Playboy's 20Q: Marg Helgenberger

She is the best thing about CBS' top-rated drama, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Her character K.C. brightened China Beach and won her an Emmy in 1990. Her appearances in Stephen King's miniseries The Tommyknockers and her stint as George Clooney's love interest on ER were more than memorable. In fact, Marg Helgenberger enhances every project she accepts.

She grew up in Nebraska and acted in school plays, but it wasn't until she attended Northwestern University that acting took hold as a career possibility. Upon graduation she was cast on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope.

Her work includes movies, of course. She managed to create a romantic interlude with Michael Madsen amid the mayhem of Species (she also appeared in Species II). And she made Steven Seagal look good when he wasn't punching someone in Fire Down Below. Most recently she garnered rave notices as a cancer patient in Erin Brockovich and in the CBS miniseries Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, playing Patsy Ramsey.

Robert Crane met with Helgenberger in Santa Monica. He reports: "Marg is a bright, no-nonsense, funny person. She's incredibly earthy and sexy and she smells like she just got a little sun."

1

[Q] Playboy: Describe the Marg Helgenberger for us.

[A] Helgenberger: Cheeseburger, pickles and ketchup. On a toasted sesame seed bun. I'm as basic as they come. I am a meat-and-potatoes gal. I'm from a small town in the Midwest. Not only do I prefer simply prepared foods, but they prefer me, too, if you know what I mean. So, yeah, meat and potatoes.

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[Q] Playboy: Is the Helgenberger pink on the inside?

[A] Helgenberger: Yes. Definitely. Medium rare--rare to medium rare. I like the taste of meat. I don't like it to be dry. It's got to be moist inside. Moist and juicy.

3

[Q] Playboy: So, how many great pairs of knockers were featured in The Tommyknockers? And what the heck are tommyknockers, anyway?

[A] Helgenberger: Wow, I'd have to say there were at least three pairs of great knockers in The Tommyknockers. Traci Lords, Joanna Cassidy and yours truly, because they're natural and regular size. That's the only reason. Tommyknockers is an English expression that refers to miners. If someone was left underground after an explosion or a cave-in, you would hear them knocking on the sides of the walls. Miners were called tommys in the old days.

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[Q] Playboy: You play a former stripper turned crime scene investigator on CSI. Is there a flashback in the offing?

[A] Helgenberger: Every crew member on the show has asked me that. Even my agent, who's an erudite person, said to the producer, "I want to see episodes in which Marg gets strung out on drugs and has to go back to stripping." The producer said, "Do you think you're the only person?" If it involved a crime or forensics or something, it might be OK.

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[Q] Playboy: What are your three distinguishing characteristics?

[A] Helgenberger: My laugh, my hair color and my parties. I throw really good parties.

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[Q] Playboy: You played Patsy Ramsey, and now you're a crime scene investigator. Do you think JonBenet's case will ever be solved?

[A] Helgenberger: I watched a lot of Patsy Ramsey's press conferences. In one she talked to CNN shortly after the murder, when she was completely stoned on Valium--she's hardly coherent. And there was the press conference she and her husband held for journalists a few months after the murder. In that one they were very together and had their answers down. But they have stuck with their story the entire time.

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[Q] Playboy: How did you get the name Marg?

[A] Helgenberger: Well, it's actually Mary Marg. When my mother was in nurse's training, she worked in an orphanage with the nuns, because it was a Catholic nursing school. The nuns had named one of the little girls Mary Marg, and my mother loved the name--so that's what's on my birth certificate. Obviously it's usually Mary Margaret. But she just loved Mary Marg and intended to call me that, but it never really stuck. It's been Marg or Margie all my life.

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[Q] Playboy: Do men who pronounce the hard g get further with you than the ones who say Marge?

[A] Helgenberger: My opinion of them rises. It depends, you know, because it's an uncommon name, so I don't really hold it against people. If I've told somebody repeatedly how to pronounce it, then I hold it against him because it means he's not paying attention.

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[Q] Playboy: Helgenberger suggests an imposing Bavarian edifice, something made out of bricks. What do you think?

[A] Helgenberger: Of course. Back in Nebraska there were plenty of brick shit-houses. My image of a woman who is built like a brick house, and it's probably a cliché, is buxom, large--like Chyna, the wrestler. It's a compliment if someone says I'm built like a brick house, because I'm a pretty solid person. And I'm fairly down-to-earth. I've got the hard-boiled thing. Some of the greatest compliments I receive, especially from men, are that I kick ass, that "that bitch is bad," that I'm bad-ass, that I rock. I love all that--it gives a spring to my step when I hear it.

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[Q] Playboy: What's your favorite bedroom scene?

[A] Helgenberger: It's in Species, and it was with Michael Madsen. It was kind of raucous. I just decided to make it fun and playful. We tripped over each other and fell to the ground. That kind of kick-started it. I remember once I took a flying leap onto him on the bed. And there was the time I tackled him. It was more playful and feisty than your typical sensuous love scene.

