there’s a very little murder rate in Canada.
Larry King: We’ll play a game now ‘If You Only Knew’. I’ll just throw some questions at you. Okay, Marg?
Marg: Mmm hmm.
Larry King: Okay. Who’s the first boy you ever kissed?
Marg: Brain, I think his name was.
Larry King: It was in Nebraska?
Marg: It was in Nebraska. A long time ago.
Larry King: How old were you?
Marg: Sixteen.
Larry King: That’s late. First kiss, sixteen?
Marg: Yeah, I think it was sixteen. That was a long time ago, Larry, and it was rural Nebraska.
Larry King: Whatever happened to Brian?
Marg: I actually saw him maybe about 10 years ago. It was at a graduation party for one of my nieces.
Larry King: And he never forgot it, right?
Marg: I would think he wouldn’t.
Larry King: What makes you laugh every time?
Marg: I’m embarrassed to say…sometimes the dumbest humor. You know, like, there’s an app called ‘iFart’ that has all these different fart sounds.
Larry King: My kids do. Yeah, it’s funny.
Marg: Right? It makes you laugh too, right?
Larry King: Yeah. Why is that funny? I don’t know why it’s funny, but it’s funny.
Marg: Because it’s incredibility stupid.
Larry King: What’s your pet peeve?
Marg: One of them is people who don’t pick up after their dogs.
Larry King: An actor or actress you’d most like to work with?
Marg: Gosh, again, so many. But I love Viggo Mortensen.
Larry King: Oh, he’s terrific.
Marg: Yeah, I love him. He hasn’t been in a movie the last couple of years. You know, he’s a poet, a real Renaissance man.
Larry King: Best advice you ever received?
Marg: Work hard. Both my parents worked.
Larry King: Favorite place to be?
Marg: I’m a big fan of Kauai. So stunning and peaceful and just a beautiful island.
Larry King: What’s something no one knows about you?
Marg: I’m a great ironer.
Larry King: Really?
Marg: Yeah.
Larry King: How did you get that talent? Trained by your mother?
Marg: Trained by my mother and we had to…
Larry King: Did you ever leave it on? Did you ever burn anything?
Marg: No, because I’m so damn good.
Larry King: If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Marg: To be able to fly.
Larry King:Best onscreen kiss?
Marg: There were a fewm actually. The one I’m thinking of now was from Vincent D’Onofrio actually.
Larry King: Really.
Marg: Yes. It was a little film called Crooked Hearts. In fact, that was the only contact we have in the film, because it was in a flash back sequence and that was it.
Larry King: I love him.
Marg: He’s a wonderful actor.
Larry King: He so interesting, you know.
Marg: Yes. He’s had such an amazing career.
Larry King: I know, from Law and Order to…
Marg: All the roles he’s played throughout. Full Metal Jacket.
Larry King: Full Metal Jacket when he kills that sergeant. Oh my God.
Marg: Well, and then himself. And he put on, like, 80 pounds. That was, like, his first film role and he put on 80 pounds. He was serious. He was dedicated to his craft.
Larry King: Coming up, Marg and I will talk a little sports and we’ll wrap things up with some fan questions from social media. And don’t forget September 27th, the last episode of CSI, a 2 hour movie special. We’ll be right back.
(commercial break)
Larry King: We’re back with Marg Helgenberger. Marg, Marge, Marg with a hard G.
Marg: That’s right with a hard G.
Larry King: That’s German, isn’t it?
Marg: Well, it’s actually…my, it’s Mary Marg. Mary’s my first name. It’s more Catholic than anything, I guess. In terms of there was a lot of Marg Margarets and a lot of Marys in my family. They all go by their middle name, including my mother.
Larry King: But Helgenberger?
Marg: That’s German, yes.
Larry King: You’re from Nebraska, but you’re a Carolina Panther fan?
Marg: I am. Die hard.
Larry King: Why the Panthers?
Marg: I shot something in Wilmington, North Carolina, the year they became a franchise team and my husband, Alan Rosenberg, my ex husband now, and our son who was four…we said ‘Let’s root for this team.’ We like the mascot, we like the uniforms. We’ve stuck by them and some years are challenging to stick by them, but we’re 2 and 0 this season.
Larry King: Yeah they are. Good quarterback.
Marg: Yeah, Cam Newton.
Larry King: Are you a Cornhusker fan?
Marg: Yes, I am. I don’t follow college ball as closely as I do pro. Like I used to, but now not as much.
Larry King: Do you fly to Panther games?
Marg: I have gone to quite a few Panther games. Not recently though. I need to change that.
Larry King: You watch them?
Marg: Every Sunday or every Thursday or every Monday.
Larry King: Yeah or whenever the NFL…NFL Tuesday morning.
Larry King: Okay, we have some questions from social media. @SokoJessica on twitter “You’ve talked about loving comedy and shows like Broad City. Would you ever guest star on that show or star in a comedy series yourself?”
