They were last but not least.
Robert Joy (Dr Sid Hammerback) and AJ Buckley (Adam Ross) are the two most recent series regulars added to the cast of CSI: New York. The Canadian actors first appeared during the second season of the show. Joy was originally passed over in favor of Hill Harper (Dr Sheldon Hawkes) as the show's resident coroner. "That's the actor's life, you just go on and forget about it," Joy explained to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. When Hawkes moved into the field starting in season two, Joy was brought back and has been performing autopsies for the CSIs ever since.
Buckley signed a contract with the show prior to season four, but he wasn't in every episode to start with. Now both he and Joy have been added to the opening credits. "I started to notice that every episode, they're calling me in and it's a very interesting dynamic for an actor," Joy explained. "Okay, I'm being called as a guest, but I'm being called as a guest on a regular basis. When do I become a regular?"
The actor knew the show had legal and budgetary restrictions to deal with, but he eventually broached the subject. "When I was turning down other work so I would be available to them, I realized finally that I should ask them about being a regular," Joy said. "They were wide open to it and we negotiated and now I'm a regular and very very happy about it."
Joy and Buckley each brought something personal to their roles from the very beginning. For Joy, the Clic glasses he wears became one of the most recognizable parts of his character. "I was on a show called MDs and this woman there sold these glasses as a sideline. She gave me a pair and they became my everyday reading glasses," the actor explained.
"When I came to the audition to this show, I realized I had a challenge because in the audition, I had a dead body in front of me but in the audition room it's usually a studio executive's office and it's very unclinical," Joy continued. "How am I gonna create the impression of examining the body at some point? So I thought these would be helpful. (clicks his glasses together) That's how I did it. Anthony [Zuiker] loved it and when they decided to use me for the role, he made a point of asking me if I could bring my glasses to the set." The actor admitted, "I get more comments on the glasses than I get on my acting."
When Buckley joined the show, he had to create his character from scratch. "When we started off there was no character description of Adam and I was really nervous to get the job for many reasons," the actor explained. "One, I was completely broke. And Gary Sinise [Mac Taylor] was someone I had completely idolized as an actor and when I met him on the set I was so nervous and jittery. To get through the scene I said to myself I just got to make Adam a nervous guy because I can't fight the fact that I'm nervous. I needed this job right now." Several seasons later, Adam's nervous behavior remains central to his characterization.
While both men brought something to their roles, they said they are very different from their fictional counterparts. "To be totally honest, I'm too scared to go to a morgue," Joy admitted. "I am absolutely terrified." For Buckley, pretending to be a scientist is amusing since he was never good at science in school. "My head was in the clouds, I was daydreaming all the time. I blew up things, things would just catch on fire," he said.
"The big words I have to learn for the show haunt me," he continued. "It's like a bad dream with all these giant words. They'll be in my head for hours. You have these big words to say and all these names to say and I'm already nervous on top of it, so yeah." Buckley pointed out that he has improved since joining the show. "I've learned a lot about science though. I really have," he said. "I've learned a lot. And I can drop some serious words, big words. I'm great at Scrabble now. People are like, 'That's not a word.' It's a word."
When not filming, Buckley said he likes to hang out with some of his fellow cast members. "I'm a bit of a jokester so I always mess around with Carmine [Giovinazzo (Danny Messer)]. He's a really old friend. Carmine and I and Eddie [Cahill (Don Flack)] and Hill, we're always cracking jokes and putting things on each other's cars, anything to keep us laughing," Buckley said. The actor's first luxury purchase after joining New York was a barbeque grill, which he got so he could "cook steak and drink beer. I love having people over at my house for dinner so I needed to get a really nice barbecue."
Joy likes to spend personal time with his family. "My daughter is a big character in my life," he explained. "She's a student now at NYU." The actor also likes the outdoor activities that are available for someone living in California, such as playing basketball, walking and bicycling. Joy lives a full life and said, "I'm very happy."
The interviews with Robert Joy and AJ Buckley are from Inquirer.Net.
And, AJ obviously deserves lots of credit for making Adam the great character that he is. I'm just glad that TPTB realised how lucky they are to have both Bob and AJ in the cast.
