"My weakness is that I obsess about things."
Interview With Marg Helgenberger. Courtesy of Las Vegas Luxury Magazine.
With Marg Helgenberger
"People may think I’m tough, aloof and standoffish because of some of the parts I’ve played, but I’m quite the opposite. I’m actually a shy, down-home girl from Nebraska who has mixed feelings about being a celebrity. I don’t like to talk about myself or the things I’ve done in my life. I’ve gotten better at it, but it’s not something that comes natural."
By Marsala Rypka
“who are you? Who, who, who, who.” The electrifying beat of The Who’s highly-charged hit is the theme song that gets audiences’ blood pumping every Thursday night when they tune in to the ground-breaking, Emmy award-winning CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” set right here in Las Vegas.
Based on that clue, who would be the most logical suspect for this month’s Up Close and Personal? It’s none other than Marg Helgenberger, the female lead on “CSI” who plays the confident, sassy, self-assured, and cerebral blood spatter analyst and former exotic dancer Catherine Willows.
Marg’s performance on the show has earned her nominations for two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes. In 2005, she and her cast members won the Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.”
Her many accolades include being named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2002; #16 on VH1’s “40 Hottest Women over 40”; and one of TV Guide’s sexiest stars in 2007. Her character Catherine Willows, along with the character of Gil Grissom, was #82 on Bravo’s “100 Greatest TV Characters.”
Marg is one of those actresses who is comfortable on television and on the big screen. In 1990, Marg also earned an Emmy for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series” for her role as the heroin-addicted prostitute, K.C. Koloski, on the acclaimed ABC drama “China Beach” which ran from 1988 to 1991.
In 1996 she had the enviable role as George Clooney’s love interest in five episodes of “ER”; she turned in an emotional performance as a woman with cancer opposite Julia Roberts in “Erin Brockovich”; she played Dennis Quaid’s wife and Scarlett Johansson’s mother in “In Good Company”; and Kevin Costner’s wife in “Mr. Brooks.”
But most important to Marg is her role as mother to her son, Hugh, which makes this the perfect issue for her. So here’s Marg. By the way, that’s Marg with a hard “g” as in “ga,” not as in Marge.
Marsala Rypka: What three words best describe you?
Marg Helgenberger: Open-minded - which is my mantra to my son. Curious - I like to find out what makes people and places tick. Adventurous - especially when it is job related. I once shot a film in Kentucky and my character was the daughter of a coal miner. I asked the director if I could possibly go down into a mine. It turns out I was the only one of the cast or crew who wanted to do that, probably because I had to lie flat on a board that was on a rail and go a couple of miles deep. I couldn’t even stand up down there. I had to crouch.
MR: Name something people would be surprised to learn about you?
MH: I am a huge football fan, especially the Carolina Panthers. I grew up in Nebraska where college football is kind of a religion, and I’m also a big pro fan. I love it so much that on the weekend while I’m doing something around the house I’ll have a game on, no matter who’s playing, just so I can hear it.
Also people may think I’m tough, aloof and standoffish because of some of the parts I’ve played, but I’m quite the opposite. I’m actually a shy, down-home girl from Nebraska who has mixed feelings about being a celebrity. I don’t like to talk about myself or the things I’ve done in my life. I’ve gotten better at it, but it’s not something that comes natural.
MR: What are you passionate about?
MH: (Laughter) These are simple questions, but they force us to analyze what makes us tick. It’s easy to ask my son questions like this, but now it’s getting thrown back in my face. I’m passionate about being in nature and being part of nature. Swimming, hiking, golf, you name it. I’m passionate about all kinds of art. I love going to art museums and galleries, seeing great architecture, learning when it was built, why it looks the way it does, who the architect was.
MR: The next time you’re in Las Vegas you should go to the Springs Preserve, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a $250 million project built on 180 acres, where the artesian springs were what allowed the pioneers to settle here.
MH: That kind of thing interests me. There’s a misconception that Las Vegas is all about the Strip. I’m curious about the old cultural aspect, the beginnings and history of the town and how it has progressed. That’s what fascinates me. I was in Vegas recently with a friend and we went to see Cher. We walked around Encore and a few other places and I was amazed at the level of taste that exists in the hotels. It’s impressive. But it always flips me out that in the middle of the desert all the water comes from Hoover Dam. I can’t imagine what the underground plumbing system looks like for all these hotels that have 10,000 toilets and 10,000 showers. I keep pitching an idea to the writers of “CSI” to do a modern-day take on the film noir “Chinatown,” with Jack Nicolson, which had to do with water rights. They like the idea; they just need to work in all the science.
