[image: 'CSI' scoop: Grissom's goodbye |
CSI-Petersen_dl]<http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20250671,00.html>
'CSI' scoop: Grissom's
goodbye<http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20250671,00.html>
--
In his only interview, the man behind Gil Grissom talks about why he's going
and what it means for his future -- and for the series
[image: CSI-Petersen_l]
WILLIAM PETERSEN Photographed on Dec. 8, 2008 in Chicago
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MULLER
By Lynette
Rice<http://search.ew.com/EWSearch/ew/search/search.html?type=ew:Lynette+Rice;>
[image:
Lynette Rice]
Here's a recently shot scene from an upcoming episode of
*CSI*<http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20243932,00.html>.
The setting: a somber courtroom, where a prominent Nevada congressman stands
accused of a beautiful young woman's murder. In the front row sits Catherine
Willows (Marg Helgenberger<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20000769,00.html>),
sheathed in a low-cut blouse and tight pants. Hmmm...upon examining the
evidence, there appears nothing out of the ordinary here. But wait,
someone's moving into the witness box to testify about the case... Uh, is
that Morpheus from *The
Matrix*<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20000464,00.html>wearing a
pinstripe suit and tie?
Yes, something is definitely off with TV's most popular drama. What's
missing, of course, is William
Petersen<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20001745,00.html>,
a.k.a. Gil Grissom — a character so beloved by his audience that *CSI*, nine
seasons in, is still the No. 1 scripted show on television, averaging 21.3
million viewers per week. Petersen, however, is now living some 1,700 miles
away in Chicago, where he's resumed a career as a theater actor, playing to
audiences of only 300 people. With his final *CSI* episode set to air
Jan.
15 on CBS, Petersen is saying
goodbye<http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2008/07/william-peterse.html>to
the show and character that made him very, very famous and very, very
rich. For nine years, he's had it all. And that was exactly the problem.
''The reason I'm leaving is because I'm afraid I'm becoming too
comfortable,'' says Petersen. ''It's *CSI* — they pay me a lot of money, and
I don't have to work very hard anymore. I've got it all figured out. And I
just realized, God, as an artist, I'm going to atrophy. You do anything for
nine years, it becomes somewhat rote. I didn't want to be on the show
because they were paying me money and I liked the money. I didn't want to be
on the show because it saved me from having to go look for other jobs. Just
didn't want it. It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and
break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.''
[image: Petersen-on-set_l]
*MEASURING UP FOR THE LAST TIME* Playing Grissom ''was a complete life for
me that's reached its end, and it's reached it in the right way, I think,''
says William Petersen
Leaving fame and fortune behind in the name of artistic integrity? There's a
novel concept for Hollywood. But still, isn't he just a little sentimental
about parting ways with a character that has defined him since 2000? ''I
won't miss Grissom,'' says Petersen matter-of-factly. ''It was a complete
life for me that's reached its end, and it's reached it in the right way, I
think. So I won't miss Grissom. And I hope that the audience won't miss him
either.''
There is one thing Petersen will miss about playing the quirky sleuth. It's
not the national spotlight, the eight-figure salary, or the adoration of
fans. ''Hair fibers,'' he says. He's kidding — sort of. Relaxing between
performances at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, where the 55-year-old
recently starred as a lonely undertaker in Conor McPherson's *Dublin Carol*,
Petersen says that over time, he begrudgingly grew to respect the show's
dialogue-free moments. ''I used to bitch about it a lot the first few years,
but I became very adept at having the camera see the fiber, and using the
tweezers to pick the fiber up, and then having the camera follow the
tweezers to my face so the audience can say, 'Oh, Grissom sees it. He knows
what it is.' I'll miss that.''
Actually, he's walking away from a lot more than the maddening minutiae *CSI
* fans love. A producer on the drama since its debut in 2000 and an exec
producer since 2004,
Petersen is one of the highest-paid actors on
television (earning a reported $600,000 per episode). Over the years, he's
watched his show turn into a ratings powerhouse and a veritable industry for
CBS, which will no doubt feel the pain of Petersen's departure. *CSI* is the
backbone of a three-show franchise: Its reruns air in some 200 territories
(yep, they even recognize Petersen in Tahiti). The show reportedly commands
north of $250K per 30-second spot of commercial time, and with all the
syndication and spin-offs, the entire *CSI* franchise generates ''billions''
in revenue for the network and studio, according to a CBS source.
