Please note: Table width is 1200, pleased center table.
William Petersen, Michael Shannon Among Thesps Making Return to Chicago Stages
Can’t go home again? That old adage apparently doesn’t apply to actors who started in Chicago theater before going on to Hollywood success. In the past six months alone, Windy City auds have seen the return of an impressive ensemble of well-known big- and smallscreen performers, among them John Mahoney (in Pinter’s “The Birthday Party”), William Petersen (drama “Slowgirl”), Michael Shannon (Sam Shepard’s “Simpatico”) and Joan Allen (“The Wheel”).
Add to that list other recent returnees including David Schwimmer (a co-founder of Chi’s Lookingglass Theater who helmed Keith Huff’s “Big Lake, Big City” over the summer), Laurie Metcalf and Kevin Anderson (Steppenwolf players who have appeared in shows including “Detroit”), and even early-career native Chicagoans like Lucas Neff (a star of Fox’s “Raising Hope,” who saw his first play produced by a small local company during his hiatus) and Nelsan Ellis (“True Blood,” who inaugurated a new Chicago theater company by directing a Katori Hall play), and you’ve got a slew of Hollywood names juggling screen demands in order to visit their kind of town. Take Shannon, whose career is in rapid ascent with his part in the film in “Man of Steel” and a regular role on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” The actor says he feels tethered to his roots in Chicago theater, where he became known for performances in early plays by Tracy Letts, and helped found the Red Orchid Theater.
The run of “Simpatico” had to be changed to accommodate his obligations to publicize “Man of Steel,” and he worked with “Boardwalk Empire” producers to schedule filming around the play, flying back for brief visits to New York, where the show is shot. “Red Orchid’s this little theater I’ve invested 20 years of my life in,” Shannon says.
Petersen has done four plays in Chi since he exited “CSI.” “One reason I left the show is because it had been so long since I’d been able to do a play,” he says. He’s taken on dark, challenging roles, including a ********* in David Harrower’s “Blackbird,” and he’ll reprise his recent turn in “Slowgirl” at the Geffen in Los Angeles. Although he still keeps his hand in TV, he has a condo in Chicago.
Mahoney, meanwhile, never left the Windy City, in his estimation. “I spent 10 years living out of a hotel for ‘Frasier,’ ” he says. At 73, he still does the occasional TV gig — he’ll return as Betty White’s boyfriend in sitcom “Hot in Cleveland” — but to hear him tell it, he turns down small screen work to act in world premiere plays like “Better Late” and “The Outgoing Tide” at Chicago’s Northlight.
Meanwhile, Allen — who rose to prominence in stage perfs in “Burn This” and “The Heidi Chronicles” — returned to Steppenwolf for the first time in 22 years in “The Wheel.” “On opening night, people stood up and I actually began to recognize faces,” she recalls.
Allen and Petersen, who were young performers when the Steppenwolf started in a suburban church basement in 1974, talk about that time as if it were Paris in the 1920s. “I’ve gotten old enough to appreciate what that was,” says Petersen, “and that I’ve gotten better.” The promise of star billing certainly isn’t what pulls them back: Allen, who is onstage throughout “The Wheel” and plays opposite two child actors who barely speak, is listed on posters as “featured” rather than “starring.” That said, it’s hardly surprising the names draw in audiences beyond the usual subscribers.
“Simpatico” turned people away every night even after they waited in line for an hour or two, and you sometimes hear legiters refer to “the Mahoney factor,” the anticipated increase in sales that comes with his appearances.
But it’s clear these thesps make the return to Chicago for love, not money. “By the time you buy the cast and crew a round of drinks,” says Petersen, “you’re basically doing it for free.”
http://variety.com/2013/legit/news/william-petersen-michael-shannon-among-thesps-making-return-to-chicago-stages-1200759733/
2012-2013, Volume 9 Every Tongue Confess
Their chat began with stories from the early days of both Steppenwolf and Remains Theater Ensemble, a Chicago company William Petersen helped found in the 80s.
MARTHA LAVEY: Can we talk about when you met each other. Randy, were you a Steppenwolf ensemble member by the time Remains started? You weren’t, were you?
RANDALL ARNEY: No I wasn’t. I can tell you, though, when I met Billy.
WILLIAM PETERSEN: I know when I met Randy…
RA: It was—well, the first professional play I’d ever been in was Balm in Gilead—
WP: Yeah, I met you in the diner!
RA: That’s right! I came up from college. In fact, was two or three weeks late—a week late, maybe—for first rehearsal.
