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There’s
a home for fortysomething actresses: It’s called
television. Marg Helgenberger has thrived there for the
last seven seasons, thanks to the still-potent CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation, in which she plays the
Vegas forensic night cop, single mom and former exotic
dancer Catherine Willows.
Long-term success has allowed Helgenberger to fit movies
in on hiatus, such as Mr. Brooks. But she knows
where her bread is buttered.
“A lot
of women watch TV,” she says. “Most movies that are
financed are catering to an age range of teenage boys.”
So she seizes the smaller opportunities on the big
screen. In Mr. Brooks, she plays the good woman
standing by her man, played by Kevin Costner.
“I just
wanted to make sure I’m in the pocket, that we appear to
have a loving relationship,” Helgenberger says.
Did we
mention that Costner is playing a Jekyll-and-Hyde serial
killer? One can imagine the director yelling, “OK, Marg,
do blissfully ignorant.” Helgenberger jokes that her
CSI alter ego would have “nailed his ass.” But in
this alternate reality she is “blinded by love” as her
spouse continues his nocturnal hunting with his devil’s
advocate subconscience (portrayed by William Hurt).
Helgenberger has a pretty comfortable routine for an
actress defying the industry’s age bias. She cranks out
20 or so episodes of CSI, finds a movie gig to
keep her out there on the big screen, and maybe squeezes
in a vacation with her husband, actor Alan Rosenberg,
and son Hughie in Hawaii. Time off is happening less
because Rosenberg is keeping busy as president of the
Screen Actors Guild. Asked to name the most pressing
thespian labor issue, Helgenberger answers, “Protecting
residuals. That’s an actor’s life blood. I know so many
friends who survive on residuals.”
Helgenberger has collected a few residuals herself. Her
career has mostly been defined by three TV hitches. She
broke in on Ryan’s Hope after being spotted in a
Northwestern staging of Taming of the Shrew;
earned an Emmy in 1990 as a hooker to GIs on the series
China Beach;
and made an astonishing prime-time comeback with CSI,
which premiered in October 2000. It was the
sixth-highest-rated show during sweeps two weeks ago.
(One of its two spinoffs, CSI: Miami, was
seventh.) How long CSI will occupy its Thursday night
slot on CBS is anyone’s guess. Helgenberger says she is
taking each season one at a time. She remains under
contract for one more year.
As for
Mr. Brooks, she and Costner are talking about a
sequel. She says Costner has told her the movie must
make in the $40-million to $50-million range, “and we’ll
be fine.”
This
phone interview takes place during her latest hiatus,
part of which she is spending on an indie film with Val
Kilmer called Columbus Day. She plays an old
girlfriend whom Kilmer’s character looks up in the wake
of a heist. “That character is the antithesis of who I
play on CSI,” she says. “I enjoyed playing someone with
a meager existence.”
Humble
Midwest roots prepared her for show business.
Helgenberger’s hometown of North Bend, Nebraska, boasts
a population of 1,219. Back when the renamed
Marg Helgenberger Street
was just the place where Helgenberger and her parents
lived, thinking of a career in acting was plain kooky.
“I had
absolutely no role models,” she says. “It seemed like a
pipe dream to me.” |
