David Caruso and the Sunglasses of Justice

CSI:Miami was the first spin-off series from the massive juggernaut television franchise that is Crime Scene Investigation. It was so successful it paved the way for another spin-off, CSI:New York.

Heading the team is Horatio Caine, played by David Caruso, who first entered popular consciousness when he starred in the first season of Steven Bochco’s NYPD Blue.

CSI:Miami is his first major TV hit since NYPD Blue. Caruso and his character Horatio Caine are now iconic, with his trademark shades (referred to on set as the “sunglasses of justice”) and cheesy lines during intro before The Who starts blasting.

The first episode of the latest season even featured a flashback that revealed how Caine first got his trademark shades. Now on its eighth season on AXN Asia, the show’s still going strong, with more explosive surprises in store.

We got to talk with the actor from his home in Los Angeles.

ON THE RADAR: You’ve created one of the most iconic characters in recent pop history, how much of a hand did you have in making this character?

DAVID CARUSO: I was able to kind of bring in some of the signature things that happened — sunglasses and so on, the look and the sound of the voice and the body posture. Those are the things that came to me in the early stages of creating the character and fortunately they fit in with the tone of the material and the direction of the show. It’s been a lot of fun, you know, ‘cause people have picked up on the character and every year more people do impressions of him and he seems to have been kind of included in the cultural lexicon here in the United States and around the world. But I hope it’s because he represents things that are important to people and I think that Horatio Caine makes people feel safe, you know, that he exudes a form of confidence and ability that says if you had a problem he would be somebody you might want to call on because he’s been that effective and been able to really help people and affect lives.

You mentioned that you brought the sunglasses to the character. Any specific reason — are you always in sunglasses offscreen as well?

I live in two places that have a lot of sun — Miami and California. I have light eyes and lighter eyes can be affected by extreme flare and sunlight. But I also use the sunglasses as a tool. I like to hide my eyes at crucial times in the hour because I don’t want people to know what I’m thinking, not unlike a card player in Las Vegas. You’ll notice a lot of the high stakes poker games, they’re all wearing sunglasses now ‘cause they don’t want the opponents to know what they’re thinking.

Well, conversely I don’t want the people I’m after, who have committed these horrendous crimes, to know what I’m thinking all the time either so there’s a lot of poker playing, a lot of strategy, a lot of approach that is designed to not give away our leverage as a team.

You’ve done crossovers with the other shows in the franchise. What’s the experience like?

Great! These are guys that bring real track records and can give real performances — they didn’t get to the level they’re on by accident, and it’s everything that you want as a performer to be challenged and raised to another level, and when you’re working with a man like Laurence Fishburne (of CSI) you are working with a real tower of strength, as you are with Mr. Sinise (Gary Sinise, of CSI: New York). That’s the fun of it, when you’re a little guy dreaming about motion pictures and you’re looking up to the screen, you’re thinking “I would love to connect to somebody on that level” and CSI has afforded us all the ability to do that because it’s attracted some heavyweight performers.

Have there been directions or extremes your character’s been brought to that have surprised you?

Yeah, we had a very challenging period where I fell in love and got married and it was very abrupt, the turn of events surrounding the death of Marisol was very abrupt, and shocking for all of us, so much so that we literally traveled down to Brazil to avenge her death. So Horatio was kinda teased by love and then it was ripped away from him and I think he’s still being affected by it today. And then he found out that he has a son, in fact, a 16-year-old son that he didn’t know about, and he has reconnected with him in the latest season and his son is now in the military. And so a lot of what he’s dealing with is out of his control, so I think there have been many directions that have really challenged him on so many levels.

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Catch Season 8 of CSI:Miami, Wednesdays, 11 p.m. on AXN Asia.

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The annual Silent Film Festival is upon us! A series of silent films with live music performed by local bands/musicians over two days, things kick off August 28 with the Italian film Assunta Spina scored by Caliph8 and the Japanese Kid Commotion scored by Radioactive Sago Project.

On August 29, Spanish Wine Cellars is scored by Tanglaw and Germany’s Berlin:Symphony of a Great City is scored by Out of Body Special.

I haven’t been disappointed by any of the films/performances I’ve seen over the last three years of this festival so do try to check it out for yourself.

All screenings take place at the Cineplex at Shangri-La Plaza. Tickets are free but can go fast. Go to http://www.ohmydaily.com/events to reserve yours.

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Ramon De Veyra blogs irregularly at http://www.thesecuriousdays.com but is more active on Twitter.