[image: behind-the-scenes_l]
*LAST DAY ON THE SET* ''Oh, it was hard for everybody,'' says William
Petersen (with George Eads, Laurence Fishburne, and Marg Helgenberger)
Petersen has definitely left his mark on this crime scene. From the moment
in 1999 when he persuaded creator
Anthony E. Zuiker to change Gil's last
name from Sheinbaum to Grissom, to the spring of 2007 when he began to map
out his character's much-anticipated exit, Petersen has played a significant
role in the direction of his hit show. ''The first day I met Billy, before
filming the pilot, he said to me he wanted to re-create an ensemble feel of
a theater company, to have that type of collaboration,'' says executive
producer Carol Mendelsohn. ''It's not the easiest road to take, to have true
collaboration. There were a lot of fights, a lot of disagreements.'' Like
the time Petersen insisted on showing his naked butt during Grissom's stay
at a hospital in season 3. Mendelsohn objected, believing it would come off
more *NYPD Blue* <http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20000168,00.html> than *
CSI*. They shot it both ways,
and while Mendelsohn ultimately won that
battle, she feels Petersen's insistence on teamwork ''has been an essential
element to our success, on every level.''
The actor even felt emboldened enough to brush off directives from the very
top, as when CBS president Leslie
Moonves<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20001877,00.html>asked him to
shave the not-so-attractive beard he started sporting in the
fourth season. ''I'm superstitious,'' says Moonves. ''If it ain't broke,
don't fix it. Here's a leading man people love with a high Q Score. He's on
the No. 1 show. Why screw around with luck? Yet he chose politely to ignore
me.'' Petersen, who's unapologetic about his occasional
my-way-or-the-highway antics, says he wanted a producer title to ensure that
the cast and crew always had an advocate. ''Otherwise, it's completely
unbalanced because everything is tilted toward the network and the studio
and the writers. It can't just be generals. You have to have a few
lieutenants. That's where I came in.''
[image: Petersen-hug_l]
*HUGGING IT OUT* ''I couldn't stop crying,'' says Marg Helgenberger of
William Petersen's last day on the set. ''It was hard. I'm having a hard
time now, because, you know, we had a great nine years together. It's just
over.''
Naturally, then, it was Petersen — and not producers or the network — who
decided when and where Grissom would finally step outside the yellow tape.
As he literally notched the passing of each season on his trailer ceiling,
the star began hinting to the writers about an expiration date around the
100th episode. ''For years, Billy had been saying he wanted to go, so we
knew that one day he'd ask to be written out,'' says Mendelsohn. ''We had a
game plan for a long time.'' Petersen and the writers were set on hammering
out an exit strategy that would seem organic to the world of forensic
science. That's where the real-life Grissoms came into play. ''You talk to
all of the CSIs we know, and they all have a short [career] life,'' says
Petersen. ''They can do this for a while and then they all try to become
techs for our show! None of them want to go back down an alley and process
fingerprints on a garbage can anymore.''
The long goodbye officially began in November 2007, when Gil's fiancée Sara
(Jorja Fox <http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20001525,00.html>) fled Las
Vegas for destinations unknown, and it continued with the tragic shooting
death of Warrick <http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/10/csi.html> (Gary
Dourdan <http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20002133,00.html>) in October of
the following year. ''That's what kicked everything off for Grissom, to
begin his journey to wherever he's going because [Warrick's death] was a
massive shock to his system,'' explains Petersen. In fact, Petersen should
have been gone by now: Warrick's death and Grissom's swan song were
originally scheduled to air
by last May, but the 100-day writers'
strike<http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/strike/index.html>shortened the
season, so there wasn't enough time to tell all the stories
Petersen wanted — including the return of the Miniature
Serial Killer and
Melinda Clarke's dominatrix, Lady Heather.
Postponing his farewell not only put some much-needed space between the
high-profile exits of Fox and Dourdan, it also gave the show's creative team
plenty of time to find Petersen's successor. And for the first time in his
nearly nine-year run as the king of *CSI*, Petersen stepped back and let
producers make the decision. After putting out feelers to an impressive
roster of stars (imagine seeing Kurt
Russell<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20000850,00.html>or John
Malkovich <http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20001119,00.html> in a lab coat
and safety goggles!), the producers set their sights on the aforementioned
Morpheus, a.k.a. Laurence
Fishburne<http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20001066,00.html>,
who hasn't starred on TV since playing Cowboy Curtis on *Pee-wee's Playhouse
* back in the '80s.
[image: Helgenberger-Fishburne_l]
*WELCOME ABOARD* ''I think he feels the weight of the challenge of taking
over that part,'' says Marg Helgenberger about new costar Laurence
Fishburne. ''Obviously it's not the same part as Gil, but that character was
indelible.''
While Fishburne is known on screen as a cool character, his first days on
set last September — as research pathologist–turned–college professor Dr.
Raymond Langston — revealed anxiety underneath that calm demeanor.
