Procter prospers EVELYN TEO goes behind the scenes to meet the three attractive female stars of the hit series CSI: Miami. |
Emily Procter
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IT does not take long for actress Emily Procter to notice something amiss with the giant poster of the cast of
CSI: Miami placed in the interview room at the W hotel in Los Angeles. Surprised, she calmly asks: “Why am I so fat in that picture? Who is that very jowly lady?”Make no mistake; the 36-year-old blonde beauty is not angry. She is
just curious as to why the airbrushed version of her is so round-faced.
“But, that’s okay,” she says good-naturedly with a dismissive
wave of her hand when no satisfactory answer emerges from the public
relations agents and journalists in the room. After all, she is having
the last laugh. Her real face is in the new print ad campaign for
Charriol jewellery in all the fashion magazines. Smartly dressed
in a casual black sweater, white shirt and matching pants, the
1.6m-tall woman looks anything but fat. She looks like a more relaxed
Calleigh Duquesne, the reserved but tough scientific-minded ballistics
expert she plays in
CSI: Miami. Born in Raleigh, North
Carolina, the American star studied journalism and dance and worked as
a weather anchor at her local station before taking on TV and film
roles. She had parts in movies like
Leaving Las Vegas and
Jerry Maguire, but it was her two-year recurring stint in award-winning drama
The West Wing as the spunky fast-talking Republican lawyer Ainsley Hayes that really made her stand out. As a result, the opportunity to star in a TV show came soon after. Although she was having a great time on
The West Wing, the lure of being a regular cast member in
CSI: Miami was hard to resist. She consulted with her friend, former
West Wing cast mate Jorja Fox (who plays Sara Sidle in
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), before accepting the part. “Jorja and I have been friends for years since we did a movie together (called
Forever Fabulous),” she reveals in a charming Southern accent. “She was the first call I made when I was thinking about doing
CSI. I call her Horha. And I said: ‘Horha, am I going to do
CSI? She said: ‘I think you will like it.’“And I asked her: ‘Would you like it if it weren’t the No.1 show?’ She
said: ‘I would.’ Then I called her halfway through the first season,
and I said: ‘I don’t know if I like it.’ And she said I had to wait a
while. She was right. “It is different. It is a very unusual
style of acting which is specific only to it. And far more challenging
than it looks to come up with various ways to look across from a person
and tell them exactly what you both know.” As it turns out, she
has not regretted her decision thus far. Her role expanded from
supporting to lead role when Kim Delaney exited the show 10 episodes
into the first season. Procter is now scheduled to return for the
fourth season along with David Caruso, Adam Rodriguez, Jonathan Togo
and Khandi Alexander when it premieres in the United States late this
month. “I have a very good time with the people that I work
with,” she discloses. “We do a lot of dancing, and a lot of wrestling,
and a lot of cutting up! And I think we have the best crew. The group
that I work with is very funny.”
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The cast of CSI: Miami: (from left) Sofia Milos as Detective Yelina Salas, Emily Procter as Calleigh Duquesne, David Caruso as Horatio Caine, Khandi Alexander as Alexx Woods and Adam Rodriguez as Eric Delko.
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In her opinion, the only bad thing about being on the show this long is
that her “knees are not what they used to be” because she spends so
much time squatting and looking down. Amidst the heavy caseload and
nasty crime scenes in the series’ third season (currently showing on
AXN – Astro Channel 17 – Wednesdays at 10pm), there is also more
character development for everyone, says Procter. Calleigh
struggles with her love life and “people from her past are back in the
picture”. Is she all for a possible romance for her character? “I am all for anything that I think might open the door into what
Calleigh might be like as a human being,” she divulges. “I think that’s
interesting. And I don’t know if ultimately it is the right decision
for the show. But I know as an actor it feels like the right decision.” Outside of
CSI, Procter can be found spending time interior decorating (her home was featured in
In Style magazine recently), playing poker and working with various charities for the homeless. She started doing volunteer work during her early days as an actor. “I wasn’t working very much as an actor and I felt like I really needed
a volunteer job just for balance,” she explains. A friend suggested she
help prepare food for a soup kitchen and she has been working with the
homeless community since. “For the longest time, a lot of the
homeless community didn’t realise that I wasn’t homeless,” she recalls.
“So when I got on a TV show, they were like: ‘Oh my God! This is
amazing. You were just here eating lunch. And you are on
The West Wing now!’ I miss doing the work greatly.” She hopes that working on
CSI: Miamifor several years will help her be financially stable enough to afford
her a break from acting in the future and return to her charity work
full-time. But right now, she cannot tear herself from her
present TV role. She says: “Three years in, I think it is my most
favourite thing to do, which is not what I expected to say in Season
One at all.”