Death on the Hudson
‘CSI: NY’ goes on location
By MAXINE SHEN
Gary Sinise gets seasick.
Under normal circumstances, it’s no big deal, but it’s a problem today because “CSI: NY” is filming on the choppy Hudson River south of Chelsea Piers.
“I’m not somebody who deals well with motion, so I’ve taken my Dramamine today,” says Sinise, 54. He wears sunglasses to ward off the bright sunlight filtering through the glass walls of the Bateaux New York cruise boat.
Sitting in his director’s chair as the boat motors along, Sinise, who plays “CSI” supervisor Det. Mac Taylor, admits that the motion sickness drug “makes me a little bit tired, but we’re getting the stuff done that we need to do and it’s great to be back in New York shooting.”
Sinise and co-star Melina Kanakaredes, who plays CSI assistant supervisor Det. Stella Bonasera, are in town for the week, shooting scenes for four different episodes set to air later this fall.
“The city is a big part of our show. Even though we don’t live here, we want to incorporate as much of the city as we can,” says Sinise.
To prove it, the week-long shoot takes the show to Citi Field, the West Side Heliport, Battery Park and Central Park. Earlier in the week, Sinise had a 4 a.m. call time at Lincoln Center for a scene where he had to run against the backdrop of the sunrise.
“I did a lot of running that day,” Sinise says.
It’s worth noting, since he usually has stunt men do the legwork — but not because he’s a prima donna.
“I tore a muscle in my leg in the first season chasing bad guys, so we’re always a little worried about that,” he says. “I don’t want it to flare up again — I was off my feet for three or four weeks.”
The only kind of leg problems that Sinise has to worry about today though, is his sea legs.
This morning’s crime scene — being shot for the show’s ninth episode, airing sometime in November — takes place on the glass boat. In the background, a props guy breaks wineglasses with a hacksaw. (In response, another crew member shouts, “Shalom!”)
Later, the glass will be scattered around two dead bodies: One bears a bloody bullet hole in the temple — he was shot by an angry hedge fund guy — and the other is described as a “jumper mangled” in the script. Kanakaredes and Sinise shoot the scene no fewer than 10 times, from every angle.
In between takes, Sinise notices one of his co-star’s wardrobe accssories. “That’s pretty, have you worn this before?” he asks.
“No, I think it’s new this season,” Kanakaredes replies.
Throughout the location shoot, the director will urge the crew to hurry up and reset the scene in an effort to take advantage of the Hudson’s natural water traffic. He gets excited when boats pass by in the background or calls “cut!” because there’s no activity.
Meanwhile, the glass boat is forced to make sharp turns so that the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is always in the shot — doing wonders for Sinise’s motion sickness.
“This trip is all about the background,” says a chipper Kanakaredes. 42. “New York is the star of our show. We really want to capture as many beautiful shots of the city as we can and interweave them into our season.”
Unlike Sinise, Kanakaredes loves being on the water.
In fact, she reveals that, “my first job out of college, when I moved to New York, was working for World Yacht Elegant Dining Afloat. It was my first job, to pay for the [acting]dream.”
Pausing, she laughs as she adds, “I look at it as coming full circle in a very fulfilling way.”
Sinise manages to have some fun out on the water too. At one point, he jumps aboard a New York Port Control boat to film the scene where he climbs aboard the glass cruise boat where the dead bodies are located.
Turns out, it’s a real patrol boat that they’re using for the scene.
“They work with us really well. Everybody’s always really supportive and friendly here,” Sinise says.
Although he doesn’t know if any real cops have ever made it onto the show, he says, “the extras are dressed just like the cops, so you can’t tell which is which.”
(The difference between real cops and actor cops can be detected by their wardrobe: when not filming, the actors have to wear their police hats backwards or their police uniform jackets inside-out. They also have fake precinct numbers on their shirts.)
After filming the patrol boat scene, Sinise says, “They let me drive the boat around a little bit, which was fun.”
Peering over his sunglasses, he adds that — with nobody from CBS or the series to hold him back — the boat “was going faster when I was driving it. The other guy had to go a certain speed for the shot, but then he let me drive it back and turned up the juice a little bit.”
Neither Sinise nor Kanakaredes know the complete plots of the episodes they’re filming; they are shooting scenes from scripts that haven’t been completely written.
“We always come here and have our shooting scenes, but we’re saying, ‘Okay, so what happens now? How does it go into the story?’ ” Sinise says.
“I know exactly what Stella knows. It’s almost Brechtian in a way,” says Kanakaredes, referring to the German playwright.
“Like the plays, where they used to eat full meals on stage, it’s like being truly in the moment.”
Dateline: “CSI”
A look at some new — and old — faces on “CSI” and its spin-offs.
* SKEET ULRICH
The former “Jericho” star is back on CBS, this time guest-starring on “CSI: NY.” During his three episode arc, which begins on Wednesday, Ulrich plays the creepy “Compass Killer.”
“He plays a very interesting, demented guy who’s doing all these murders and wants to be found,” explains Melina Kanakaredes (Det. Stella Bonasera). “He sets it up by leaving a compass on the body or at the crime scene.”
It's exactly what i wanted to post since yesterday (but i couldn't for my beautiful device)
