Kanakaredes Reveals Her Favorite 'Melina Moments'

By Rachel
November 25, 2008 - 9:19 AM

Laughter is the best medicine for a bump on the head.

Melina Kanakaredes (Stella Bonasera) shared her top five "Melina moments" from the five seasons of CSI: New York. For the first season, she recalled filming for the pilot episode, "Blink". Her character was down in a basement with Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and a female victim who could not move. "It was creepy and awful, and I got spoofed by the crew and Gary," Kanakaredes explained. "They told me there was a rat in the corner, and I jumped about a mile off the ground and hit my head on a very low ceiling. Fabulous moment. Not so fabulous for me."

The "Melina moment" for season two involved a very clear problem. "I'm known to many of my friends as the only girl who's been on Broadway as a dancer and still is the clumsiest person they know," Kanakaredes said. The new sets for the show came with glass doors. "They were super-clean one day," the actress admitted with a chuckle, "because I didn't see it and smashed right into the door."

While filming in Manhattan during season three, Kanakaredes saw a white van that she assumed was one of the show's transport vehicles. "I got into it, and it wasn't our van. There was laundry in it, and it was a delivery service," she said. "I felt like a complete idiot."

For season four, Kanakaredes explained a game she created where she would sing part of a song and Sinise would have to guess which musical theater production it was from. At that point, she explained, Sinise would laugh "because he doesn't know any songs, so I reverse it." Sinise would sing the song and Kanakaredes would guess which show it was from. "It's a fun game because I always win," the actress said.

The fifth season's "Melina moment" occurred during the filming of the season premiere, "Veritas". Doing a stunt that required the actress to hang from a seven-story building was Kanakaredes' favorite "Stella moment" for the season, and the "Melina moment" happened after they successfully filmed her dangling over the side of the building. She then had to run up the fire escape ladder with a gun as she chased the bank robber. "At which point I tripped, fell into the rung, and I still have the scar to prove it," the actress said. "So that was a 'Stella moment' turned 'Melina moment'."

The original video is available from the CBS channel on YouTube and can be seen below.