ML: Because you had just graduated college?
RA: Yeah I had just gotten my MFA from Illinois State University, I was trying to decide where I was going to move. And John Malkovich—I had been buddies with him from school—and he said, “Well. I’m casting a play right now and nobody’s getting paid anything but if you wanna do that you can have a part.” And that was kinda why I went to Chicago instead of New York or somewhere else.
ML: Oh really?
WP: Good idea though—
RA: I remember I was a week late and I walked in on one of those rehearsals, Billy, where the script was just crazy—
WP: Yeah I remember I was literally in the diner [on the set] when I met you!
ML: So you worked together in Balm in Gilead. And what else?
RA: And the great one, Billy and I were just talking about it: 29 years ago this summer we did Fool for Love.
WP: And the Steppenwolf company was out of town. The company was actually doing Balm in Gilead, weren’t they?
RA: That’s right. That summer Balm was going on in New York. And we did Fool and it was successful enough it ran all summer.
WP: Yeah, we started in the spring and we kept running it. And it was Phyllis, Wilson, Eich, Randy, Rondi and me.* Remember we’d go up on the roof and drink beer—
RA: And shoot bottle rockets at the neighbors!
ML: Billy haven’t you been at Geffen, under Randy’s direction?
WP: No. But I see his plays. And we talk about it literally every time we see each other.
RA: Exactly. We meet in the grocery store and talk about what we’re going to be doing and when. And it’s funny, I’d actually talked to Billy about Slowgirl too, independently of you.
ML: What happened, did I call you up Randy and say, will you direct Slowgirl?
RA: You did.
ML: But you guys had already been—
RA: We had chatted about the play—
WP: Martha, you and I had talked about, remember I had talked to you about if first and I said I don’t think I should do it. And then I talked to Randy separately about something else. And he mentioned this play called Slowgirl and I said, “Randy, I just told Martha I didn’t want to do it!”
ML: Well, I had asked Billy if he would come do a play and he brought Slowgirl to the table and I said I really like it. And Billy said, yes, but I don’t think I’m right for it. And so we read all these other plays. But the one that stuck with all parties was Slowgirl.
RA: And I remember you, Billy, saying to me the play is intriguing but I just don’t think I’m
right for the part.
WP: I still feel that way! I completely feel that way. Every night before I go to sleep I think, “What the…” (trails off, laughing)
ML: But don’t you think, Randy, that’s one of the things that makes Billy interesting for it?
RA: Totally. And in fact I think that’s such a strength of Steppenwolf too. Living out here in Los Angeles you see how much people flow in what is perceived as their type. And over the years, the strength of our company has been that we’ve been able to give each other parts—
WP: —that you wouldn’t normally get—
RA: That you wouldn’t normally get! And what’s great about that is right away you’ve created an even more interesting character, because you’ve got some opposites going on inside the part.
ML: Let me ask you something, Billy. Does the idea of escaping like Sterling in Slowgirl— does that ever appeal to you at all? The idea that, “I’m just walking away from all this.”
WP: I think that is the case. I’m not sure that there is any guy who doesn’t think about that, especially if you’ve been married. (laughs) But no, I don’t think I could do it. Certainly not with the way my life has been. Well, there’s two things. Part of it is because of playing sports on teams with other guys and being in theater with other people. Seeking those groups: that’s sort of who I am. And I will say that I’ve been studying – probably dabbling—in Buddhism the way that Sterling does in the play. And I do understand the value of being able to be alone. I’ve been alone a lot when I was traveling on movies. Even in some plays. I’ve spent a lot of time alone—days, weeks. And I don’t think ultimately I could do what Sterling is doing.
ML: I think the three of us as theater people can probably relate. We are energized by being in casts—families, really—that come together and then dissipate. There is something I think in us that is both deeply social and deeply alone. Why would we be in pursuit of something that keeps giving us the chance to inhabit what is basically a mask?
RA: And as you say, come into a family structure that is really intense and breaks up in two months.
ML: Randy, what do you feel the play is about?
RA: What’s great is the play is about a lot of things. There’s something about redemption in the play. There’s something about learning to live with one’s self. There’s a great thing about family in the play. Just the connectedness of family, and Sterling’s choice to get completely out of that, or to allow himself to be pushed out of it. And yet somehow the tentacles of that family stay current. The older I get, I think in every single play, every character in it ultimately just wants a hug. It comes down to that with these two loners. Becky, Sterling’s niece, she’s not a loner exactly, but she’s alone with her problems and her fears. And both of these characters are given the gift of having a listener.
ML: You know, Randy, isn’t that so great? What is theater but that we get to be the silent witness to the people who are going through the worst thing. We get to be their listeners. To me theater provides the hope that our craziest parts can be humanized, they can be understood, they can be empathized with.
RA: Empathy. That is so true. Theater teaches empathy. We sit in the dark and we let people confess. It’s good for them and it’s good for us.
* Phyllis Schuringa: Assistant Director; Wilson Milam: Box Office, who later directed at Steppenwolf; Stephen B. Eich: Managing Director; Randall Arney: Martin; Rondi Reed: May; and William Petersen: Eddie.
http://www.steppenwolf.org/watchlisten/program-articles/article.aspx?id=326
Mar 28 2013 05:34 PM ET
William Petersen talks new gig, returning to 'CSI' -- EXCLUSIVE
by Lynette Rice
William Petersen remains one of the more sought-after actors to headline a TV show but the former star of CSI isn’t ready to come back to broadcast TV … yet. Instead, he’s set to appear Friday opposite Julia Stiles in Blue, a web series in its second season from Rodrigo Garcia (Albert Nobbs, In Treatment) about a single mom who’s trying to protect her son from the consequences of her secret career as an upscale escort. Petersen, who splits his time between Los Angeles and Chicago, plays Blue’s (Stiles) father, who has been in jail for the majority of her life and is serving a life sentence.
“Rodrigo just asked,” Petersen tells EW of the one-day shoot in Culver City, CA. “It was kind of cool, this two-person scene. I mean, there’s no money. But it’s sort of old school film making. It was bare bones, a couple of walls. A piece of glass.”
Meanwhile, Petersen is as surprised that CSI will return for another season on CBS (“I didn’t think there was any reason for it to go this long”) as he is that Gil Grissom continues to pop up on the show. (The most recent shout-out occurred last month in an episode titled “Forget Me Not”). “I didn’t even know he married Sara!” Petersen tells EW. “I found out later on. How nice! That was never my intention for Grissom. You are in the hands of puppeteers, and after a certain point you aren’t sure what’s going to happen to your puppet.”
That’s why Petersen isn’t so keen about the idea of returning to the show if and when it finally signs off CBS. “I didn’t want it to be like he’s back, he’s not back,” Petersen continued. “It should be a clean break, leave when you’re supposed to. It’s like breaking up with a girlfriend. If you keep calling her every month, you’ll never move on!”
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/28/billy-petersen-talks-new-gig-returning-to-csi-exclusive/
William Petersen on life after CSI
by Neil Midgley
07/01/2010.
The actor, who played Gil Grissom in CSI,tells Neil Midgley why he loves his new life on stage.
As he walks into the cafe of London's Natural History Museum, William Petersen doesn't turn a single head. With his corduroy jacket and his friendly "How are ya?", he hardly projects the air of one of the world's biggest TV stars. Yet for nine seasons, Petersen played the lead role in the world's most successful TV drama franchise. CSI, in which he was Gil Grissom, the head forensic investigator, has spawned two spin-offs -- and is seen by tens of millions around the world.
"We are going off to Paris next", says Petersen,56. "In France the show is called Les Experts. It's weird, most places didn't change the title--- but they did." He shrugs, as if to say that whatever French network TF1 does is fine by him--- after all they're helping pay for his trip to Europe. His wife, Gina,is chatting with his PR at the next table. Petersen has cannily brought her along for the promotional ride. " We've been having a good time," he says. " I took her to the Tower, we're going to hit the Tate tomorrow. We've seen a lot of theatre."
Petersen himself is an experienced stage actor and, since leaving his on-screen role in CSI last year, has returned to the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company in his native Chicago. " I hadn't been able to do any theatre for 10 years because of the show, and I thought, if I don't do it, I'll never do it", he says. "I didn't want to become afraid to do theatre." His two roles since leaving CSI-- in Conor McPherson's Dublin Carol, at the Steppenwolf, and David Harrower's Blackbird, also in Chicago-- stretched acting muscles long neglected on the TV show. " It's a three-dimensional world in the theatre", he says. "TV is a two- dimensional world".
Two-dimensional it may have been, but CSI was Petersen's world for best part of a decade. He misses his former colleagues, and he retains an executive producer credit. Though that, he says, means an occasional visit to the set to check all is well, rather than running things." If I was going to do that, I'd have stayed on the show. The show has to find its own legs, without those of us that have left," he says, referring to original cast member Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown), who has also departed.
