Non-MX Interviews: Lauren Lee Smith (2/09 Watch)
Watch! 2/09: Lauren Lee Smith

Life of Riley: CSI’S NEWEST CAST MEMBER, LAUREN LEE SMITH, OPENS UP ON HER MULTIFACETED ACTING CAREER

When CSI premiered nearly nine years ago, Lauren Lee Smith was already a teenage success in her Canadian homeland. “I had done it kind of backwards,” Smith says. Indeed, she spent part of her youth in the television mecca of L.A., modeling and taking small parts at a local Shakespearean theater. She then went back to Vancouver at age 18 to begin an acting career in earnest.

Soon, Smith landed indie film roles and increasingly high-profile parts on TV, from her first job on MTV’s drama 2gether to lead roles in CBS’ miniseries Christy and the syndicated sci-fi show Mutant X.

Smith later appeared on the popular Canadian TV procedural Intelligence as a Russian stripper spying for the FBI. But it was for her role as Lara Perkins on Showtime’s series The L Word for which Smith was best known—that is, until this past fall when she debuted as forensic investigator Riley Adams. Watch! caught up with the busy young actress on the CSI set, and asked what it was like to return to L.A. to become the new face on such an iconic series.

Watch!: It’s ironic that you’d spent so much time in Hollywood as a kid, but yet moved to Canada to break into the business. What were you doing living in the states all that time?
Lauren Lee Smith: My parents were—I guess you could say “hippies.” Their whole philosophy
was that a proper education includes meeting different people and seeing the world. And so from the time I was 3, we lived in Costa Rica and France and all over the United States and Canada. It was an interesting upbringing.
W!: Let’s recap: You’ve played a mutant, a lesbian chef, a Russian stripper spy and a schoolteacher …
LLS: [laughs] I like to mix it up. The whole appeal of what I do is getting to delve into these different lives and characters. I’m pretty sure that my upbringing has something
to do with the fact that I am an actress. I get bored very easily.
W!: How would you describe your CSI character Riley?
LLS: Riley loves her job. It’s her passion 100 percent, but at the same time, she’s
also one of those workhard, play-hard types. She came into the group during a time when they
were dealing with Warrick having been shot and Sara leaving. They were understated and in need of a new CSI right away, so there was not a lot of formality. She had to jump in. No one really knows that much about her, and she doesn’t really know that much about anyone.
But she likes messing with them, with her sarcastic sense of humor that the other CSIs are maybe a little wary of.
W!: What parts of her are like you?
LLS: I like to think I am sarcastic. I definitely have a strong sense of playfulness. I tend to look at things and not take them too seriously. Maybe even at times when I should take them a little bit more seriously.
W!: Do we think that Riley might be secretly Canadian?
LLS: [laughs] She’s not. She’s from St. Louis so I have to drop all my “oots” and “aboots.” Our wonderful script supervisor has to remind me at least once an episode.
W!: The CSI writers use so much forensic research and have a technical advisor on staff. As an actor, what homework did you do before taking the role?
LLS: I actually had the “pleasure” of spending a couple of weeks at the L.A. County Morgue prior to CSI for a film called Pathology. It was still fresh in my memory, so I was able to forgo [doing that again]. But CSI flew me to Las Vegas, and I got to do a ride-along with actual CSIs. They took me to the crime lab, and I got to see it all fi rsthand. That was
definitely very eye-opening.
W!: One of the things your fans on the Internet note most is how different you’ve
looked from role to role. Are you ready for people to start recognizing you as Riley?
LLS: For every project I do, I try to change the way I look as much as possible. I’m surprised that I actually have hair on my head right now, because it’s been every color of the rainbow. One of my favorite things I hear from someone is, “That was you?” But we’ll see. I keep hearing that this little show CSI might change all that.

© Jim Colucci