Rex Linn On Being CSI: Miami's Smart-Ass

Even though he's still not in the show's opening credits, Rex Linn revealed recently that he expects his character Frank Tripp to be featured even more prominently on CSI: Miami in the future.

"Frank Tripp is sort of the 'balance,' the smart-ass on the show," Linn told TV Guide last week. "I don't have to talk about DNA and saliva like everybody else does. I can call somebody a jackass or whatever. [David Caruso (Horatio Caine) has] been trying to get me more involved in some character stuff versus plot-driven things, and the writers have done that."

Tripp's background was already featured in the second-season episode "Bait," in which his wife put a private investigator on his tail to test his marital fidelity. "So, from that point on, I figure he's divorced," Linn said, then added that he's already imagined a lot of the rest of his character's backstory. "I've talked to some detectives in Miami, and they're from New York, Alabama, all kinds of places, so I've got Frank coming from Texas. What's really cool is there's a possibility they're going to do a story line involving Frank and one of his daughters. Now watch, after I tell you all this, I'm going to get killed by a milk truck."

Even though Linn was happy to discuss his work on Miami with TV Guide, most of the interview focused on his passion for college football, as the actor was busy preparing to host a pre-Rose Bowl party, and getting excited about being able to watch Wednesday's game as a guest of Texas Longhorns coach Marc Brown. Linn said his passion for his team made him an easy target for on-set pranks. "When [University of Texas] won the Big 12 championship on Dec. 3, locking us into the Rose Bowl, that Monday I went to the producers and said, 'You know, I really, really need to be off Jan. 4, if you could somehow find it in your beautiful, warm hearts to do that,' and they said, 'We'll see.' So at our wrap party before the holidays, a line producer comes up to me and says, 'Rex, I need to talk to you about some scheduling issues after lunch.' As he's walking off, I said, 'If I have to work Jan. 4, it's going to be on CNN because I'm going to come in here with a shotgun.' He was playing a joke on me; they had given me the day off."

Wednesday evening, fans will be able to tune in to the USC-Longhorns game to see if they can spot Linn on the sidelines. In the meantime, the full interview with the Miami star can be read by following this link.

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