Season 10 starts on FIve on Tuesday, with Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) now the lead investigator. She can only take on so much of Grissom's paterfamilias role, so Matrix star Laurence Fishburne was brought in when Petersen left to provide a bit of butch gravitas. But his character, Dr.Langston, is still learning the ropes as a CSI, and can't replicate Grissom's Yoda-esque wisdom. This leads to a very different on-screen dynamic-- about which Petersen is diplomatic. " I try to stay out of---I try to do what Grissom would do, which is not judge it", he says.
What he does lament is the profusion of forensic science shows on US TV, with CSI now having three outlets ( including spin-offs Miami and NY) and NCIS two(its spin-off NCIS;Los Angeles, debuted to huge ratings in autumn last year). "There's gonna come a time where we're gonna yearn for Angela Lansbury," he says. " And we may be there".
Though he earned a reputed $600,000 (£375,000) an episode, Petersen dosn't seem to be longing for his days on the CSI treadmill. In person, he's relaxed and handsome, with a Hollywood tan and striking silver hair. For now,he says he's not looking for another network show. Projects must be well-written, not well paid. " I never did the TV show for money, money's not the issue", he says. " I have more money than I ever thought I'd have, and it takes a certain amount of stress off you. I can work at the Steppenwolf and I don't have to worry about paying my bills."
If the right project came along, he says he'd love to work in the UK: he speaks fondly of shows such as Prime Suspect." The Helen Mirren thing was as good as TV gets", he says, and points out that the procedural format of CSI was very restrictive. " It would be fun to work on stuff that has character in the forefront."
That's not to say, though, that Petersen has left Grissom behind forever, one day, he could turn up in London. " We may have to save that for the movie,"says Petersen. " Where we get to deal with some characters from Scotland Yard. Grissom could be on vacation."
And as William Petersen escorts his wife away to a nice lunch in the West End, that scenario is not hard to imagine. Grissom may be gone for now, but he's definitely not forgotten.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6947805/William-Petersen-on-life-after-CSI.html
"Where There's a Will"
An interview with William Petersen
CSI:Crime Scene Investigation,
"The Insider's Guide to the TV Phenomenon"
Published by Titan Books, 2010
For the best part of a decade, William Petersen has fought the good fight as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's eccentric Unit Chief Gil Grissom. Deep in the middle of filming season eight, Petersen takes timeout of his busy schedule to talk science, Sara Sidle and the show's unprecedented success.
"As actors, we didn't want to play cops chasing down criminals, we wanted to play characters who out-thought other characters."
Eight years after its auspicious debut, William L. Petersen still can't quite comprehend the success of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. " We always knew there were a group of people out there who would like the show if we did it the right way". he says with a chuckle. "We just didn't know the group of people would become so large.
Large is one work for it. Unprecedented is another. recent statistics show that two billion people in 200 different countries regularly was CSI .
Not bad for a series that Petersen, who has played CSI unit chief Gil Grissom since the show's inaugural episode, sums up as "taking nerds and giving them an hour's worth of prime time.
CSI: Miami doesn't have our chemistry. Taking a blueprint of something that was organically conceived and trying to synthesize it is the difference between organic chicken and chicken jerky. There's nothing I can do about that. That's Viacom, big American capitalism and ratings points."
- William L. Petersen
On CSI, whenever William L. Petersen's bowlegged gait popped up, it seemed like a believable, if superfluous, trait for an egg-headed, insect-loving scientist with few social skills. The truth is that Petersen's gait is partly the product of the way he spent his youth, as a mega jock tearing up his knees playing baseball and football. It's just one of many surprises that await the casual William L. Petersen fan, the fan who knows CSI and a few other gigs, but not much more. In fact, Petersen, a champion of serious actors and outspoken critic of the stifling studio system, has thus far enjoyed an uncommon career in Hollywood thanks to a nonconformist conviction driven by personal control over every aspect of his work.
MAGNETISM
Guys may not immediately think William L. Petersen is the matinee idol material of a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt, but think again: women love this guy. He was recently on the cover of Newsweek in a full beard, looking like a dashing, debonair and urbane Sean Connery -- OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. In 2004, CSI producer Carol Mendelsohn told the Philadelphia Inquirer that, before the show had filmed a single episode, her female friends begged her to let them visit the set. "You start with [his] sheer magnetism," she said. "Plus he's so handsome."
