 |
Caruso plays forensic investigator Horatio Caine in the new CSI spin-off CSI: Miami, debuting this fall on CBS and CTV. He was joined by fellow cast members Kim Delaney (another NYPD alumnus), Emily Procter and Khandi Alexander on the panel.
The soft-spoken and articulate actor freely admitted that he mishandled his abrupt and well-publicized departure from NYPD Blue in 1994. Executive producer Steven Bochco reluctantly let him out of his contract at the time to pursue a film career that bombed.
He tried a TV comeback a few years ago with another cop drama, Michael Hayes, but that only lasted a season.
Caruso, 46, says he had to learn the hard way something another NYPD Blue producer once told him, that working on a feature film is like a date and working on a TV series is like a marriage. He says he just wasn't prepared or equipped to be a team player back then, a self-serving posture that cost him dearly in Hollywood.
"The thing about television is that it can suddenly cast you in the spotlight in a way that you've never experienced before," Caruso said after the conference. "I think that the NYPD Blue chapter for me came on so quickly and ended so quickly I never really got an opportunity to comprehend what was expected of me."
That's no excuse, he admited. "I've been pretty up front about admitting that I messed up on a great opportunity. Having said that, if you're going to continue in the business and you're going to learn what your responsibilities are and find out what the job is as opposed to just your role or the indulgence of what your needs are -- especially if you're going to get the chance to be cast as a major character -- there are myriad responsibilities and needs that come before your needs."
Has the old NYPD gang forgiven him? Pretty much, he believes, saying he especially keeps in touch with Nicholas Turturro and Amy Brenneman. "I think it was very important for me to take responsibility for being destructive in those days. I think that kind of healed some of the drama."
Caruso happens to live in Miami, where the series will occasionally shoot (it is largely based in L.A.). He was messing around with a couple of TV ideas, including a buddy cop show idea with Turturro, when CSI: Miami came knocking. After getting a call at 10 one night, he flew back to L.A. to meet CBS CEO Les Moonves and the producers. The meeting went well and Caruso got the job.
He credits his third wife Margaret with helping to straighten him out personally and professionally. "She's a grown-up and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my relationship with her so I needed to make the adjustment."
The actor says he has no problem with playing another cop, even if this one is a forensic specialist. "I think in a weird way I have this somewhat unrealized past and I feel that there's a possibility in CSI: Miami I might get a chance to realize that."