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[Q] Playboy: You appeared in Fire Down Below. Is Steven Seagal as wooden as he appears?

[A] Helgenberger: Well, I wouldn't use that word. He was rarely there. Seriously. He showed up when he needed to show up, and the rest of the time I acted with his stand-in. Because of his martial arts training, I think he's a very present guy. Whether or not he's going to fuck with you is another thing. He loves to play games more than anybody I know. Otherwise he gets bored. But once he realizes you won't play games with him, he'll back off. A game player doesn't like to play games with somebody who's not interested. They'll go on to find somebody who's going to fall for their shit. But he was very complimentary to me. He would always say, "We think you're a terrific actress. The best thing I did was put you in this film."

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[Q] Playboy: Did Julia Roberts have to ask someone how to dress for Erin Brockovich or did she have it in her?

[A] Helgenberger: There was one day when she had on this outfit, tight white pants or capris and this push-up bra that put her boobs up into the stratosphere. And these huge fuck-me pumps. Julia is not that kind of dresser. She's very elegant. But I think she got into it after a while. And I thought she sashayed in those clothes beautifully. It was the best thing she's ever done.

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[Q] Playboy: Julia Roberts was once your neighbor. Did she ever come over to borrow something?

[A] Helgenberger: Actually, she came over to borrow the Cuisinart when Alan, my husband, was there--and, like most husbands, he doesn't know where anything is. He was probably struggling really hard to find it because it's Julia Roberts at the door. She said, "Oh, that's OK. I can just use a blender." Sometimes in those tabloids they would print photographs of the duplex she lived in, and our Pathfinder would be in the picture. Under the caption it would say, "Julia ditches her Hollywood Hills mansion for a neighborhood filled with drug addicts and out-of-work actors." But that's my Pathfinder and I'm a working actor, as is my husband.

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[Q] Playboy: Might there be sparks around the Bunsen burner with your co-star William L. Petersen?

[A] Helgenberger: I think the sparks already exist around the Bunsen burner, just by the fact that we're both single on the show. And I think we're both relatively lonely--I'm trying to make it on my own as a single mom and he's got such tunnel vision. But if you deny your sexuality, it eventually comes out in one way or another. Even though we're completely professional and it's never really discussed, I think the feelings exist. It will be more interesting if Willows and Grissom don't get together. I think there's more to be explored in terms of two co-workers doing their thing without having any kind of sexual relationship. He's the more cerebral one and I'm the more instinctual, intuitive, sensual one--the two minds work well together on cases.

15

[Q] Playboy: Ever have the perfect date ruined by one thing?

[A] Helgenberger: It wasn't necessarily the perfect date, but I do remember a situation when I was in high school and I had a crush on a guy. We had planned to meet at the bowling alley after the football game or something like that. He showed up with another girl! So I sort of wrote him off as a loser, but a few months went by and he realized what an asshole he'd been. Then he courted me heavily with gifts and poems. And we actually became an item for a year or so.

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[Q] Playboy: Is it harder to be sexy when you're single or married?

[A] Helgenberger: Probably when you're married. My single friends have a totally different life than I do. There's certainly a lot more sex. A lot more sex with various partners. Being single, you have complete freedom and independence. I have a child, and he's obviously the first responsibility. But I certainly don't feel like I'm stifled in any way.

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[Q] Playboy: What are you going to tell your son about girls?

[A] Helgenberger: Well, he already has a crush on Drew Barrymore, but he won't admit it. He asks me about her. I've met her. I think he saw The Wedding Singer, and she was so sweet, so adorable. She is that way anyway, but she was just so charming, and that's what he fell for--that bubbly, open, sweet gal. He's got good taste. He doesn't go for Carmen Electras. He goes for a good girl who's also sexy. Drew's sexy and she's a producer. She rocks.

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[Q] Playboy: Your 16-year-old son brings home a young Marg Helgenberger. What do you say?

[A] Helgenberger: You go, boy! I would say that he's got good taste. I definitely want him to have somebody who is fun, and smart, and interested in the world, and somebody who is going to be a challenge. I don't want him to settle for just anyone.

19

[Q] Playboy: What will you advise your son to avoid a broken heart?

[A] Helgenberger: Oh, my God. The only way is to go through it. That road can be really painful, but I think there's great value in that. And I wouldn't want to shut him off. Some people are afraid to even go out there because they're afraid of being hurt, and I don't think that's any way to go through life. Then you're really not dealing with all your emotions or following your heart.

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[Q] Playboy: What are some warning signs?

[A] Helgenberger: I would be wary of people who are users. They might seem like a lot of fun, but you can generally tell when somebody's not entirely sincere with their friendship. It's a fair-weather thing. And I think that's something you are susceptible to at a young age, because there are a lot of charismatic people. They draw you in, but then they spin out of control and you get left behind. So I would caution him against those very dynamic, charismatic personalities. Even though they're extremely attractive and I, too, fall for them all the time, just be wary. There's usually another side to those types of people.