Marg: Of course. I mean, that’s usually what I end up watching at night when I’m trying to drift off. Because who doesn’t want to rather laugh themselves to sleep, then see some grisly imagery? But of course, any comedy show. I love sketch comedy. I love, I mean…Veep is a brilliant show.
Larry King: Oh, brilliant.
Marg: I went to college with Julia-Louis Dreyfus.
Larry King: Where’d you go? What school?
Marg: Northwestern. Yeah, so I always root for her. She’s just, she’s amazing. She’s just incredible.
Larry King: Were you a drama major?
Marg: I was, yes.
Larry King: Were you friends at school?
Marg: With Julia? We weren’t really close friends. But we were actually in a production of Three Penny Opera together. And, as she puts it, Marg was the star of the musical and I was one of the whores in the brothel.
Larry King: Ann Margaret went there…Charlton Heston. Northwestern.
Marg: Yes, yes. Stephen Colbert.
Larry King: @CSICrimeScene on the Larry King Now blog, “What’s the funniest memory you have of yourself?”
Marg: I’m not coming up very good with this. I strike out on the embarrassment one.
Larry King: No, it’s all right. You don’t have to. It’s not a court room.
Marg: Oh gosh. I suppose, sometimes the funniest moments are the ones the are humiliating at the time, you know. There was once an incident when I was a kid, and some bratty bully kid, like, tripped me. And I had a retainer, was wearing a retainer, and I fell flat on the ground and the retainer, like, slid all the way to the end of the hallway. And, of course, there were chuckles and I picked myself, picked up that retainer, and I didn’t let it affect me.
Larry King: And stormed off.
Marg: Yes. And look at them now. They’re probably just fat and you know…
Larry King: You have a 24 year old son?
Marg: I do, Hughie. He’ll be 25 next month, actually.
Larry King: What does he do?
Marg: Currently he’s in Japan teaching English, where I’m headed to on Wednesday with my 80 year old mother.
Larry King: To visit your son?
Marg: To visit my son and to visit Japan for the first time…Tokyo and Kyoto. Which I’m so excited about.
Larry King: @Mes520 on twitter “When the show started, she and Eric Szmanda (Larry stumbles over name)
Marg: That’s a tough one. Szmanda, yes.
Larry King: had a bet on who would have the most hairstyles. Who won?”
Marg: I think Eric because, after a while, I kind of gave up. He still had the stamina. But you know, I think that in the beginning, honestly it really wasn’t a legitimate competition. We just used to joke about it all the time. Because he’s a really stylish young guy and I don’t know what got into me for the first few seasons…I just kept changing it. And after a while, it was, like, this takes too much energy.
Larry King: By the way, did you think that show would be a hit?
Marg: I did, actually. I read that script and I saw that pilot cut together. I thought ‘Man, this is something special’.
Larry King: @JeyeCSI on the Larry King Now blog “I’m from Brazil and I’m a big fan. I wonder, what was the most important moment in the life of Catherine Willows?”
Marg: The most important moment? Well I, probably…there was actually some moments in the last one we just shot because my…I had a daughter on the series, Lindsey who grew….She started off as a little girl, and when we shot this last one, she was a grown woman, played by Katie Stevens and she’s now become…she followed in her mother’s footsteps. She’s become a criminalist. So I guess, like any parent, you’re really proud of your children when they find their way.
Larry King: @Muskrate34 “Do you get to work on your charities as much as you’d like to?”
Marg: Well, I’m an ambassador for Stand up to Cancer and I’ve done quite a few things for them in the last couple of years. Two or three years, I’ve done quite a few things. Some of them I can’t go to, like, I would have loved to gone to the All Star game. Because major league baseball is one of the big sponsors and I was to throw out a pitch…I mean, there’s different things I would have but I was working. So yeah, it’s been a busy year for me workwise. No complaints.
Larry King: What are you doing professionally now? What’s next?
Marg: I just did a little Indy film called Holden Patterns with Freddie Highmore, this wonderful young actor. I’m not sure when that will be released. I’m in talks to do a play, a production of The Little Foxes, the Lillian Hellman play.
Larry King: Oh, that’s a great play.
Marg: Yes, yes it is.
Larry King: Broadway or…?
Marg: Actually, it would be with the Arena Stage in Washington D.C.
Larry King: That’s great.
Marg: Yeah, I know and I’d love to be in Washington. So that, and then I’m not exactly sure what’s around the corner.
Larry King: Do you like theater?
Marg: Yes. I hadn’t done it in a long time, But I went back last summer, I did a play. A very challenging role in this play called The Other Place. And I want to keep that ball rolling because it’s…most actors will say doing stage is the ultimate challenge.
Larry King: That’s the actors medium.
Marg: Exactly. It’s the actors medium.
Larry King: Thank you, doll. Always good seeing you.
Marg: You too, Larry. Thanks so much for having me.
Larry King: I want to thank my guest, Marg Helgenberger. The series finale of CSI airs September 27th on CBS.