Helgenberger Talks Love & Las Vegas At Fiction Fest

CSI Files previously reported that CSI: Crime Scene Investigation‘s leading lady Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) would be attending the Roma Fiction Fest in Rome, Italy. Fan site Margamania has compiled pictures and videos of the actress at the event, which you can find here and here. Helgenberger also attended a screening of the season ten finale, “Meat Jekyll”, which included a question and answer session.

Each season, the actress continues “to explore and redefine” Catherine as a character. Part of that exploration during CSI‘s tenth season included a burgeoning romance between Catherine and Detective Vartann (Alex Carter). “I’ve actually wanted a relationship on the show for quite a while, and I’ve been begging the producers for one,” Helgenberger said. She added, “I just wanted to show some other sides of Catherine’s character, like her vulnerability and her passion, her softer side. Finally, ten seasons in, I got myself a boyfriend, and they’re going to continue to do that this coming season. I enjoy the actor that plays Detective Vartann quite a bit too. He’s a really decent guy and a good actor.”

The actress also discussed the transitional period that occurred when William Petersen (Gil Grissom) left CSI and Laurence Fishburne (Dr Ray Langston) took his place in the cast. “William Petersen played Gil Grissom really brilliantly,” she said. “He was beloved by people all over the world, and it was sad to see him go.” Getting Fishburne to join the show was “an absolute score”, Helgenberger added, although it took a bit of time before the actor and character really meshed to create a cohesive addition to the CSI team. “This season [the writers] really defined who his character was, and I think that there was a great marriage that finally took place between Ray Langston and Laurence Fishburne,” she said, and the end result was “a much more solid character.”

Catherine grew up in Las Vegas, creating a very intimate relationship between the character and the city. Helgenberger’s interaction with Las Vegas, on the other hand, is dictated by CSI‘s shooting schedule. “My relationship to the city is one that I have enjoyed over the past ten seasons,” she shared. “We shoot in Las Vegas probably three [or] four times a year, and each time we always look forward to going. It’s a little hectic shooting in casinos [and] shooting along the strip, but we also sometimes shoot out in the desert.” She added that she never gets tired of what Las Vegas has to offer: “a lot of entertainment and a lot of action.”

You can see the full question and answer session in the embedded video below, courtesy of Living in Rome: