Ward: She’s Everything I Love To Play

Joining the cast of CSI: New York has been both challenging and rewarding for newcomer Sela Ward (Jo Danville). Minor spoilers and embedded video after the jump!

Ward enjoys her New York alter ego. “I love her. She’s smart and fun and tough,” the actress told CBS. “She’s everything I love to play.” However, some of the dialogue that comes along with the character is a bit difficult for Ward, who is used to playing a very different type of role. “It may be one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in my career because I’m used to standing in the kitchen, making pasta and salad, talking to kids or [about] relationship stuff,” she explained. “Here I am, talking about petechial hemorrhaging and the frontal lobe of the brain and my brain is going, ‘Oh Sela, maybe you better learn those lines a little bit better.'”

Ward said there is a “playfulness” between Jo and her new boss Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise). “I think she disarms Mac’s character,” she said. “It loosens him up a tad bit—if you can do that. His character’s really the rock. I think it’s going to be a fun play between the two.”

Sinise is enjoying Ward’s addition to the cast, and he’s looking forward to the new season. “Everything’s great. We’re having a good time,” he said. “I’m always impressed with how good our writers are. They keep coming up with great stuff. Every season it seems to get better and more inventive and more creative and more bizarre. We’ve got very interesting, entertaining episodes coming up this season.”

You can watch the video, which features clips from the new season, below: