Petersen: You Become More Him Than You

CSI Files

CSI Files

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A job is a job.

Working on a show like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for a long time has taken its toll on <font color=yellow>William Petersen</font> (Gil Grissom). "You play a character and live with him for so many hours a week that you become more him than you," he told TV Times. The CSI star went on to say that he doesn't want to spend every waking moment as the head of the Las Vegas forensic team. "A lot of people like to work all the time, and that's great, but I'm not one of them," he said. "It's just a job to me--like basket-weaving but more popular."

Even though Petersen considers the role "just a job", the actor can still be affected by the dark nature of the show. "When I think about these cases, I'm saddened," he said. "And when I was younger I would bring work home and it would make everything horrible." Now, rather than bring the cases home with him, Petersen follows advice that he received from people in the Violent Crimes Unit in Chicago and the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia while doing research for his role in Manhunter. "They told me they compartmentalise in their minds--they have a job to do and then they drop it," he explained.

Petersen's career has brought him worldwide success. "Coping with fame is to do with maturing and getting older and realising what's important and what isn't," he said. "At the end of the day, everything is a morality tale. It's how you function morally within your world that determines your level of happiness. Right now, this is the happiest I've been."

Check out the latest issue of TV Times for the full interview.<center></center>
 
just a job?? Grissom is a pop culture icon...what is he thinking? If he doesn't like to work on a regular basis, why do a tv show? Someone needs to get this a PR person!!

Ok, the crimes on CSI are not that bad. Compared to real serial murders (which are the most disturbing of the crimes they investigate), what they do on CSI doesn't even come close. Plus all the crime pictures, dead bodies and blood are fake. Just leave the show and stop making excuses...wow. He really is bad at interviews.
 
Yeah, I agree...a show like Criminal Minds....that would be disturbing.

I really don't understand the big deal of working on a show that is connected to crime scenes & murder. It's all fake, the bodies, the blood, & everything that is true is maybe a case that relates to a real life situation.
For that matter, WE ALL live around disturbing stories...it's on the news & in the papers every single day!! What's the damn difference?

Im not bashing Peterson, but I think you should also look at the brightside of the show & that is that by the end of the epi, justice is served...that's their job, they did it well.
That's what I see that makes a world of difference when you know they've caught these people & have put them away.

It's sad, yes, but I feel more for REAL folks in law enforcement that have the deal w/ the realism of it all everyday of their life.
& they don't get paid $500 grand to solve a case!!!
 
how many interviews has he given where he says the exact same thing? like 80?? i hope it is not his intention, but in all these interviews he really comes across as ungrateful (to me at least). if he finds it hard to seperate himself from his character then maybe this series wasnt the best choice for him. dont get me wrong, hes done a great job for the majority of his time on the show. but these interviews paint him in a very bad light, but it could all be due to reading his interviews instead of hearing it straight out of his mouth. we all know sometimes what you mean isnt transferred to written word.

and getting sad or affected by the nature of the show, again if you cant seperate the fake from the real maybe it wasnt the greatest choice. the corpses get up and walk away at the end of the day, people dont really die.

i agree that it is a long and hard job, but other people put in more hours at a harder job and dont complain this much (again, i read it as complaining, other people may not). if he feels his time on the show has come the an end, fine, just go. you arent doing yourself any favours dragging it out and making all these repetitive interviews.

best of luck in the future billy, maybe your next job will suit you better.
 
again if you cant seperate the fake from the real maybe it wasnt the greatest choice.
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didn't he say that he did learn how to cope with it?

anyway, i'm not judging him. i don't know how it is behind the hollywood curtain so i have no right to do it. but i think the interviews do not quite do him justice. it's not only that he says the same things, but the articles always put those things in bold. in the previous interview the reporter admitted that billy talked for an hour about many issues, but the article was one page long with a huge title 'WP is tired.' yeah, he admits it, but i agree that if you heard him talk it wouldn't be so distracting.

ETA:
also i think he has courage to say some things many actors are afraid to say. how big of a mess hollywood is. how he is tired of it, b/c some things that are happening there are not right. it's never enough to repeat things like this. and let me tell you, where big money is, it's never a fair game.i know something about it, it can destroy you.
 
You know, Jorja Fox always gives great interviews and she still has people on her case. I have never heard her say a bad thing about anyone or anything and she was always so positive about her experiences on CSI. People hear what they want to hear from these interviews and interpret them to fit their agenda. Personally, I think after playing the same character for 7-8 years, it probably is time to move on. As in any job if you become too complacent it becomes just a job and you become bored. Actors need to keep the creative juices flowing. I wish Mr. Petersen the best and thank he and Jorja for many great years.
 
I find his interviews candid and exciting, he's a brilliant man, and is a bit cynical & sarcastic, which, to me, makes him all the more stimulating and fascinating, and he's "the happiest he's ever been" good for you ;).. and Billy we love you
jb.png
here's some Billy "QUOTES" some profound and some funny!

BILLY QUOTES
 
You know, Jorja Fox always gives great interviews and she still has people on her case. I have never heard her say a bad thing about anyone or anything and she was always so positive about her experiences on CSI.
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I'm going to have to disagree with this because Jorja has said a few times in interviews how she's been unhappy and working with hurt feelings since her firing. How she wasn't being offered enough money, which is why she didn't extend her contract like the other actors did. Now, I totally agree with her right to complain when it comes to your job, we all do it. But she hasn't always been positive with her experiences on CSI.

Personally, I think after playing the same character for 7-8 years, it probably is time to move on. As in any job if you become too complacent it becomes just a job and you become bored. Actors need to keep the creative juices flowing.
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I agree with this, I've been at my job for 11 1/2 years and am sooooooo ready to move on.

