CSI’s George Eads: As good as it gets

The square jaw. The sexy smile. The intense brown eyes. The warm Texan drawl. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’s George Eads sure is easy on the eye – which begs the question: How the heck did someone so conventionally movie-star handsome get cast as a science-geek forensic investigator?

Well, there is the fact that the single, available Eads – currently seen on CSI’s fourth season, airing every Wednesday night on Studio 23 – is actually a very good actor. He trained for it, in fact – and his passion even led him to become a drama teacher before television, and TV fame, beckoned.

"I grew up in a pretty small town in Texas, population 8,000, and we had a lot of open spaces," he notes via phone patch from the CSI set in Santa Clarita, California, which stands in for the show’s Las Vegas locale. "It was a time when we didn’t have a lot of video games and stuff, so we just played outside. We just kinda made our own fun, used our imagination, and we’d make up scenarios, situations, and I guess where my interest in acting spawned from. But I’ve always been a fan of movies and TV. I’ve been inspired by movies and acting, and I guess now, I’m hoping to inspire the way I’ve been inspired."

Understandably, growing up in a small town led Eads to such macho early influences as Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It was also in the spirit of these mavericks that Eads decided to pack up and move to Los Angeles to pursue his dream. "I really just had to go for it," he points out. "I just took everything I owned and headed off to Los Angeles. I knew that I could work in L.A., because there were just no job opportunities in Texas."

Thankfully, he realized hot guys were a dime a dozen in L.A., and elected to polish his craft more thoroughly for his big break. "When I got there I immediately enrolled in acting class," he says. "It was a year-and-a-half program at a conservatory, and pretty expensive, actually. And then I got a job. Two jobs, as a matter of fact. Whenever I didn’t have a job, I studied acting, I sent out tapes, went on auditions. And then there was another year-and -a-half at the Howard Fine studio, studying acting. I was actually a drama school teacher, for a while."

There were some rough spots, Eads admits. "I didn’t have much, really." "Around ’93, I had to get a couple of jobs. I had a job for a while working at a gym, just so I could work out for free, because I knew if I didn’t exercise, I’d go crazy. It’s the key to my mental health, actually. At night, I’d go to the Sony studios and work in its kitchen, just catering different stuff around the lot. And then I had acting class."

After a few years of struggle, his big break came with the primetime soap Savannah, carried locally by Studio 23. Produced by Aaron Spelling, it was supposed to be primetime’s next big thing, but it only lasted a season. Then came a featured guest role on the hit ER, which lasted several episodes. Then, his next series, 2000’s Grapevine, became a misfire that lasted less than a season. But the TV gods knew what they were doing, as the twin flops led him almost directly to CSI.

CBS, CSI’s home network in the States, was finalizing the casting for a new program about forensic investigators, to be produced by movie hotshot Jerry Bruckheimer as his very first TV venture. "I pretty much just got a call from a manager," Eads says. "Les Moonves, head of CBS, was familiar with my work, because I’d done two shows for them by then. So I just sort of read for the pilot. Danny Cannon (CSI executive producer and creator) was auditioning me, and then after, I got the phone call in my car that I got the job."

All that aside, Eads was not expecting anything from the reading. "With two canceled shows behind me, you learn not to be too excited, because you don’t want to be disappointed. So I never made a really big deal out of it at all. And I still don’t. I think that’s the common denominator between all of us (in the cast). We’re not really excitable or freak out about success. If you expect anything, it’s the fruits of hard labor, you know?"

The fact that fans tune in almost as often to ogle the good-looking CSI crew as to ponder the weekly mysteries is also not turning Eads’ head – or the heads of any of his fellow castmembers. "Honestly, that’s something we don’t even think about. That’s inconsequential," he insists. "It happens from being on TV, so it’s not something I put a lot of weight on. Although it is flattering that we have a lot of fans who watch the show and think of me like that. It’s not something I try to do or anything like that."

What he does try to do is to give life to his character as best he can. Eads notes, "I think that anything I’ve ever done, I’ve tried to bring as much of myself as I can to the role. There are some similarities – there’s dedication to the profession. I feel like I have a lot of dedication to the acting profession."

"The differences – Nick has a lot more brains," Eads laughs. "He’s more tenacious. Smarter than I am, definitely."

His glamorous showbiz life is actually a lot of hard work. Eads points out that an average episode takes about eight or nine working days of shooting. "I got here about 10 a.m., and I’ll probably work ‘til four o’clock. The workload depends on the script. It’s variable because of how large our ensemble is. You can work really hard for a couple of weeks. Then you get a two-, three-day break, and then come back and the workload is heavy again. But there’s a lot of us to shoulder the burden."

He’s looking forward to getting a better picture of CSI’s following in foreign markets, something about which he confesses he knows next to nothing about. "I’ve been to Europe. And I have been to Rio for a press tour we went on a few years ago. Things like Mexico. I’ve been to the Dominican Republic, Buenos Aires. That’s about it," Eads notes. "It’s pretty strange that people know who I am out there, because I really haven’t traveled throughout the world that much, what with the workload we got. When I do get to travel a little more, I’ll definitely try to get feedback. It’s a bit of a mystery to me, foreign markets, and it’s intriguing and exciting to me."

He’s certainly happy for the support. "I just want to tell our show’s fans in the Philippines, thanks," he says. "You’re the reason I work so hard. In the end you have to ask yourself why you do what you do, and now that I get to see how much pleasure people get from watching our show, it just inspires me to work hard to make the show not just good, but great, and as good as we can."