Paul Guilfoyle (Capt. Jim Brass)

HE may be on what many consider the world?s No. 1 television show, but that doesn?t make Paul Guilfoyle a fan of TV. In fact, he rarely watches ?CSI.? ?I don?t want to become a fan. I don?t want to get affected,? he said.

What happens to Brass this season?

?Well, I think of Brass as someone who things really don?t happen to. Things happen around him. You know what I mean??

Lauren Lee Smith (Riley Adams)

No, she?s no Sara Sidle replacement

You?ve seen her on ?L-Word,? now you?ll see her on ?CSI.?

The first thing Laureen Lee Smith wants ?CSI? fans to know is that she will not replace Jorja Fox, who played Sara Sidle. ?That would put way too much pressure on me,? she said.

How hard was it to walk onto a set as a newcomer?

?It was very daunting coming into something so established. First few days, I was very, very nervous, but everyone made it so easy.?

Can you tell us about your character?

?Riley comes into the show when they?re understaffed. They need a CSI out in the field. She?s CSI Level 2 ? a cop, from St. Louis. She has a bit of an issue with authority figures. She likes to push people?s buttons.?

How much research did you do to prepare?

?It was crazy. I had about a week. They flew me to Vegas and had me do a ride-along with actual CSIs. They had me go to the crime lab in Los Angeles.?

How did you end up with a job on the biggest show in the world?

?I think they had seen a demo tape of mine from some films and some past television stuff that I?d done. I flew in from Vancouver and we just talked about the character. It sounded like an amazing opportunity. I got very lucky.?

In a show that kind of deals with death and darkness, how hard is it to let go of that at the end of the day when you?re going home?

?It?s pretty weird. But for the most part, you just have to let it go. It?s part of the job, and you have to sort of put your brain in a different place. Some days are easier than others. It helps that everyone has a really wicked sense of humor.?

What has been your worst moment so far?

?Watching the autopsies are pretty gross. I know everything is fake. I know it?s plastic and I know it?s fake blood and I know it?s not real brains, but for some reason, when they?re, like, squishing stuff, it?s pretty gross. Especially when it?s right after lunch.?

Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders)

?I?d like to think that I could process a real crime scene,? says Eric Szmanda. But because he doesn?t have a lot of crime scenes to process off-set (except for the one time he was robbed), he spends his time away from the set of ?CSI? finding other creative outlets ?like his production company, his website and his online radio show.

There have been so many changes in the show ? what has it been like for you?

?It?s been very exciting and yet bittersweet at the same time. You know, Jorja and I were really good friends. We still are friends and we?ll continue to be friends. In terms of Laurence Fishburne, I?m a huge fan of his and now I?ve been working with him almost every day. I?ll always remember the first eight years fondly, and I look forward to eight more.?

How does Greg deal with all the changes? As good as you do?

?I think Greg probably has a little bit more of a difficult time accepting Grissom?s departure. Because if it wasn?t for Grissom, Greg wouldn?t be where he is. He was kind of like the father figure. When I did my last scene with Billy, I got emotional about it. I?ll remain good friends with him, and I?m sure he?ll be back for a couple special appearances in the future. At least that?s what he says.?

Do you think that you could do CSI work in real life now?

?I?d like to think that I could process a crime scene. I approach almost every situation a lot differently now. My house got robbed a few years ago and I was walking through the house with the detective pointing out footprints. Like something had been thrown across the room. I was like, ?You might want to print that.? And he just started laughing at me. He didn?t know that I was on ?CSI.? And he?s like, ?Man, because of these crime shows on TV, they think we can just fingerprint things everywhere.??

George Eads (Nick Stokes)

Superman, Spiderman, Green Lantern ? many people have told George Eads he can easily play these superheroes. But for now, he?s glad to be Nick Stokes. ?I want to be here. There?s nowhere else I?d rather be,? he said.

Can you tell us a little bit about the impact of Billy Petersen and Gary Dourdan both leaving?

?Very simply, it?s a loss of two good friends who I enjoyed working with day-in and day-out and who I?ve learned from. I think Billy and Gary are both fine actors. And, you know, Gary and I used to say we?d steal from each other. We would watch an episode and we?d go, ?Oh, I like what you did. I think I?m going to steal that.? Gary just had an essence of coolness about him and a magnetism that was contagious, and I owe a lot to Gary. Gary kind of taught me a lot without really realizing he was doing it. And I think I would say the same about Bill, even more so. I remember in the audition for the show, I was thinking to myself, ?Oh, my God. That?s a man hunter. That?s to live and die in L.A. That?s one of my favorite actors.? I?d already thought in my mind, if they got this guy ? who is a real actor, not just an entertainer ? then they were serious about doing a really good show.?