And that was pre-Grissom. As Gil Grissom, Petersen created a paternal but emotionally distant character, flaying open a far-off vulnerability many women found irresistible -- the kind that convinces them that they could be the one to open him up, they could be the one to open his heart. This aspect may help explain why, when Grissom left the CSI labs, he went directly into the arms of a love interest.
SUCCESS
We reserve certain spaces in the pantheon of admirable men for those who trust themselves, write their own ticket, hold to their convictions, and still conquer the mountain. William L. Petersen is one of those men.
To a degree, Petersen is Hollywood's version of Carlos Kleiber. Petersen may or may not understand what this means, but Gil Grissom likely would have: Kleiber was one of the great conductors of the latter half of the 20th century, despite never holding a musical directorship at a major orchestra. Unlike his peers, he was his own agent, once even negotiating to conduct a single program in exchange for a custom-made $100,000 vehicle. He was enigmatic and brilliant; he did his own thing and didn’t give a damn what others were doing or how they did it. Petersen's career is not too dissimilar.
"I've had it pretty good," said Petersen once. "I've had it my own way."
William L. Petersen Biography William Petersen's parents had no intention of having a sixth child; thus, he was not only the baby of the family, but eight years separated him from his nearest sibling.
Born to suburban Chicago parents with five children, none younger than 8, growing up, William L. Petersen was hardly a nerdy or psychologically troubled member of the theater department. Rather, he was a massive, multi-sport jock. Who knows? Maybe he even picked on the theater dweebs. Whatever the case, he dropped out of high school in Chicago and finished up in Boise. While attending Idaho State and going out for its football team, he learned that school athletes could score class credits helping out the theater department -- his first taste of acting.
william l. petersen founds a chicago theater group
Petersen returned to the Chicago area in 1979, and he wasted little time making his theatrical mark, joining up with fellow stage actor Gary Cole to found the Remains Theater Ensemble -- a group that would, in the early 1980s, watch a number of cast members see mainstream success, including John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf and John Mahoney.
william l. petersen is an overnight star
Petersen's work on the Chicago stage led to a most improbable big break: the lead in the 1985 feature To Live and Die in L.A., directed by Billy Friedkin, previously known for directing The French Connection and The Exorcist, among other films (over 20 years later, Petersen invited Friedkin to direct a pair of CSI episodes). The lead in Michael Mann's Manhunter followed. Hollywood had his star prepped and ready for him, all he had to do was take it.
Instead, Petersen passed.
william l. petersen dodges stardom
For the next 15 years, Petersen found steady work in film and television, but his career was an uncommon one because of the way he managed it: Almost unimaginably, he eschewed having an agent, instead assuming direct control over his work and career. He turned down roles in major films by big-name directors like Oliver Stone, and accepted roles in smaller ones, guided by his conscience, artistic sense and a healthy disdain for the studio system.
william l. petersen as gruesome grissom
Come 1999, executives at CBS had wanted Petersen on the network for a number of years, but the projects were never right. Then along came the no-name driver of a Las Vegas luggage tram named Anthony Zuiker, who had this idea about a show that focused on a meticulous crime scene unit in a major metropolitan city. CSI debuted modestly in 2000 with Petersen in the role of night-shift supervisor Gil Grissom. He had almost no expectations for the show.
Nine wildly successful seasons later, Petersen walked away from the iconic role after having seen his per-episode salary go up a factor of 10 in that time, from around $65,000 in 2000 to over $600,000 for a few episodes in season nine.
william l. petersen returns to the stage
In February 2009, Hollywood finally managed to carve him an actual star on the Walk of Fame, just in time to see him ditch Los Angeles for Chicago, where he has become a member of the famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company -- proving yet again that Petersen's interest is not in how famous he can become or in how much money he can command, but in the craft of acting.
You don't have to like his work, you don't have to think much of CSI, but you have to hand it to William L. Petersen. Men like him inspire us all: He's had it pretty good, as he said -- not in spite of doing it his way, but because of it.
http://uk.askmen.com/celebs/men/entertainment/william-l-petersen/
Time Out Chicago
by Novid Parsi
July 5, 2009
Novid Parsi of Time Out Chicago talks with actor William Petersen about why he’s anxious about performing in the stage play Blackbird and what he misses about CSI.
