Post by KathrynFan on Mar 3, 2006 4:20:26 GMT -5
Cold Case, 'where justice prevails and murders are solved'
29.04.2004
The top-rating Cold Case is making a star of Kathryn Morris as a homicide detective who cracks cases years after the fact. She talks to MICHELE MANELIS about the show and her career's New Zealand connections.
Kathryn Morris — Detective Lily Rush in Cold Case — has a theory why the unconventional detective drama is such a hit. Because it's not really that unconventional.
"Cold Case is successful because it's a classic show about old-fashioned police work where justice prevails and murders are solved. I think the quotient that is most important is that although time passes, people are still waiting for an answer about a murder that happened long ago," says Morris, relaxing in her Los Angeles hotel room.
"And so I get to play this fantastic character who is very heroic. Lily really gets down to business. She takes that old file that no one has dealt with and really finishes it up."
Texan, Morris, 33, has appeared in movies such as: Minority Report, Paycheck, and Jerry Maguire. She has also came to New Zealand in the 90s for two episodes of Xena Warrior Princess in which she played Najara — a Joan of Arc-like character who had the rare honour of beating up Lucy Lawless's lead character.
Morris said she didn't realise until she arrived in New Zealand what her role entailed.
"I was scared about the fighting, because I am not a large person. [Lawless] is taller than me and she's been doing it so long and she's an expert. I just decided that we've all seen somebody like the kid in school that everybody pushes around ... The small kid, if you get him too mad, he goes ballistic."
Morris has also played in small theatrical productions and telefilms including Inherit the Wind, and Long Road Home.
Cold Case is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, famous for such Hollywood blockbusters as Pirates of the Caribbean, and Pearl Harbor, as well as producing TV shows: CSI: Crime Investigation, CSI: Miami, and Without a Trace.
Says Bruckheimer, "Cold Case is already the highest rated new drama. Kathryn is an enormously talented actress, and with writer, Meredith Steihm (ER, The District, NYPD Blue), we've got two strong females running that show."
The audience appetite for serial dramas has certainly increased.
"I don't know why it is but everybody is enamoured with crime", notes Bruckheimer.
The cast is rounded out by four other principal actors — Danny Pino, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry.
In this testosterone-fuelled cast, it seems the role of Detective Rush is the most interesting.
"There aren't many roles out there like this. Usually when a juicy role comes across my desk, it's for a man and I would have been offered the part that kept him on track, or got him a sandwich," Morris says.
"I don't think Jerry Bruckheimer has dippy or disposable women in his shows. He has strong women that have a lot going on and are smart and are very competent," she says.
"With this character in particular, though, I feel that she's no pushover, but she's not a b*tch either."
In preparing for the role, Morris spent time with real detectives.
"I went on a lot of ride-alongs with them. I saw an actual shooting that had occurred in the middle of the night. It was a drug deal gone wrong," she says.
"The cops assured me that it was the kind of thing that happens every night.
They also showed me a lot of files, even dating back to the 1800s. It was really interesting but very intense. What's most disturbing for me is that I've seen the real cases and the real files," she says.
"So, to be honest, it does wear on me. On the weekends I make sure I see a silly movie or some kind of mindless television comedy."
Because of her research and understanding of the job she is portraying, Morris feels police work is a career she could handle in real life.
"Yes, I think I could do this job. I wouldn't be great at it, but I think I could do an okay job," she smiles.
"The biggest problem would be that I'm too sensitive for it. Although I think I'm capable of doing the job, I think it would probably kill me."
29.04.2004
The top-rating Cold Case is making a star of Kathryn Morris as a homicide detective who cracks cases years after the fact. She talks to MICHELE MANELIS about the show and her career's New Zealand connections.
Kathryn Morris — Detective Lily Rush in Cold Case — has a theory why the unconventional detective drama is such a hit. Because it's not really that unconventional.
"Cold Case is successful because it's a classic show about old-fashioned police work where justice prevails and murders are solved. I think the quotient that is most important is that although time passes, people are still waiting for an answer about a murder that happened long ago," says Morris, relaxing in her Los Angeles hotel room.
"And so I get to play this fantastic character who is very heroic. Lily really gets down to business. She takes that old file that no one has dealt with and really finishes it up."
Texan, Morris, 33, has appeared in movies such as: Minority Report, Paycheck, and Jerry Maguire. She has also came to New Zealand in the 90s for two episodes of Xena Warrior Princess in which she played Najara — a Joan of Arc-like character who had the rare honour of beating up Lucy Lawless's lead character.
Morris said she didn't realise until she arrived in New Zealand what her role entailed.
"I was scared about the fighting, because I am not a large person. [Lawless] is taller than me and she's been doing it so long and she's an expert. I just decided that we've all seen somebody like the kid in school that everybody pushes around ... The small kid, if you get him too mad, he goes ballistic."
Morris has also played in small theatrical productions and telefilms including Inherit the Wind, and Long Road Home.
Cold Case is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, famous for such Hollywood blockbusters as Pirates of the Caribbean, and Pearl Harbor, as well as producing TV shows: CSI: Crime Investigation, CSI: Miami, and Without a Trace.
Says Bruckheimer, "Cold Case is already the highest rated new drama. Kathryn is an enormously talented actress, and with writer, Meredith Steihm (ER, The District, NYPD Blue), we've got two strong females running that show."
The audience appetite for serial dramas has certainly increased.
"I don't know why it is but everybody is enamoured with crime", notes Bruckheimer.
The cast is rounded out by four other principal actors — Danny Pino, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry.
In this testosterone-fuelled cast, it seems the role of Detective Rush is the most interesting.
"There aren't many roles out there like this. Usually when a juicy role comes across my desk, it's for a man and I would have been offered the part that kept him on track, or got him a sandwich," Morris says.
"I don't think Jerry Bruckheimer has dippy or disposable women in his shows. He has strong women that have a lot going on and are smart and are very competent," she says.
"With this character in particular, though, I feel that she's no pushover, but she's not a b*tch either."
In preparing for the role, Morris spent time with real detectives.
"I went on a lot of ride-alongs with them. I saw an actual shooting that had occurred in the middle of the night. It was a drug deal gone wrong," she says.
"The cops assured me that it was the kind of thing that happens every night.
They also showed me a lot of files, even dating back to the 1800s. It was really interesting but very intense. What's most disturbing for me is that I've seen the real cases and the real files," she says.
"So, to be honest, it does wear on me. On the weekends I make sure I see a silly movie or some kind of mindless television comedy."
Because of her research and understanding of the job she is portraying, Morris feels police work is a career she could handle in real life.
"Yes, I think I could do this job. I wouldn't be great at it, but I think I could do an okay job," she smiles.
"The biggest problem would be that I'm too sensitive for it. Although I think I'm capable of doing the job, I think it would probably kill me."