Since Grissom has left, Nick is kind of the leading person out in the field. How does your character feel about that?

?I?ve turned off the inner commentator in my head, the person that speculates, the person that criticizes. I found power in the doing-in-the-moment, and living-in-that-moment. I think he used to want to be a good CSI for Grissom, and now he wants to be a good CSI for the victims.?

Can you talk a little bit about your dynamic with Laurence Fishburne?s character? You?re going to be his character?s mentor right?

?Laurence has been a very good sport, and I told him that I appreciate him being such a good sport, that it was kind of like trying to teach Superman how to fly or teaching
Bruce Lee how to whip somebody?s ass. It just doesn?t really seem right. That cracks Laurence up and his comment back to me was, ?Hey, baby, I came to play.??

How often do you guys get to go to Vegas? Do you do any gambling when you?re there?

?We usually go about four times a year. It just kind of depends on what episode is what, and where you are in the episode, if you?re going to go or not. But yeah, I?ve won $24,000 on a video poker machine between scenes one time when we were shooting in a casino. Yeah. I went to kill some time, to play some video poker, and I won the Jackpot.?

What did you do with the money?

?I took twenty grand and put it up in the safe up in the room. Then I just went around audaciously tipping the other four grand.?

What do you miss most about Gil Grissom and Billy Petersen?

?This total essence. Even the way he treated the crew, Billy. Even the way he treats other actors and writers. We can just communicate without saying anything to each other, and Billy could give me a look and I could give him a look back, and I think that would speak volumes.?

Laurence Fishburne (Dr. Raymond Langston)

News about Laurence Fishburne joining ?CSI? came as a shock to people all over the world ? even to Laurence Fishburne himself. \

?People kept asking me if it was true. But I didn?t know anything about it. It did turn out to be true ? and Laurence is happy about it. I felt like I was a good match for the tone of the show, I think I fit.?

We were surprised to hear you were joining the show. Was this something you prepared for?

?It was a surprise to me. I think I was working in New York, in Broadway. I came to the theater one day and someone who was working there said, ?Is it true?? And I said, ?What are you talking about??

?And they handed me this paper and there was something in the paper about ?CSI,? my name, John Malkovich?s name. I thought, ?Oh. Well, that?s crazy. I haven?t heard of that.? For about two weeks, people kept asking me if it was true. But I didn?t know anything about it. Finally, I called my people and I said, ?Is there any truth to this?? They said, ?Oh, yeah. We?ve been talking to them for a while.? I said, ?Oh, okay. Great.?? [Laughter]

What made you say yes to the role?

?I had a meeting with Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar. They gave me a couple of episodes to look at. I don?t watch a lot of television, but I was impressed with what I saw. I really, really felt that the writing was first-rate. I?m a friend of William Petersen. I?ve known Mr. Petersen for a while. Our paths have crossed many times, and he?s just a great guy. And I felt like the tone of the show, I felt like I was a good match for the tone of the show. So I said yes.?

Why did you decide to join television now?

?I had nothing against television. I like television. I?ve worked in television before. I did three movies for HBO back in the ?90s, and I did the ?Pee-wee?s Playhouse? show in the ?80s, and I was on a soap opera in the ?70s. But the idea of doing, I guess, a series like this was something that I sort of resisted. I thought I would get to it by the time I was about 50 years old, so I?m right on time. I?m 47 now, so it?s fine. It?s good timing.?

How did you prepare for the role? Did you know a lot about science?

?To be perfectly honest with you, I?m still preparing for this. This is not something that I?m going to ?get? overnight.?

Tell us more about your character.

?My character did have a family, I believe. He had a family. He came to Las Vegas primarily to lecture. He?s a guy who is a pathologist, a research pathologist in a hospital, and someone he was working with turned out to be an angel of death.?

?And all of the evidence came before him and he wasn?t able to determine whether or not somebody was being murdered. It wasn?t until after the fact that he realized this person he was working with was committing these horrible crimes.?

?So he writes this book about it. And in writing this book, he goes around the country lecturing about serial killers, basically, because he was in such close proximity to one.?

?And the episode in which we meet Dr. Langston, he?s doing a lecture and he actually set up a situation where the students are having a video conference with a serial killer who is in jail. So Grissom comes to this lecture to sort of learn about another killer that they?re pursuing that they?ve been pursuing before. In the course of this two-episode arc, he offers me a position as a CSI-Level 1.?

Everyone thought you were coming in as the new boss ? and to find out that you?re the rookie is quite a twist.

