© Copyright?

Today I read an interview with Kathryn asking questions to her coming back to Criminal Intent for the last season. Bay the way today is the last filming day of Season 10. Thanks again to Nantz and TheReel for all the CI updates over the last couple of weeks. This way my own CI S10 information collection could grow and grow.

You can find the article here: Q&A: Kathryn Erbe of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' - by David Martindale, special to dfw.com.

Posted 10:53am on Tuesday, May. 24, 2011

She can walk the walk. She can talk the talk. But Kathryn Erbe, one of the stars of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, freely admits that nearly a decade of playing a police detective has yet to rub off on her. In real life, Erbe says, she's still "too much of a wimp." If she were given a badge and gun and dropped off at an actual police station, Erbe estimates that she could blend in and look like she belongs for a few minutes. But it wouldn't take long before she gave herself away as a fraud. "I'd be wondering where the hair and makeup people are and who tells me what to do when the perp is coming at me and who do I hide behind," she says. "I can't even touch what the real guys do every day." Still, she has always been quite good at faking it as Det. Alexandra Eames, longtime partner to Vincent D’Onofrio's Det. Robert Goren. Goren and Eames were the original L&O: CI team when the show premiered in 2001, but they went missing in Season 9. Now they're back in what probably will be the farewell season, with episodes airing at 8 p.m. Sundays on USA. "I was devastated not to be doing the part all the way through," Erbe says. "But it's a huge joy to be back."

You were phased out in Season 9, because D'Onofrio wasn't doing Season 9. If it had been your choice, would you have stayed and teamed up with someone else?

"If Vincent wasn't my partner? I probably would have gone on to do it, but I wouldn't have been happy without him. So in hindsight, the way things happened, this is the perfect way for it to have gone down. I don't think that Eames would have been the same without Goren. This is what the audience loves to see and they made it very clear in their feedback: This is the team they wanted to watch."

What was the first day back on the set like?

"It was awesome. I felt actually very emotional being back. I was so glad. But I worried. I didn't know how it was going to be, whether we were going to be rusty or not. But my memory of it is just walking down from my dressing room onto the set, passing one person after another who I've known for 10 years, some longer, and it was really like coming home. It especially felt that way doing the things with Vince. It just was like riding a bike. We have done it for so long. I've now done this show for a quarter of my life. So we just have a shorthand and there's a lot of unspoken communication how we think the things should go. Plus, we have 95 percent of our crew back, really out of loyalty. They left jobs or they waited to come back and do these last eight episodes with us. It just has felt really, really wonderful."

How have you felt over the years about those handful of episodes in which the bad guys get away?

"I loved those, actually. I thought it was always interesting to mix it up a little bit, especially with Nicole Wallace [a frequent villain, played by Olivia d'Abo, who became Goren's arch nemesis]. Those were episodes I really looked forward to. 'What was Wallace going to be up to this time?' I wished that Eames could have been the one to take her down in defense of Goren, protecting him. But it didn't go that way."

When it's all said and done, is there something you'd like to take from the set as a memento?

"When I left the last time, I took what I wanted. I took the picture of my dog, Frieda, which I keep meaning to bring back. When we started shooting this show, the building we used was where they printed the New York Post. The reporters weren't there anymore, but we used a lot of their old paperwork as our prop paperwork. And there were three notebooks from the '50s and '60s in which the reporter kept a record of every expenditure. They were written in this impeccable script and I found them fascinating. I would spend so much time looking through them. I have them now and I'm never going to bring them back. Also, I would like to keep my badge if I could, but that would be illegal."

When the final episode airs, how would you like it to end for your character?

"I'd just really like for her to be happy. I don't want her to be killed. She's had a tough time in little ways here and there over the years. It would be nice for her to wrap everything up being a happier person."

Since starting LovelyKathryn and reading more online articles than ever before in my live I detected more and more that people copy from other writers. I remember too well the Vincent and Kathryn will come back to final season of CI. How many links we got with the same content...20?

But back to the current case: First we got these really amazing tweets over TV Tango to the Q&A with Kathryn and Jay O. Sanders happening May, 9th.

• On conf call w/ Kathryn Erbe & Jay O. Sanders of #LawAndOrderCI. Jeri Ryan guest stars on May 15 episode. About series: http://bit.ly/mP9P5r
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "No. I don't think Eames wanted that position. She is happiest when they're working 2gether, solving cases."
• Jay O. Sanders, #LawAndOrderCI: "I'm glad she didn't want the position [of captain] because then I wouldn't have a job."
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "When I was asked to step down 1.5 years ago, it really hit home how strongly people supported character & me"
• Jay O. Sanders & Kathryn Erbe #LawAndOrderCI have their kids in the same school.
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "I think when we returned initially Eames is a little concerned for Goren. Then her concerns are dispelled."
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "I loved those [eps where they don't catch the bad guy], actually."
• Jay O. Sanders, #LawAndOrderCI: "I played a lawyer & a perp on the mother ship as well. Whether I'm being evil or good is besides the point"
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "I felt very emotional being back. I worried. I didn't know if we'd be rusty or not. It was like coming home."
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "I was devastated not to be doing the part all the way through."
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "There is a crime we trace and get to see where Eames went to elementary school. We hang out with her Dad."
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "In a heartbeat" about whether she would do one more year.
• Jay O. Sanders, #LawAndOrderCI: "I would do anything I could to make it [another season] work out" around his theater commitments.
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "I think I'd probably be 2 much of a wimp. I'd b wondering where craft services are" about being on real force
• Kathryn Erbe #LawAndOrderCI: "When I left last time I took what I wanted." She took 3 notebooks of former reporter of Post, where they shot.
• Kathryn Erbe, #LawAndOrderCI: "I'm having spicy lemonade" for lunch. It's part of a diet. "and a fruit and nut bar."
• Jay O. Sanders, #LawAndOrderCI: "The first thing I thought of when I saw the early episodes was how much weight I had lost."
• #LawandOrderCI conf call w Kathryn Erbe & Jay O. Sanders is over. Jeri Ryan guest stars on May 15 episode About series: http://bit.ly/mP9P5r

I assume not only one reporter was calling. Two days later the same interview [the transcription of the phone call?] was online, written by Pattye Grippo (Paszas Entertainment Network) and Jamie Steinberg (Starry Constellation Magazine). This was the thrilling interview where Kathryn mentioned the binder project. I was so out of everything as I read it.

Q) Your role is so iconic and it’s become such a fan favorite, what would you like to say to everybody who’s been a supporter of Criminal Intent and yours as well?
Kathryn Erbe: I cannot thank everyone enough. This has been such an amazing experience. And it’s not - honestly, I have - since leaving the show I mean I was aware that people were enthusiastic but when I was asked to step down a year and a half ago was when I really - it really hit home for me how strongly people did support the character and me, especially this group that they collaborated on this - what they call the binder project. And they sent one to Vincent, to me and to Eric Bogosian. And when I received this sort of in the depths of my despair about not being on the show anymore it just really was - I was speechless. I was so moved by everyone’s support. It has been really just an amazing experience. I’m so, so grateful.

Maybe I'm too narrow-minded with the whole topic. But reading the new article today and seeing this special to... upset me. Yes, the author rearranged phrases and questions. He also added Kathryn's Nicole Wallace statement of the PIX talk with Tamsen Fadal, but it seams like not his own work.
You should be careful writing without to name the quotes. German misisters loose their jobs and academic degree, an EU parlamentary is on the same way...