However, as some have already said, we do need to keep in mind that things said can come out differently in the written form. Not to mention the words can be twisted or only PART of what was said was printed. Which could make it sound like the person meant one thing, but since only PART of what was said and make it sounds like another meaning. I'm not saying that happened here, but you never know.
 
The questions he is asked are so unimaginative, they are always the same ! I often felt disappointed with the lack of originality of questions.

Nevertheless, I read other interviews of him where he was great, because the questions were more interesting.

He seems tired, it certainely reflects his mood at the time of these interviews but let's hope that the long break due to the strike will have revived him. But being tired does not mean that is ungrateful, He already said that he was a lucky man. He is aware of his luck.

And just a thought: does it never, never, cross your mind that it's quite shocking to be entertained with those awful things that occured to people in real life ? when I stop and think, sometimes I feel bad about it. That is probably what he meant. He can't be blame for it.
 
The questions he is asked are so unimaginative, they are always the same !
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oh boy, agreed.
And just a thought: does it never, never, cross your mind that it's quite shocking to be entertained with those awful things that occured to people in real life ? when I stop and think, sometimes I feel bad about it. That is probably what he meant. He can't be blame for it.
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i think it's in human nature to be entertained with murders and gore. think about ancient Rome and the gladiators or the christians that were fed to wild animals. it was the ultimate and best entertainment Romans could get, and they all loved it. today, we are more civilized and, thanks to technology, we can witness the same things without truly harming anybody. what we get entertained with is still the same, though.

i don't mean to say it's a good thing, but it's something that lays deep within our psyche, and it's hard to get rid of. i won't deny i enjoy CSI. should i feel guilty about it? i don't, i know it's fictional. but it depends on a person, i guess.
 
Adzix said:

i don't mean to say it's a good thing, but it's something that lays deep within our psyche, and it's hard to get rid of. i won't deny i enjoy CSI. should i feel guilty about it? i don't, i know it's fictional. but it depends on a person, i guess.
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I'am a big fan of CSI and some other criminal shows too. And I watch them without feeling guilty. No, that was just a thought I have now and then.
 
Hello ... Mr Petersen you do realize that what you do is just make believe? Right? Try doing it for real.
Sorry I just cannot feel sorry for actors who complain about their jobs. They are paid to pretend. I'm just not buying the whole darkness of the job BS line.
He is really coming across as very ungrateful. Just leave and get it over with already.
 
It's amazing. Jorja Fox also addressed the dark nature of the series in her EW interview, and on another board, that prompted a reaction which I felt was entirely out of proportion to what she actually said. She (and Petersen) didn't say that these fictional storylines were as bad as, or worse than, real-life tragedies. But continually doing a character week after week who is so focused on violence and the darker side of human nature would, I think, take its toll over time. Most actors need variety to keep them interested and engaged, as well as stretching them across a balance of styles so that they can keep their acting chops honed. That's all they're saying. Yet I wonder if those who reacted so strongly to Jorja's comment are responding with equal vitriol to Petersen's comment? It struck me as just yet another excuse for those who don't like Jorja and/or Sara to launch one more tirade.

I really don't mind Petersen referring to his role on "CSI" as a job. For him, it is. If he treats it like anything more or less than that, then I would imagine it would be terribly difficult to deal with, so he thinks of it in a way that he can handle. The fact that he is one of the best professionals in the business doing that particular job is what makes Grissom so memorable for us, the audience.

Debgal, I really don't think that Petersen is complaining about his job out of proportion to what his job is. Every job has its negative side, and all he's doing is pointing out those aspects of his job that are negative. The reason we read/hear about this stuff so much has little to do with the actors, themselves, but is because interviewers are paid to seek this stuff out, and then capitalize on it in their stories. It's like any other kind of writing; if there were no conflict, it would make for a pretty dull story and likely would not even run because editors believe no one wants to read about someone who is entirely happy and has no complaints. It's the whole "man bites dog" aspect of news (entertainment and otherwise) that people complain about because they feel there's nothing but "bad news" in their newspapers and on TV. But for better or worse, it's not deemed newsworthy unless it has that "man bites dog" element.
 
But continually doing a character week after week who is so focused on violence and the darker side of human nature would, I think, take its toll over time.
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it is still fake and watered down. Not to mention, they are getting paid so much money. Actors are the most over paid people in our society. Their work isn't really that important. I hate it when actors pretend their characters are somehow equivalent to the real life professions they are portraying. CSI is pretty fake. It isn't even that dark or disturbing.


Most actors need variety to keep them interested and engaged, as well as stretching them across a balance of styles so that they can keep their acting chops honed.
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Then don't do tv shows. Simple as that. I hate it when actors do tv shows because they need the work, then get famous, then decided to take the money and run. Seriously, just stick it out. Shows don't last that long...CSI will probably only run another season or two. The actors on CSI are only famous because of the show...the chances of them doing something this big again are slim. WP is pretty much Grissom for the rest of his life. He might not like it, but that is just the way it is.

Yet I wonder if those who reacted so strongly to Jorja's comment are responding with equal vitriol to Petersen's comment? It struck me as just yet another excuse for those who don't like Jorja and/or Sara to launch one more tirade.
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oh...here we go. The old 'omg you can't bash sara'!!11!!! tirade. I liked sara a lot more before i saw how some of her fans acted. Not everyone likes sara, get over it. I react more strongly to GSR because some of the fans are unbelievably annoying.

but is because interviewers are paid to seek this stuff out, and then capitalize on it in their stories.
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well, duh. But he is still saying it. He complains every single interview. Just leave the show. When you are the highest paid actor in prime time, it looks pretty bad when you are complaining about it every interview. I am a fan of his, but i am not going to blindly worship someone if i disagree with stuff they are saying and doing.
 
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