CSI Files
Captain
<p><font color=yellow>David Berman</font> was very excited when he got the news that he'd be a series regular on <i>CSI: Crime Scene Investigation</i> in its ninth season. Berman has played coroner's assistant David Phillips since the fifth episode of <i>CSI</i>'s freshman season, as well as holding the position of head researcher on the show. Berman took some time out of his schedule to discuss his start on the show, what doing research for <i>CSI</i> entails, and what he'd like to see for his character in the future with CSI Files' <font color=yellow>Kristine Huntley</font><p><b>CSI Files:</b> How's the ninth season going?<p><b>David Berman:</b> Everything's going great! <font color=yellow>Billy [Petersen</font>, Gil Grissom] is finishing up his full time duties on <i>CSI</i>, so it's been fun and sad.<p><b>CSI Files:</b>Which episode are you working on right now?<p><b>Berman:</b> We're filming episode ten right now.<p><b>CSI Files:</b> Congratulations on the bump up to being a series regular on the show! How did you learn the news?<p><b>Berman:</b> <font color=yellow>Jon Wellner</font> and I were opening up the CSI Experience in Columbus, Ohio. They asked us to come out there specifically because it's about <i>CSI</i>, researching the show, and acting as well. It was about five minutes before we were supposed to go on and give our talk that [Executive Producer] <font color=yellow>Carol Mendelsohn</font> called me and told me the good news. It was surprising and wonderful and certainly caught me off guard.<p><b>CSI Files:</b> So you had no idea this was coming?<p><b>Berman:</b> I heard rumors that it was in the works, but you never believe it until you actually get that phone call. The vagaries of show business are such that until I heard it from Carol or <font color=yellow>Naren [Shankar</font>, executive producer], I didn't give it much credit. <p><b>CSI Files:</b> Does this mean we'll get to learn more about David's personal life?<p><b>Berman:</b> I'm sure eventually we'll see more of David Phillip's personal life, but the focus of season nine is really the transition from Grissom to the new character played by <font color=yellow>Laurence Fishburne</font>, certainly at least in the first half. We're also introducing another character: Riley Adams is a new CSI played by <font color=yellow>Lauren Lee Smith</font>, who's fantastic. While David Phillips is certainly in episode, in terms of meeting my wife or other personal stories, that's kind of on hold for now. Hopefully the show will be on for many years and we'll get a chance to revisit that stuff. It would be very fun to at some point to meet the missus. I have some thoughts as to who might play that role--maybe <font color=yellow>Natalie Portman</font> or <font color=yellow>Angelina Jolie</font>. Someone like that.<p><b>CSI Files:</b> I was going guess that Angelina would be a good choice.<p><b>Berman:</b> I'd have to read with her first!<p><b>CSI Files:</b> How is the transition going? Is the show building to Grissom's departure and the arrival of Fishburne's character?<p><HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45\%" COLOR="#007BB5"><p>To read the full interviews, please click <A HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/interviews/david_berman.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>