Marg Helgenberger finds there’s no place like Dome after CSI

AFTER 12 seasons, Marg Helgenberger has switched from CSI to sci-fi and has found a new home in Under the Dome.

EMBARGOED to June 28, 2015. Sunday TV Guides first use: Marg Helgenberger is the new face on Under The Dome. Picture: Supplied by Channel Ten

THE adage, when one door closes a new one opens, rings true for Marg Helgenberger, 56, who finished up playing Catherine Willows on the long-running hit drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and tomorrow night enters the world of sci-fi in Under The Dome, as season three begins on Ten.

“I was on CSI for close to twelve seasons. It was the longest job I’ve ever had and certainly one of the most rewarding in that it was such an influential show. It was innovative and the impact it had on young people to become criminalists was astounding,” she says.

“It illuminated what criminalists do and for that I was very proud. I would have never guessed that it had the global reach that it has had and when I travel abroad, I am still sort of amazed that many people would just call my name as Catherine (her CSI character),” she says. (Since our sit-down chat, it was announced that she will return for the final two-hour finale which airs in September.)

Proud if CSI’s impact ... Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows in CSI. Picture: Supplied

The stunning redhead is at The London hotel in West Hollywood to promote Under the Dome in which she plays anthropologist Christine Price who comes to help the residents of Chester’s Mill deal with the aftermath of the Dome.

In doing so, her presence serves to explain why it came down in Season One.

Under the Dome is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. “I’m very intrigued by the show and by this character,” Helgenberger says.

“I think a lot of people like to see others in desperate situations or ones in which they have to suffer and see them come through that to the other side.”

Working on such an intense show, she relishes her time away from long hours on the set.

“A day off is like recovery. I’ll do the typical stuff like go to the gym, the grocery store, do my laundry or go for long walks on the beach. That is really restorative,” she says.

She may be fully immersed in the world of sci-fi, however, she reveals, “I have to admit, I haven’t read a lot of Stephen King books or even sci-fi novels in general. I did read The Tommyknockers because I was in that mini-series 22 years ago.”

Under the Dome is set in Wilmington, North Carolina. “I live right on the beach so it’s a lovely place to work but it gets very messy on set at times,” Helgenberger says.

“Sometimes I’ll look down at my hands and they’re covered in blood and I’ll think, ‘Wow. I guess we really are doing the horror sci-fi drama genre here.”

UNDER THE DOME

MONDAY, 9.30PM, TEN