"CSI" is entirely fictional, but to give it the feeling of reality, actress Marg Helgenberger
watched real-life autopsies.
Keep watching to find out what stuck with her from her encounters with cadavers.
The original CSI changed television forever.
It revamped the police procedural, introducing a forensic science component that had been
missing from crime dramas before then.
Up until that point, law enforcement shows focused more on the down-and-dirty, street-level
aspect of fighting crime.
Plots saw police officers and detectives hitting the streets, using their gumption more than
technology to solve cases.
But in 2000, science was moving forward.
Years earlier, the OJ Simpson trial made the general public more aware of how DNA evidence
worked, and people were ready to accept a show heavy with technobabble.
Enter CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
The show may have gone off the air in 2015, but it forever changed the genre.
In addition to introducing a slew of spinoffs, the beloved series launched the careers of
many of its stars.
Marg Helgenberger played an exotic dancer-turned-forensic scientist named Catherine Willows.
Like Dexter from Dexter, Catherine was a blood spatter expert.
She was able to analyze how blood fell in a crime scene to reconstruct how a death took
place.
But unlike most real crime scene investigators, the agents in CSI were extremely multidisciplinary.
Catherine photographed and analyzed blood spray, but she also interrogated criminals,
put evidence through a centrifuge, and performed autopsies.
And it was while preparing for that latter aspect of her role that Helgenberger may have
taken method acting a little too far.
Method acting is the process of going in-depth with a role.
For example, an actor playing an archaeologist may study some of the basic principles so
that they can sound more like they know what they're talking about during the performance.
They may even try on a profession to better prepare for a part, like when Tom Cruise got
a job as a UPS worker so that he could blend in with a crowd for his role in Collateral.
Marg Helgenberger actually attended autopsies to prepare for the role of Catherine Willows
in CSI.
The producers did not mandate this, but she insisted that she wanted to get a more in-depth
education on how the entire crime scene investigation process worked in real life.
In 2011, she explained to BBC Breakfast,
"I asked for it and I was glad that I did because it's something that doesn't ever leave
you.
You'll always have that very strong sense memory of the experience."
Helgenberger followed along with criminologists in Las Vegas.
She did a ride-along to a report of a dead body at the Hard Rock Hotel, then was able
to attend the autopsy and follow the weeks-long process.
In the same interview, she said,
"I was able to track the whole case because then I exchanged email addresses with the
coroner because obviously the toxicology report takes a few weeks."
She also shared one of the more unsettling, visceral details from her time witnessing
an autopsy being performed:
"The smell is probably the most intense thing about it."
Unpleasant smells aside, CSI wasn't the only show where she went method.
Marg Helgenberger has had a long, lucrative career in the industry.
Even after CSI ended, she hasn't been short on work, appearing in a litany of TV and film
projects, including Under the Dome, Almost Friends, and A Dog's Journey.
However, her most prominent role outside of CSI would arguably have to be All Rise.
The legal drama received critical acclaim when it ran on OWN for two seasons before
being prematurely canceled.
Helgenberger played series regular Judge Lisa Benner, and to get in the right mindset for
the character, the actress went back to her method acting roots.
She explained how she prepared for the role in an interview with AARP, and it involved
utilizing some family connections:
"My Georgetown Law student son interned for a woman judge [about my age] in Pasadena.
I got to sit in her courtroom and meet her.
It's fascinating — the precision needed to decide who's telling the truth and who's
stretching the truth."
She also mentions in the same interview how All Rise allowed her to build on what she
had done during CSI.
She elaborated,
"I've been a lot of cops, detectives and a criminalist on CSI, but never played a prosecutor
or a judge.
All Rise reminds me of the early days of L.A. Law — it has great dramatic writing but
also levity."
With any luck, Helgenberg's next role will remain in the law enforcement sphere so that
she can continue putting all of this training to good use.
"I won't miss swabbing somebody's mouth, that's for sure."
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