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CSI: Miami's reborn star tells Jenny Eden why he's not going to blow it this time around…
David Caruso slips off his trademark sunglasses and admits he's amazed to be at the heart of a global phenomenon. For ten years, he could barely get work in Hollywood - now his red hair and shades get him recognised around the world. After walking out
on NYPD Blue, boasting of multi-million-dollar movie offers, he was left humiliatingly unemployed.
But CSI:Miami changed all that and has given him the international stardom he craved. "I'm a guy who is grateful. I didn't even let myself kind of dream about a second chance -
it's like a miracle to get an opportunity to be a part of something like this," he says.
"I've grown up. Sometimes unemployment is the great educator. I used to represent how not to handle your career in television. I had to go right back down to the basement and start over. When I was on NYPD Blue I didn't have any experience, I didn't know what was
required of me. Now I know I have responsibilities beyond my performance of the character."
Part of that responsibility is blowing the show's trumpet for being an unexpected international success. At the start, Caruso admitted CSI: Miami would always be in the shadow of the original Vegas-based CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. So it's come as a surprise to everyone to find Miami outstripping it in the export market. In fact, it's outstripping everything.
"I've had a growing sense of the importance of the show's audience outside the US," he says. "We work very hard to make it as unique as possible because we have always been in the shadow of the big show. Miami can be a very exotic place because it has this beautiful tropical setting, but it also has a very human set of circumstances that I think people around the world can connect with."
David has become king of the second chances in all aspects of his life. He's fought and won a battle with alcoholism, and last year, just before turning 50, he had a son named Marquez Antonio with his yoga-instructor girlfriend Liza, having divorced his third wife. He already has a 22-year-old daughter Greta from a previous marriage.
He proudly pulls out a photo of "the little guy" wearing a baby-sized tuxedo. "Having a little boy is a really interesting thing. I have the greatest daughter, but it's like having a team-mate in the house. I spend every second I can with my guy."
With so much going on, he insists there's no chance of him leaving TV to chase a movie career again. He spends his breaks in Miami, the city he made his home even before the series came along, and any movie offers are rejected out of hand. "At the end of filming a season, I'm satisfied. One minute I can be picking up an epithelial cell, and the next thing I can be filming a shoot-out on an air boat. Would it be great to work on a movie some day? Yeah. But right now I've got a good job."
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Read our Q&A with David Caruso - or take a look at our full CSI: Miami guide.
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