Melina Kanakaredes (Stella Bonasera) recently said her preparation for playing a crime scene investigator on CSI: New York opened her eyes to the harsh realities of the job.

"You want to know why people choose this field. That's my first question usually when I meet people who do this on a daily basis," Kanakaredes said in a video interview at CBS.com. "You pick out the different bits of pieces of those people whom you interview. You live with them and you go to their work and you feel what they feel and their energy."

The actress, who received two Daytime Emmy nominations for her performance on Guiding Light, is probably best known for playing Dr. Sydney Hansen in Providence. Living in the fast-paced city of New York, the pragmatic Detective Stella Bonasera certainly inhabits a different world from the idealistic Sydney Hansen, but Kanakaredes said she enjoys the wide variety of choice the acting profession allows her.

"Stella Bonasera is somebody who always knew this is what she wanted to do," the actress said. "As opposed to be the cliche where they're all brothers, she's the oldest sister and was forced at a young age to take control of being the head of the household. [She's a] very driven woman, very smart woman, takes it home, which probably isn't a good thing. And [she] has an amazing ability to be there for the people that are left behind."

This unique empathy which professional law enforcement officers have was something that hit home during the time Kanakaredes spent out on the front lines. "It's not so much the victim we find closure for, it's their family, the girl who's been raped, it's the mother that you deal with, or her father or her siblings or whomever is left behind." The actress said criminalists and police officers were "very heroic, amazing people [...] who I give such credit to because they deal with these things on a daily basis, which we as normal people don't have to think about and because of them we don't have to think about it."

To view the complete video interview with Kanakaredes, in which she also talked about her theatre days in New York and her experience as a synchronised swimmer, head over to the CBS Video page and select CSI: New York on the "Show" menu.

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