She knows a swab from a cotton bud and a Glock from a… er… glockenspeil. Jorja Fox looks at the career of CSI Sara Sidle

JORJA FOX took a huge gamble when she left the critically acclaimed West Wing to try out for the CSI pilot. Although she was fascinated by the script, the talented actress was convinced the fledgling series would get cancelled after only eight episodes. Fortunately, Fox’s prediction was wrong, but looking back she wasn’t even sure she had nailed the role of crime investigator Sara Sidle.

“I auditioned the first time and was still on crutches,” recalls Fox. “I had gotten run over on The West Wing. It was an accident, obviously. We were doing the season finale and we were doing this assassination on Martin Sheen’s character, and during the shooting I was supposed to hit the ground on the street, and this limo ran over my leg. I was lucky I didn’t break anything, but for my first CSI audition I was in flip-flops because I couldn’t put shoes on and that was not going well for me. I had several auditions during the summer and I think the girl on crutches thing doesn’t reassure people, but they kind of smiled and brought me back a second time.”

Sara was officially introduced in the episode Cool Changes, when Gil Grissom brought her in from San Francisco to investigate a shooting. She may have initially ruffled some feathers but Sara quickly gained the attention and admiration of those around her, including Fox herself. “I am still baffled by her intelligence,” she states. “That’s a fantasy thing for me because she’s so much smarter than I am. That’s exciting and how authentic and natural it is. It is just something she was born with. And then there’s the mystery surrounding her. That was never necessarily intentional but there’s a whole bunch of stories there that we are just beginning to tell.”

There’s definitely been a formula to their crime-solving methods, so after almost five years of bizarre murders, kidnappings and accidents, how does a show like CSI keep things fresh? “Umm… in very interesting ways,” offers Fox. “We’ve had such an interesting season this year with so many shake-ups. For the most part, I support them completely. I’m all for taking risks and breaking the mould. Whenever you take a big risk, you stand a chance of it being really successful or failing horribly. It is a courageous thing to do, especially for the writers. As the actors, we get the scripts and roll with it, but they take most of the pressure for doing new things or keeping it all the same. They are the ones in the hot seat.”

Nowhere is that more evident than in the recent Mea Culpa, where head honcho Conrad Eckles split the CSI team into Swing and Graveyard shifts. Grissom remained in charge of Greg, Sara and newcomer Sophia Curtis, while Catherine was promoted to lead Nick and Warrick. “I don’t know yet,” says Fox when asked about her thoughts on the division. “I was opposed to it, but I’ve been opposed to a lot of smart things we’ve done, like moving us from Fridays to Thursdays. I thought we were going to get creamed. It is a good thing I am not calling the shots or I am not a network executive. We’ve also always had this thing with our show where half our audience would like to know more about the characters and half would really like us to stick to the science. It has been tricky for the writers because you are always letting someone down, so they decided to follow their hearts, which is the smartest thing to do. It is yet to be seen what fans think but it has been awesome for me to work with Eric Szmanda [Greg] so much. That has been fun, his whole arc of coming into the field and Sara playing a role in bringing him along. I had asked one of our writers last season, Josh Berman, that if he was going to put Greg in the field I would love to work with him, and they did.”

Certainly Greg and Sara have some smouldering chemistry happening, maybe a little too much considering she is supposed to be carrying a torch for Grissom. “I tease Billy [William Petersen] all the time that I have a new boyfriend,” laughs Fox. “He’s gracious about it but I also think he’s not happy about it. In the second season, we sort of established Greg had a crush on Sara and of course I loved that. If people find her interesting, that is a nice feeling. Back then there was a feeling he was so young and there was a bit of an age gap. It’s been interesting watching Eric because he has always been a beautiful man but he’s coming into manhood in the character and Sara thinks that is attractive. I’m open to it and Sara has definitely been finding Greg sexier. And we have something coming up that is pretty hilarious where we find ourselves naked together and that’s the only buzz I am going to give you on that.”

It is never a dull moment in the crime lab, and during her tenure Sara has weathered her fair share of hard knocks, most notable in Bloodlines when she was picked up on a DUI. “When we first started the show, I came in specifically as a love interest for Billy’s character, Grissom,” explains Fox. “They told us we had this prior relationship, and as the show evolved that really changed. We either haven’t addressed it or it’s changed. The DUI was similar to that. There was no foreshadowing at all so I was really shocked and I don’t think I really liked it right away, but then I likened it to the big old Pandora’s box it might open. Right now, we’re not going to play ‘She has a drinking problem’ but that she has some ghosts.”

Those spooks come back to haunt her in Nesting Dolls, as Sara confided in Grissom that her mother had murdered her father. If it seems like the writers are dumping on poor Sara all the time, Fox isn’t complaining. “That’s a pro and a con,” she offers. “Sara has had a lot of personal arcs through the course of CSI, more than some characters on the show. In that way, I’ve been fortunate and blessed but it is scary to do it when the show is so process and story heavy and then they throw a curve ball at you. It is how I felt about Sara’s mother killing her father. It was like a guinea pig situation with high melodrama. This could turn into something the audience really hates, so as much as I like taking risks, this was a scary risk to take. You can’t go back from this.”

Those nerves were unwarranted. Viewers have always had a soft spot for Sara, which became even more apparent when they celebrated the character’s September 16th birthday. “Oh my gosh! How did you know that?” exclaims Fox. “I was completely surprised. It was really cool. It was a bunch of cards that were mailed to Carol Mendelsohn, who is our executive producer on the show. She passed them on to me. She was like, ‘These came to me but they are definitely for you. You should check them out.’ It was beautiful. Of course, I didn’t even know it was Sara’s birthday. We had made up stats up back in Season One: where are you from, where you went to college, your birthday, etc. I hadn’t really though about it in a long time.”

It wasn’t the first time Fox had received such an outpouring, either. “The other thing is, when I got fired back in July, there was a tremendous amount of support from fans,” she recalls. “It wasn’t stuff just coming to me directly but stuff going to CSI and CBS. I was completely blown away and it made me feel a lot better. It is a big deal.” That rough patch Fox is referring to occurred last July, when she and CSI co-star George Eads were given their walking papers, supposedly over a pay hike dispute. Reportedly it was all a misunderstanding, but some wounds take longer to heal than others. “I’ve never been fired from anything in my life, not even from a coat check job,” she explains. “I’m sure it’s a rite of passage since everybody gets fired at least once in their lives, but in many ways I can’t believe it still happened. I think our show is still trying to pick up the pieces from that. Business is business but it was a very difficult time.”

If Fox holds any ill feelings, she is hiding it well. Quite frankly, speaking to the beautiful 36-year-old actress is more like having a friendly conversation than an interview. Alas, all good things must come to an end, so Fox concludes our time together by weighing in on whether being the number one show ever gets old. “Oh yeah, sure,” she deadpans. “Never, ever, ever does it get tiring. It is mostly one of those things that it is not taken for granted but just a normal part of the television line-up. Every week I’m always shocked. A few weeks ago, we just won an SAG award and that was incredible. We were the top underdog and none of us thought we had a chance in hell. We were at the table for almost 30 seconds after they called our name. We were just looking at each other like, ‘Did you hear what I heard?’ We thought we had too much champagne or something. The ratings come back every week and I am always surprised.”