Petersen, Helgenberger Dish It Out On Tarantino

See Also: 'Grave Danger' Episode Guide

This week, actors William Petersen (Gil Grissom) and Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) talked to CBS.com about how well Quentin Tarantino fit on the set of "Grave Danger."

"It's kind of a beautiful fusion that we get by having Quentin," said Petersen. "He brings obviously a tremendous talent for filmmaking and to have that talent work on the small screen, especially for a show like us, which strikes me as very cinematic anyway, is just a great opportunity for us to do this together for him to shape CSI's and for CSI's to fit into the Tarantino thing and so I mean, everybody's thrilled and it's a great process."

Tarantino has been a fan of CSI since the show premiered, and was asked by Petersen and producers to direct the finale after hearing of his love for CSI repeatedly. The director, Petersen revealed, has a fondness for the characters that only a true CSI fan would process, but especially has a bit spot in his heart for Gil Grissom. "I think he likes the way Grissom's mind works," Petersen admitted. "Grissom's mind works to science as Tarantino's mind works to filmmaking. You know, they're somewhat like-minded towards different ends."

While Petersen enjoyed watching Grissom and Tarantino mind-meld together, Helgenberger was busy marveling at the director's technique. And while the actress enjoyed his trademark dark sense of humor, ultimately her favorite Tarantino characteristics is his affinity for writing strong women. "He usually writes for women, too. I think a lot of his female characters are strong yet sexy and smart. I mean, it's kind of nice to see in a kind of testosterone 'actiony' genre to see these women just being smart and kicking ass."

Helgenberger, like the rest of her co-stars, admitted Tarantino fit right into the CSI family, and gave what was perhaps a hint of things to expect on "Grave Danger". "I think his filmmaking style lends itself really well to CSI's in that you know, obviously there's a great amount of close-ups, it's a very visual show – clearly there's a lot of blood."

And where there's Tarantino, there's a cool ride. This week, Grissom and Catherine will be crusing around in a brand new mobile crime scene unit, as the producers recently chose the GMC Yukon XL Denali as the new Grissom-mobile. "The critics have always characterized the show as hip and cool. We wanted a hip and cool ride for CSI and we got it in our XL Denali Mobile Analysis Units," said Carol Mendelsohn.

General Motors was so pleased with the vehicle's performance in the episode, they're already referring to it as the newest CSI character. The SUV was even given a biography in the official CSI website, where, in celebration of the season finale, a lucky visitor will have the opportunity to drive home in a brand new Yukon XL.

To view the Petersen and Helgenberger interviews in video files format, visit the official CSI website. Click on 'enter sweepstakes' in order to be eligible to win a brand new Yukon XL Denali. More information on the newest member of the CSI team can be found at Yahoo News.

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