Helgenberger recalls how the 47-year-old actor rode his motorcycle to work
on the first day and ended up clutching his helmet during a meeting with the
writers. ''He said, 'I'm just gonna hang on to this because I'm kind of
nervous,''' she remembers. ''It was really sweet. I think he feels the
weight of the challenge of
taking over that part. I mean, obviously it's
not the same part as Gil, but that character was indelible and well-liked —
all that stuff that Billy was.'' Adds Fishburne, ''Billy was the daddy of
the whole thing and Daddy was leaving. Then in comes Uncle Fish. A lot of
people didn't know what to expect.''
It certainly didn't help that Fishburne's first two episodes contain a
complex web of subplots involving an incarcerated serial killer, multiple
victims, another serial killer (this one a copycat of the first guy),
concert ticket stubs, a kidnapping, the moon's trajectory on a specific
night in June — ugh, even Petersen admits it was a complicated way to
introduce their latest recruit. ''I was very concerned the audience would
get lost,'' he admits. ''But I think in terms of Laurence coming in, I think
we did that right.''
When Petersen's final day of shooting arrived on Oct. 10, about 200 members
of the show's cast and crew assembled on the *CSI* soundstage to watch his
character's last stroll through the dimly lit lab. Though everyone knew that
Petersen wasn't gone forever — he'll retain his producer title and he's
promised to return for the occasional episode, though that probably won't
occur until next season — it didn't make his departure any less significant.
''It was really like a death,'' recalls Mendelsohn, who says she caught a
bad cold as a result of the stress. ''It was traumatic.'' Helgenberger can't
even think about the ''painful'' day without tearing up. ''I couldn't stop
crying,'' she says. ''It was hard. I'm having a hard time now, because, you
know, we had a great nine years together. It's just over. It's the end of an
era.'' Paul Guilfoyle, who plays Captain Brass, agrees: ''I have such a
fondness for Billy, but the show will go on. It has to.''
The cast can take some comfort in knowing that, so far, Petersen's impending
departure has not ended *CSI*'s ratings dominance. Fishburne's debut episode
on Dec. 11 attracted a healthy 20.9 million
viewers<http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/12/ratings-laurenc.html>,
marking a 19 percent bump from the previous week. Buoyed by the results, the
writers are eager to play with their newest lab rat. Langston's transition
onto the team will be anything but smooth: He'll make a mess of his first
crime scene while investigating an arson, and will have trouble adjusting to
the brutal, late-night hours. He'll embark on a puzzling new case with Nick
(George Eads <http://www.ew.com/ew/allabout/0,,20001524,00.html>) and Brass
that involves the death of an FBI agent, while Wallace Langham's Hodges, who
was always Watson to Grissom's Holmes, keeps Langston at arm's length back
at the lab.
Fortunately for Langston, he finds a quick ally in the amiable
Dr. Robbins (Robert David Hall). ''This is a man who is in transition,''
explains Fishburne of his character. ''This is a man who had one career as a
pathologist and sort of lost his way. It's not until he becomes a CSI that
he finds his real second career path. The fun stuff begins when Grissom
makes his exit, and Langston comes in as a bona fide CSI.''
First things first, though: The man with the funny beard still has to take
his final bow. If fans were to follow the clues this season, all those
private moments of reflection and despair suggest that Gil regrets allowing
Sara to get away. But a scene in this season's fifth episode, in which Sara
sent an upbeat video message intimating that her life was actually fine
without him, could mean that his ex-fiancée won't be so receptive to a
reunion. An even bigger cliff-hanger than how Grissom will leave, however,
is what will happen to the show after he's gone. ''I'm sick he is leaving,''
says one EW.com poster named Betty. ''*CSI* is Gil.'' Jasmine puts it more
bluntly: ''Once Grissom is gone from the original *CSI*, so am I.''
Mendelsohn, who cops to frequenting the blogs, doesn't hide her concern. ''I
do care what they think,'' she concedes. ''But all you have as a writer are
your instincts...and we always thought Grissom having a life outside of CSI
is where we were going to take him.'' As he looks forward to the next
chapter in his
career, Petersen hopes viewers will adopt his attitude about
Grissom's exit: no tears necessary. ''I think there's a way for the audience
to remember him, like losing a great co-worker they've known for years,''
says the actor, who hasn't ruled out starring in another TV show — someday.
''He didn't die in a plane crash, he didn't get a brain tumor. He's out
there.''
*More CSI:
'CSI': Fishburne comes on the
scene<http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/12/csi.html>
Laurence Fishburne talks
CSI<http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/08/laurence-fishbu.html>
Ken Tucker's review of CSI<http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20243932,00.html>
Exclusive: House private eye spies CSI
gig<http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2008/12/michael-weston.html>
*
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