When George Eads (Nick Stokes) and pal Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) were fired last summer, no one was more surprised than Eads himself.

In the latest edition of TV Guide, the actor talked about what it felt to be discarded so easily. "You're made to feel like, 'Hey, there's somebody right behind you that can take your place. You're not important.'" Eads told the magazine. Despite the feelings that the firings brought, however, Eads admitted the event gave him a second wind. "It brought out the fire in me to work that much harder. To really go for it."

Eads wanted to appease the writers of CSI so much, that when news that his character would be buried alive surfaced, the actor took them with a nod. "I pretty much kept my mouth shut. I gave [guest director] Quentin Tarantino no calls. The producers: no calls. The way the whole season started, I just wasn't asking."

The actor stayed quiet even during Tarantino's most distressful ideas. When the script called for Nick Stokes to be buried alive and bitten by fire ants, the producers decided to use live crickets to simulate the animals. In order to prove himself, Eads lay in the coffin, covered in crickets, until Tarantino yelled cut. "I went a pretty long time," he says. "It really hurt. Those crickets have little hooks on their feet. So it was like 1,000 needles prickin' my face."

When it comes to the future of Nick Stokes after "Grave Danger," Eads has no information. But even if it gets worse than live crickets pricking at his skin, the actor has decided to take things gracefully. "[I'll take] whatever they throw at me."

Pick up the June 19th edition of TV Guide to read the rest of the article. Thanks to Al Forno for the heads up!

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