ELLEN, TRANSCRIPT OF MARG’S INTERVIEW
February 19, 2004
Ellen: Our first guest is an Emmy award winning actress on televisionâs #1 show CSI. Letâs watch her in action
(Clip of CSI shown)
Ellen: Please welcome, Marg Helgenberger!
Ellen: Welcome Marg. How are ya?
Marg: Iâm good, Ellen. Thank you for having me. Itâs nice to be here.
Ellen: Well, weâre pleased to have you here. And I saw you last week at the Grammyâs.
Marg: I saw you too, although I didnât grab you hand. You were on stage.
Ellen: You were right there. I saw youâŠand did you enjoy it?
Marg: You know whatâŠI thought those were some awesome performances. Some of the best, one of the best Grammy shows I have seen.
Ellen: It was really great.
Marg: My son was with me. He had⊠my son and a friend of his, two thirteen-year-old boys. They just sat there like this. (makes face to imitate them) My son was biting his nails.
Ellen: Oh, wow. That must have been really cool.
Marg: Yeah. I mean, you know, what a couple of lucky boys they are.
Ellen: Yeah, a thirteen-year-old being at the Grammyâs. And does he like the White Stripes? Is that his music?
Marg: I think he was most interested in seeing OutKast actually.
Ellen: Oh yeah.
Marg: Oh, theyâre so zany.
Ellen: I know.
Marg: Theyâre a riot, arenât they?
Ellen: Theyâre amazing.
Marg: Theyâre so imaginative and creative.
Ellen: Yeah I love âem. So now a thirteen-year-old boy. Thatâs a hard age, isnât it?
Marg: Itâs challenging.
Ellen: I would think.
Marg: Yes, itâs very challenging. You know things like⊠In fac,t that night after we got home you know it was, âWhy couldnât we go to any of the parties?â You know, because it was a school night, first off. And I had to work and all this. But then heâll demand like, âWell, read me a story, tell me a story.â âNo, youâre being rude.â
Ellen: Heâs got a gruff voice for a thirteen year old. (laughs)
Marg: But then, you know, âIâm not reading to you now. Just chill.â
Ellen: Are you’re still reading him stories at thirteen?
Marg: You know what I doâŠI tend to readâŠhe wants me to read the scripts to him.
Ellen: Of your show?
Marg: Yeah.
Ellen: Of dead people?
Marg: Well, you knowâŠ
Ellen: Night, night. Sleep tight.
Marg: That thought has crossed my mind from time to time.
Ellen: Did I meet him at thatâŠwhen you all were on vacation?
Marg: Yeah, he was with us.
Ellen: I think I met him, yeah. He seems very special.
Marg: Big Sur, gorgeous Big Sur. Of course, he found it uninteresting.
Ellen: Yeah, well, thereâs not a lot to do there.
Marg: No.
Ellen: Itâs where we go to relax. A thirteen-year-old boy wouldnât enjoy just hiking.
Marg: Hates it more than anything. A beautiful vista is not interesting to him.
Ellen: Someday though. Thatâs when youâre getting olderâŠyou appreciate a beautiful vista.
Ellen: So, again, I do my research, and I know that your first job on television was you were a weather person.
Marg: Yes, that was my first job.
Ellen: A lot of people that have been on the show start out doing the weather.
Marg: It was a complete fluke. I was in college, and there was a guy in my Interpretation of Drama class who did the weekday weather, and he said, âWeâre looking for a weekend person would you be willing to come out and audition?â And it was in the middle of nowhere in Kearney, NebraskaâŠliterally in the rural area, middle of corn fields and everything. And I went out and gave a terrible audition. But I was just there to have a good time and winked into the lens, and that got me the job. Donât ask me why.
Ellen: Really? Like what kind of wink? What you do?
Marg: Like that (Marg shows how she winked)
Ellen: There are different winks. Thereâs the really big one (Ellen shows big wink), and then thereâs that (Ellen shows little wink). Iâm not a winker. Iâm not into winking. Do you wink a lot?
Marg: No.
Ellen: You just happened to wink then.
Marg: Yeah, Donât ask me why.
Ellen: âI messed up. I was really bad.â (Ellen winks)
Marg: It was that. Exactly. It…
Ellen: We actually have a clip of you doing that. Did you hear that?
Marg: Yeah.
Ellen: I havenât seen it yet. So this is you doing the weather in Kearney,Nebraska.
Marg: Thatâs right.
Ellen: How long ago was this? What year?
Marg: I was nineteen, so it wasâŠ
Ellen: A couple of years ago.
Marg: A couple of years ago. Yes, thatâs right.