MR: What makes you angry?
MH: Ignorant, arrogant people who have an attitude of superiority and righteousness that they impose upon others. There are plenty of them in this town. It’s infuriating. And many of them are people I have enormous respect for in regards to their talent or even their politics. I’ve had an opportunity to see some peoples’ colors that others haven’t. It’s been eye-opening and painful, especially when these people are widely-respected or widely-heralded, awarded and rewarded. If you buy into that image and then find out they’re quite the opposite in real life, it’s disheartening. There’s that cliché, ‘pray you don’t meet your idol because you’ll always be disappointed.’
MR: What three people have had the greatest influence on your life?
MH: My parents who were extremely hard-working people. Even though I grew up in a small town, they were both open-minded. I think in smaller communities, it’s easy to stay insular and not think outside the box, but they always did and they encouraged that in their three children and were supportive of our endeavors. They both had an insatiable, pioneer spirit and an enthusiasm for life. My father who was a big nature lover and fisherman died of multiple sclerosis in 1985 at 50 and my mother is a 27-year breast cancer survivor.
Second, I’d have to say music has been an enormous influence. In high school, playing the French horn, a little piano and a tiny bit of guitar were my favorite extracurricular activities. I loved music, whether I was in a marching band doing all those formations and winning the state championships or in a jazz band. We’d travel to different band clinics where people like Dave Brubeck would perform and give us their notes. I loved the concept of being a tiny part of a big ensemble creating music together. It sucked when you were just learning the material, but it was fun when we all performed well together. In high school and later at Northwestern University, I was in musical comedies. I was enamored with punk bands and alternative types of music. It was all about the beat as opposed to the lyrics when I got older. I still like great rock n’ roll, although my tastes have mellowed. I love Lucinda Williams and Steve Earl and Bruce Springsteen - the more poet kind of singer-songwriters.
There have been a whole slew of people who have influenced my life, like yoga masters, and philosophers; but I have to give credit where credit is due, so I’d say the acting teachers I’ve had over the years. I first got the acting bug from my high school English teacher, Marianne Von Rein, who started the drama program. I saw her in 2006 when I went back to North Bend, Nebraska for its 150th anniversary. The town wanted to do something special for me so they changed the name of the street I grew up on from Locust Street to Helgenberger Avenue, which was so nice of them. I also had great teachers at Northwestern like David Downs. And once in awhile I’ll still consult with a great acting teacher named Sharon Chatten, who I met in New York, who now lives in L.A. I take my job seriously and you can always improve your craft.
MR: What is your greatest strength and greatest weakness?
MH: My strength is that I’m disciplined and hard-working. My weakness is that I obsess
about things.
MR: What is your most treasured material possession?
MH: At this point, it’s my 1925 Spanish-Moroccan house which I’ve been renovating for two f@%#$ years (laughter). Oh my God, it’s been painful. I love old houses. I grew up in one and the house my husband and I lived in was old. People say it’s easier to start from scratch than redo an old home and I thought, how can that possibly be? Well over the past two years, I learned how. This house looked like it had been a glamorous house at one time, but it had gotten this “old lady vibe,” which was really sad and I brought it back to its original glamour. I also redid the yard and the hardscape. The progress has been so excruciatingly slow, but the sod is being laid as we speak. They’re finishing up the guest house so I hope in another week it will all be done. It was much more than I bargained for. I’m going to love this house because it’s put me through so much.
MR: What is your greatest extravagance?
MH: Tile - marble, travertine, you name it. And fabric; I got a lot of new pieces of furniture and the house has tons of windows.
MR: Who would you trade places with for 24 hours?
MH: It wouldn’t be Obama with what he’s going through. Boy is that guy one cool customer. It’s astonishing that he carries himself with so much grace and ease with what has been thrown in his lap. God bless him. It felt like eight years of darkness with the amount of secrecy, manipulation and out-and-out blatant lies of the previous administration in the guise of freedom and protecting the homeland. So thank God we’re out of that nightmare. But it would be interesting to be Obama. Why not? It would just be 24 hours, right?