Q&A with CSI’s Ted Danson

NEW YORK: CSI star Ted Danson talks to World Screen about the acting skills required of a procedural drama and how exceptional writing is the key to any great drama or comedy.

WS: What appealed to you about CSI and the character of D.B. Russell?
DANSON: Like most things in my life, I kind of stumble onto them blissfully unaware of how great it will turn out for me. I really didn’t know that much about CSI. My friend Billy Petersen was in it and I had seen maybe the first episode because he was in it. So it was one of those crazy phone calls that came to me in the middle of the movie theater, right before the film was going to start. I was in Martha’s Vineyard with my wife, and I saw that it was my manager calling and I answered the phone and whispered, “Hello, I’m in a movie, so I have to whisper.” He said, “Do you want to do CSI?” And I said yes and then hung up! [Laughs] That literally was the amount of forethought. It turned out to be this amazing, very hard, but amazing journey to explore this character D.B. Russell and what he does in life. So I am thrilled that I took it but I don’t think I was really aware of what I was getting into!

WS: You stepped into a successful franchise that for several years has been the most watched show in the world—any pressure there?
DANSON: I highly recommend it; it almost feels like cheating! It’s an amazing cast. So many of them have been there from the very beginning: Jorja Fox, George Eads, Paul Guilfoyle and Eric Szmanda. A lot of the writers, most of the crew, so many people had been there from day one and were still there 11 years later when I joined. I owe so much to them for having created this amazing series, with an audience that has remained very loyal all these years. The writing has remained so good. It was a luxury to step into this part and find my way.

WS: How do the forensics and the science, which are a big part of the show, impact the acting process? Is there any special prep before scenes?
DANSON: I went to a real autopsy in Las Vegas before I started the show, the most adrenaline-pumped hour of my life! So I will do certain things to get a hint of what their life is like. We also have two former CSIs that write for the show, and one retired CSI that is on the set every minute. So you are constantly being schooled as you go. You begin to pick up things but there is someone at all times teaching you about blood spatter and directional blood spatter and what to look for. You are basically getting a CSI 101 every day you show up at work.

Your job as an actor, and it’s the most difficult work I’ve ever done, is to bring the humanity and the believability to a [successful television] formula. The job of the writer is to present in 45 minutes this very complicated forensic mystery, so as an actor you have to keep the audience instructed about what’s going on every second. Sometimes it feels like we are talking directly to the audience with our dialogue, so our job is to make sure it doesn’t come across that way, even though what you’re doing is informing the audience every step of the way about what’s going on. It has almost a soap-opera quality to it; you repeat things a lot, which you wouldn’t do in real life, so it becomes a real challenge to make it believable, and that’s our job.

This interview continues here.