Petersen: I Have Anxiety Every Day

Former CSI: Crime Scene Investigation star William Petersen (Gil Grissom) gets more anxious doing theater than television, and he isn't in it for the money.

Petersen is in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois to perform in Blackbird at the Victory Gardens Theater. Acting on stage is "much more anxiety-ridden" for Petersen than his previous work on the crime drama. "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," the actor explained to Time Out Chicago. "I have anxiety every day we work on it."

The actor said he misses "all the people" he left behind when he exited CSI this past season. "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," he revealed. One thing he does not miss is the money he made doing the series. "No, I don't miss the salary," he said.

"Yeah, they were paying me a lot of money," Petersen explained. "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." He contined, "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."

The original interview is from Time Out Chicago.

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