By TERRY MORROW
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Eva La Rue had a bad case of freshman jitters on "CSI: Miami."
"I was afraid I was going to be fired," she says of joining the cast last season. "I think they didn't know what to do with me."
Well, that was then. This is now.
For her second season as forensic investigator Natalia Boa Vista, La Rue has kicked into high gear. The writers eventually gave her a love life, with two men in the lab interested in her.
This season (airing 10 p.m. EST Mondays, CBS), her abusive ex-husband, also a crime-scene expert, has resurfaced.
And to top it off, Natalia was revealed to be a secret government mole, sent to sniff out another mole within the CSI organization. Sure, her "CSI" teammates were angry about the deception, but they got over it.
Now, La Rue's worries have been calmed.
Getting to that place wasn't easy. "I remember reading the script where I found out I was the mole," she says. "I was drinking my coffee, and I thought, 'I think I just lost my job.' I called my manager because I was so worried."
She was relieved when the producers assured her everything would work out.
Don't blame La Rue for being antsy. In her personal life, she's been in an uneasy transition during the past couple of years.
Before snagging "CSI: Miami," she was a star of ABC's "All My Children" for 12 years. She played put-upon heroine Maria Santos Grey, a doctor who survived failed romances, an airplane crash and amnesia.
On the soap, she was paired with her real-life husband, John Callahan. They have a daughter. When their marriage ended, La Rue left the soap, packed up her belongings and moved from New York City back to her native California with her daughter. She wanted a fresh start.
"I moved back home with no job," she says. "It was scary. I didn't know how I was going to support myself."
But she says she knew it was the best thing to do. "I was back home. It felt right," she says.
However, it wasn't easy. Money was tight. The 39-year-old La Rue knew the competition for roles was higher in Los Angeles. She even considered a return to daytime.
La Rue put out feelers to work to "General Hospital," which also airs on ABC. "It's one of my favorite soaps, and I did play a doctor," she says.
The show wasn't interested. "It was my biggest smackdown," she says. "I was nominated for (Daytime) Emmys. Talk about an ego squash."
La Rue auditioned for "CSI: Miami," and is grateful to have the job. She says she's getting better about not worrying so much about the future.
"This whole thing is so daunting," she says. " ... but I think I'm figuring this whole thing out."