Ellen: Letâs take a look.
(Clip of Marg doing the weather shown)
Ellen: Thereâs just one area that looks like a whole bunch of eggs, and then thereâs two temperatures up there by New Mexico. Thatâs all you cared about. Nobody else really existed, except random 107 and 43. Thatâs all you had up there.
Marg: You know, I did make my own maps. I donât recall making this one…
Ellen: You made that map? And it was just thunder storms, thatâs all you had. Thatâs fantastic.
Marg: Gold ball size hail, but there are no injuries reported yet. (Laughs)
Ellen: Over the entire state, you had it. (More laughter)
Ellen: we have to take a commercial break. Weâll be right back.
(Commercial break)
Ellen: Weâre back with Marg Helgenberger. And itâs Marg. Now everybody knows how to pronounce it. I bet for a while they called you all kinds of things. But itâs Marg Helgenberger.
Marg: Yeah. My production companyâs name, which Iâve had for like ten years now, is âDonât Call Me Marge.â
Ellen: Because everybody did.
Marg: They still do.
Ellen: Really?
Marg: Yeah.
Ellen: How can they do that? Youâre on the number one show.
Marg: Thatâs right.
Ellen: Thatâs right. Whatâs it feel like? I mean, how do you feel being on the number oneâŠsuch a huge hit?
Marg: Well, itâs exciting. Itâs really fun. I mean, you know I wonât deny that. Itâs fun being on a hit. You know itâs becomeâŠI guess you become sort of a pop culture jargon. You know, because I was mentioned on The Sopranos, this very funny scene involving somethingâŠoh I know it was. Do I have time to tell this whole story?
Ellen: I donât know. Letâs try.
Marg: Aida Turturroâs character, Janice, is that her name? She was dating a guy whoâs recently widowed, and they were on a date andâŠ
Ellen: Hurry!
Marg: She said, âYouâve been to see her, havenât you?â And he says, âWhat are you talking about?â And she says, âI can see that thereâs cemetery dirt on your shoes.â And he goes, âWhat, what are you Marge Heggenberger?â Like she was a CSI.
Ellen: And they didnât pronounce your name right as a joke.
Marg: It was a joke.
Ellen: Thatâs how inside it was.
Marg: That how inside it was.
Ellen: Thatâs good. I like it. Thatâs flattery.
Marg: Yes, it was.
Ellen: I was an answer on Wheel of Fortune. I mean I hadnât been on a Sopranos thing, but Iâve been on Wheel of Fortune.
Marg: Exciting.
Ellen: So what have you learned doing that? Youâre a criminologistâŠWhat do you play exactly?
Marg: Itâs actuallyâŠthe official term is criminalist.
Ellen: Criminalist.
Marg: Criminalist, yes. Criminologist is, I think, the psychology of the behavior, understanding the behavior.
Ellen: Okay, so you donât understand the behavior.
Marg: No, no, no. We just analyze the goodies. Thereâs all kind of equipment weâre given. I see youâve got gloves here.
Ellen: Yeah, I know. Because I understand that you have to beâŠI would hold people up constantly trying to get these things on. You have to act like this is old hat because you put them on all the time.
Marg: Yeah, well, the women on the show are much better at it than the guys, of course.
Ellen: Why is that?
Marg: I guess women are just better with their hands, in general. I donât really know. Guys always need assistance.
Ellen: Really? Iâm not gonna touch that. (laughter)
Marg: See, these are large so these will be easier to get on, just in general. Or these are medium size or whatever.
Ellen: Alright, so how do you get them on quickly like you know what youâre doing?
Marg: Itâs pretty⊠(Marg puts on her gloves)
Ellen: Oh well, that doesnât look hard.
Marg: But the trick isâŠI would never wear a pair this size.
Ellen: These are too big?
Marg: These are too big. They have to, kind of, really fit like a glove, as the saying goes.
Ellen: Whatâs wrong with them being a little bit big? Wait, thatâs completely wrong.
Marg: You wouldnât be able to pick upâŠ
Ellen: I have an extra thing right here. (Ellen is trying to put her gloves on and has an extra finger that sheâs waving around). Theyâre not going anywhere. I donât have to be in a hurryâŠtheyâre dead. Alright, well this is ridiculous.
Marg: It takes practice. Iâve been doing it for four seasons now.
Ellen: Was it hard at first? Did you have this happen to you?
Marg: Theyâve torn on me before.
Ellen: Well, itâs a good thing that IâŠ( Ellen still trying to put on her gloves)
Ellen: All right, CSI is on Thursdays at 9:00 on CBS.
*Special thanks to fox1 for transcribing this interview.