In January, William Petersen ended his almost-nine-year run as Gil Grissom on the hit series CSI. Since last year’s announcement of his departure, the Evanston native has returned to his first professional home: the Chicago stage. In December, he became a Steppenwolf ensemble member. Now, in David Harrower’s play Blackbird at Victory Gardens, Petersen stars as a 55-year-old man who meets a 27-year-old woman—15 years after their sexual encounter.
Time Out Chicago:
The play doesn’t judge these people: Your character didn’t simply molest the young girl. Was that part of its appeal?
William Petersen: Yes. What’s great about the play is it’s impossible to go away with any answers. I don’t know if there are any answers to this dilemma in our culture, but the questions need to be raised.
TOC: What do you mean—“dilemma in our culture”?
William Petersen: I think there’s a spike in **********. Part of it’s because of the Internet. Part of it may be because girls at 12 and 13 are not like I remember them at 12 and 13. And the play doesn’t just take the one side that is easiest to address: It should never happen; take them out and shoot them.
TOC: It also shows their relationship not just as ********** but as love.
William Petersen: Yeah, I think that’s what it is…. The human part of me feels terrible for **********. I just wish they wouldn’t be ’cause it’s gotta be horrible to live like that, to know it’s wrong and be compelled to it anyway.
TOC: Pretty heavy topic—heavier than your CSI days.
William Petersen: Yeah, and much more anxiety-ridden. In CSI, you come in, you find a dead body, you don’t have to get to know the person. In this, it’s a live body, and it’s right in the room.
TOC: You feel anxiety about this role?
William Petersen: I have anxiety every day we work on it.
TOC: Do you miss anything about CSI?
William Petersen: I miss all the people. To have a cast together for that long—and for everybody to get along? Sometimes it’s hard to make it through a two-month run of a play with the same people.
TOC: Not the salary?
William Petersen: No, I don’t miss the salary.
TOC: ’Cause the reported figures…
William Petersen: Yeah, they were paying me a lot of money. You can’t take care of my dogs with what you make in the theater. But I never got into theater or movies for money. It was nice they paid you and then it was very nice they paid you a lot. But that brings a whole other set of headaches to a person’s life—money.
TOC: How’s that?
William Petersen: People look at you differently. The responsibilities are great: foundations, charity, how do we take care of our family, is this too much, not enough. You don’t change necessarily, but all those around you change towards you.
TOC: I keep hearing about your tempestuous high-school years. What exactly did you do?
William Petersen: Nothing. I just got kicked out of a bunch of private schools. I was at Loyola Academy up in Wilmette, and I kinda got kicked out of there for some behavioral things and then—
TOC: You won’t specify?
William Petersen: Well, I got in a fight. Put it this way: I pissed the fathers off. The Jesuits.
TOC: Not girls’ fathers, then?
William Petersen: No, there were no girls; it was all boys, 1,800 guys. Then I went to Evanston High School, and they didn’t make you go to school. So I didn’t. This was ’67 through ’72; the world was changing as fast as you could imagine. I wanted to be on the road, I wanted to be a gypsy, I was ready to go at 14.
TOC: So how’d you find theater?
William Petersen: I was going to play football at Idaho State, and my GPA was so bad they put me in the theater department to get my GPA up. And I fell in love with it.
TOC: Must’ve been a shift for a jock.
William Petersen: Yeah, but I’d always loved the theater. My mother had taken me to see Sound of Music when I was ten down at the Shubert with Florence Henderson. I was, like, God, these kids are my age, and they’re singing onstage! They’re downtown! I’m stuck up in Evanston.
TOC: I get the impression that, early on, you were a player. Amy Morton called you “the young stud.”
William Petersen: That’s what theater is when you’re in your twenties. Amy Morton, in fact, said, “Your brain may know you’re acting, but your heart doesn’t.” And that has a tendency to lead to a lot of possible relationships. I certainly was enamored of a lot of actors. I still am...
http://sspeedlecsi.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-shoking-william-petersen-interview.html
'CSI exclusive: William Petersen Says Goodbye
by: Lynette Rice, Jan. 9, 2009
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Here's a recently shot scene from an upcoming episode of CSI. 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), 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 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, 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 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.''
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 ***** 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.
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 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 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.''
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) fled Las Vegas for destinations unknown, and it continued with the tragic shooting death of Warrick (Gary Dourdan) 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 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 or John Malkovich in a lab coat and safety goggles!), the producers set their sights on the aforementioned Morpheus, a.k.a. Laurence Fishburne, who hasn't starred on TV since playing Cowboy Curtis on Pee-wee's Playhouse back in the '80s.
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 sound stage 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, 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) 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