?It?s really smart. I think it?s really brilliant. It?s one of the reasons that I was able to say yes, is because what?s really impressive to me about ?CSI,? is that they have managed for nine seasons to consistently come up with really good material.?

?So their idea was to bring a guy on who is, in many respects, a guy who has a lot of authority and presence and knowledge and all of this practical stuff, and you would expect it to be, you know, an actor like Laurence Fishburne. Oh, yeah, he?s the new boss. But it?s much more interesting to have him start out as the low man on the totem pole. It?s going to be a lot of fun.?

?The challenge for me is to remember not to mistake my own presence for the event, which means, in short, not to come in here thinking, ?Okay. I?m the new guy so I?ve gotta, like, tell everybody how it?s going to be because I?m supposed to be in charge.? So I have to bring something ? the challenge is to bring a character who is interesting, watchable, likeable enough, I suppose, that people are interested in coming back to see what?s going to happen next week. I think that?s the greatest challenge.?

Are you squeamish? How do you feel about the autopsies?

?I?m not really good with that stuff. The writers gave me a couple of books about pathology. I opened one of them and saw some pretty intense photographs and immediately closed it. I need some time to actually prepare myself mentally and emotionally for what those experiences will be because it?s not something that most of us as human beings do see. ?

Are you nervous about the reception of the fans, especially the ones who are really attached to the character of Grissom?

?If I was smarter, I might be a little nervous about it. But the fact of the matter is, they?ve done something very, very smart in the way in which they introduce Langston ? and it is really with the audiences? feelings about Grissom that they do this thing. I won?t talk about what it is, but it?s beautiful the way it?s done. So I?m not nervous about that at all. I believe that the audience will accept Professor Langston. I think they?ll embrace him. I think it will be really nice.?

What do you do for fun?

?I ride motorcycles.?

Watch ?CSI? Season 9 on AXN every Wednesday at 10 p.m.

Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows)

With Grissom making his exit, Marg Helgenberger?s character Catherine Willows will be the new boss at the crime lab.

?It feels like I lost my partner in a lot of ways.? But Catherine is ready for her new responsibilities. ?I think she wants to be as inclusive as possible and give as much confidence to all the other members of the team,? said Helgenberger.

How emotional has this whole transition been for you?

?I still get emotional thinking about the last scene I shot with Billy. It feels like I lost my partner in a lot of ways, you know. But I have nothing but the best feelings for him. In fact, I am planning on going to see his play in Chicago. I know that he?s coming back to do the 200th episode. I just have a feeling that, you know, I will work with him again other than that.?

What?s it like being the new leader in the show?

?I have made some of the choices about the type of leader that I want to see my character doing, and that is just somebody who is going to be a lot more inclusive. Not that Grissom was not. He kept a lot to himself, and I don?t see Catherine as that at all. I think she shares when she needs to and withholds when she needs to. But I think she wants to be as inclusive as possible and give as much confidence to all the other members of the team.?

Do you consider yourself as a role model for girls and women?

?I do consider myself a role model. When the show became successful, girls, teenage girls, young women would come up to me and say they?ve been inspired by my character. I really felt the need to make sure that I made the right choices and talked to the writers, gave them ideas.?

What?s the hardest thing about playing the same character for so many years?

?Staying inspired. I think that people who do this for a living, the real criminalists, I don?t think they ever get bored with their job. I think at worst, they get burned out. They can?t cope with it anymore. It?s just too sad for them or it?s just too dark, or it?s affecting their personal life. But the ones that, I think, succeed are the ones that can stay in the puzzle, can stay in the mystery. I think that?s why our show has remained so successful. It does focus on the mystery.?

Robert David Hall (Dr. Al Robbins)

Not everyone knows that Robert David Hall, who plays Dr. Al Robbins on ?CSI,? has two prosthetic legs. He was run over by a drunk driver 30 years ago. The actor cherishes his role in ?CSI? not just because of his love for the show and the stability it?s given him, but also because it?s helped him enlighten people about disability.

?I would say to any person ? any young person with a disability, there is no reason, if you study and have talent, why you shouldn?t be able to get into the business and do something great.?

Can you talk about the changes going on with the cast?

?I will miss and do miss Billy Petersen. He?s the reason I?m on the show in the first place. I was just a day actor coming in to look at a body and go, ?They?re dead, all right.? Billy pointed at me and said, ?This guy might be a good coroner.? And it changed my life.?

Do you ever get tired of the dead bodies? Do you feel like playing a love scene sometimes?

?You sound like what I sound like when I go to the producers here.? [Laughter]