It was the right time to go.

William Petersen (Gil Grissom) made up his mind to leave CSI: Crime Scene Investigation some time ago. "The decision wasn't made overnight," the actor told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I'd been talking to our showrunners about the best way to play it all out. Mostly, I just wanted to do it right. And I feel like we did. We've left the show in great shape. But it was time for me to go — to get back to the theater and use a different set of acting muscles."

"I started to feel like I wasn't an aggressive actor anymore," Petersen said of his nine years on CSI. "I admitted to the crew I was leaving because it had all become too safe. It's about challenging myself again. This job had run its course." The actor said his job for now would be on the stage. "I'll do a play about every six months for the immediate future and then see how things go from there," he shared. "It's good to get back into the theater. It had been a long time."

Even though he felt it was the right time to leave the crime drama, Petersen said there was "no question" that CSI was a blessing in his life. "It was, for me, a true collaborative experience, like the kind you find in the theater," he explained. "We were a dysfunctional yet very functional family. I leave it with no regrets."

The actor is no longer the leading man on the show, but he has not left completely. Petersen will stay on CSI as an executive producer, and he is open to occasional guest appearances in the future. "I think my job now will be to see that the writers and actors are in sync. I might start looking at some scripts down the road," he said. "But right now, I'm just going to take time off."

The original interview is from the Chicago Sun-Times.

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