TV Week

Applied Science

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Would you enjoy a real-life career in criminology?

I have no desire to do this job! I have a tremendous amount of respect and regard for the people that do. I feel lucky to have gotten to know a couple of people who are criminalists, and have the best idea that I can of what they do. It is very brave and very dark and very intense and very driven. I couldn’t handle it personally… but I love faking it.

Do you see death in a different light now, because of the show?

That was the one hesitation I had about taking the role if I was lucky enough to get offered it. I didn’t know if I would really be of sound mind, being in that world every day. I didn’t know how death would affect me, or if it would get to me. In the first season in particular, I examined a lot of my own ideas about death, which I think was probably unavoidable. I realized that you either face it or are in denial. I’m glad I am facing it, although my ideas are still evolving and changing.

How do you relate to Sara?

She is a renegade who has some problems relating to people on a social level. She is very, very good at what she does, but sometimes consumes herself almost entirely with her work. At the moment, she is also a little in love with a coworker who is very unresponsive to her … but I won’t give any more away on that front! It’s a joy and a dream to play her, but I sometimes get confused playing somebody for so long. When I go shopping, buy an outfit and look at it a month later, I go, “Who bought that? Sara or me?”

Do you think criminals are scared after watching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation?

I hope so, but it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. On some levels we probably give clues on how getting away, but then we show how difficult it is to get away with something. It’s getting to the point where before long we’ll be able to catch people doing almost anything.

“There has been some work done to raise money for crime labs across the country, and that’s something,” Jorja Fox says. “But it would be great if we could encourage the government to spend more money on this stuff. Then those crimes would get solved faster.”

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