Fishburne: You Can Never Worry About Being Too Dark

By Rachel
March 1, 2009 - 11:24 PM

See Also: 'Cockroaches' Episode Guide

The new guy is settling in nicely.

Laurence Fishburne (Dr Raymond Langston) became the leading man on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation after William Petersen (Gil Grissom) left the show to return to the theater. Fishburne didn't feel any pressure when he took over for Petersen, and that was due in part to how his character was introduced. "Although he's a professor, a doctor, a knowledgeable man with respect to pathology, he's a novice as a crime scene investigator," the actor explained to CBS. "He has to learn from square one, and I think that's exciting to the audience because the audience gets to learn along with him what it's like to start from the beginning."

Fishburne has enjoyed the development of his character so far, and he said there's more to come. "There's going to be an episode where you actually get to see this aggressive tendency that they were talking about at the very beginning," he told TV Guide, referring to biological facts that might be associated with aggression and criminal behavior. "You're going to get to see some of that in one of the episodes coming up, which is I think the 200th episode. It was directed by the great William Friedkin ["Cockroaches"]." Fishburne said he doesn't worry about the character becoming too dark. "I think with CSI, you can never worry about being too dark," he explained.

Even though Petersen is no longer CSI's leading man, his presence is still felt behind the scenes. "Billy's been around a little bit," Fishburne told TV Guide. Before he left, Petersen gave the new guy some tips. "Unfortunately, I can't share them with you," Fishburne explained to CBS. "He swore me to secrecy. He said, 'Look, I'm going to tell you this, but you can't tell anybody.'"

The original interviews are from TV Guide and CBS, and both can be viewed below: