Petersen Returns To His Roots

You never forget where you came from.

Playing the main character on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has given William Petersen (Gil Grissom) worldwide success. "I went down to Tahiti for a week and walked into this little thatched-roof hut on the beach," he explained to Steppenwolf Backstage Articles. "There were two Tahitians behind the bar, and they both went, 'Grissom! Gil Grissom—in Tahiti!'"

Petersen got his start in the theater, and he held on to that part of himself by keeping a certain amount of distance from "Hollywood". He got into movies when William Friedkin (The Exorcist) approached him while he was performing in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. Friedkin cast Petersen in To Live and Die in L.A. "I didn't make a movie until I was 32 years old," Petersen said. "I didn't have an agent. I never sought out Hollywood; Hollywood came, literally, to the theater in Chicago, and said, 'Would you like to come and do this?'"

Making movies led Petersen to television. After starting to work on CSI, he didn't have time for theater and didn't seek out roles. "I hadn't been reading any material—no movies, no plays. I didn't want to get interested in something and then not be able to do it," he explained. "There just wasn't enough time. I only had 8 or 9 weeks free in the summer, which would have required a short run."

Two years ago, Curt Columbus, the Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, sent Petersen the script for Dublin Carol. Initially, the actor wasn't going to read it. "But while I was in Chicago for a few days, I got sick with the flu," he said. "Stuck in the house, I read the script and immediately knew I would have to do this play. I went to CSI's producers and I said, 'Listen, I have to have this time off – November, December, and a little part of January.' So we got Liev Schreiber to come in and do four episodes."

Petersen then went to Rhode Island and did Dublin Carol with director Amy Morton. "It was a lovely little cocoon that Curt and Amy provided in Providence," Petersen said. "I didn't know anybody; I didn't have any outside distractions or demands on my time. I just concentrated on the play, nothing else."

The experience was good for Petersen, who will be performing the play again starting next month in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. "I feel differently about the Chicago theatre audience than I do about anybody else," Petersen explained. His experience growing up and learning his craft in the theater shaped him as an actor, and it keeps him grounded. "That's why I always come back to Chicago," he said. "That's why I'll always stay in Chicago."

The original interview is from Steppenwolf Backstage Articles.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!