Robert Piper: What inspires you?

Jorja Fox: Wow. I think I’m very easily inspired. People, wildlife, nature, music, art. I think that I’m lucky that I have this great sense of wonderment about life in general.

RP: How do you stay healthy?

JF: I like to think I’m healthy. I exercise a lot. I have this great dog, and I walk her about five days a week. I dance, I surf. I eat mostly vegan, try to get enough sleep. For me, that’s really critical.

RP: What kind of research goes into a role?

JF: Well, it depends. For instance, [on] CSI is a character that I had very, very little experience with when I started, so I did a lot of research. I went to the Los Angeles crime lab; I went to the Las Vegas crime lab. Spent some time with folks that really do the job. I did a lot of reading and–thank goodness for the Internet at that time–a lot of web searches about the idea of it. Science is not something that comes all that natural to me, and then, of course, every once in a while, you’ll get that character that I feel, like, Oh, I know this person or This person would be a good friend of mine or This person’s a lot like me. Then, of course, there’s less research involved.

RP: What projects are you working on right now?

JF: Right now, I’m doing the fifteenth season of CSI. We premiere September 28, so [I’m] kind of getting excited. It’s always nice to be off the air, to just sort of be away somewhere, working quietly, and then it’s really exciting to actually get back on the air and get that adrenaline rush every week. I’m looking forward to that.

I produced a couple of documentaries recently. One of them is called Lion Art, and the other one’s called Extinction Soup. Both of those documentaries are on the film-festival circuit right now. Lion Art deals with transporting twenty-five former circus lions from Bolivia to a wildlife sanctuary outside of Denver, Colo. Extinction Soup is kind of a combination of stories, but the primary purpose of the film is to sort of tell the tale of shark-fin soup and what it’s doing to the oceans and to shark habitats across the globe.

RP: How do you find balance in life?

JF: It’s really about being outside, being in nature. I can kind of go into the wild places and immediately feel rested and rejuvenated. Often, even if I’m struggling with a decision or something, if I just go out into the ocean, that answer will come without thinking about it too much. I try to balance work and play. Again, I’m really grateful that I can kind of have that philosophy, so I can try to get out of the city as much as possible, even though I love the city and I’m not ready to leave it.

*Jorja Fox is an actress and musician. She can currently be seen on the hit show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She has also starred in ER and The West Wing *