Touches Of Home On 'CSI: NY' Set

Melina Kanakaredes Tells Hannah Storm How She Works Them In

(CBS) 

Last week's episode offered a rare glimpse at the personal life of Bonasera.

"My character has had a love interest who's a nice sculptor, seemingly wonderful," she told Storm. "She saw that he had been filming them having sex in his apartment which, as a detective, you know, it's kind of like the doctor who's a horrible patient. 'How did I not see this coming?' She was equally as angry at herself as she was at the situation.

"And horrified as a woman and as a person, having been violated in that way. And so, clearly, she breaks up with him right away."

Then Stella is attacked by him and ends up killing him — and then is booked for murder.

"What's amazing," Kanakaredes told Storm, "is that the whole process of turning the table on an actor, and on a character, on a person, is kind of what happens in life, which is sort of delicious: You now are the person who's being fingerprinted and questioned, and why did you shoot him three times when he was already dead at two bullets?

"My favorite line is, 'I just kept firing the gun until I felt safe.' And it's really interesting to see the vulnerability in a human being who's so tough all the time.

"It makes her better at her job because now, the person — victims — aren't going to be looked at by Stella the same way ever again."