Transcipt: [adapted from Closed Captioning]

Craig Kilborn: Our next guest is a talented actor appeared in the series "Dark Skies," "Magnificent Seven" and "Now And Again." He currently stars in the hit drama, "Without A Trace" which airs Thursday nights at 10:00 on CBS.

[A scene from the "Without A Trace" episode "Our Sons and Daughters"]

Craig Kilborn: Please welcome back to the show, Eric Close!

[Applause]

Craig Kilborn: How you doing?

Eric Close: I feel great. Hey, I watched that replay back there.

Craig Kilborn: Yes.

Eric Close: Your man ducked.

Craig Kilborn: He did a little bit.

Eric Close: He ducked.

Craig Kilborn: A little but still--

Eric Close: The duck move.

Craig Kilborn: Yeah, maybe he did. We will get him. We will get him. How have you been?

Eric Close: Good. How about those Lakers, huh?

Craig Kilborn: Laker pride. Laker pride. We will bring that championship back.

Eric Close: Yes, sir.

Craig Kilborn: No, we're not. It's not going to happen. Sadly. Now let me ask you something, you are a Knicks fan. Aren't you a Knicks fan?

Eric Close: I like the Knicks.

Craig Kilborn: Where did you grow up?

Eric Close: What? Well -- San Diego, but we don't have a team.

[Audience cheering]

Eric Close: Wooooo!

Craig Kilborn: I've never asked you this before. How did you get into acting?  Why did you make that decision? 

Eric Close: Well, I wanted to direct and so I was at USC, was going to film school and working on this student film and it was a medieval piece and so we had huge horses and knights in shining armor and I was a camera assistant, working my way up. And we called action and these four huge horses with knights in shining armor come running down this path and a Ford Taurus goes by in the background. Of course, there was no Ford Taurus in the medieval days. So we yell "Cut! Cut!" and the guy runs out, this overeager assistant director runs out and yells "Cut!" like this in front of the horses and the horses have to go either right which is the cliff or left to the camera. So these four horses come running through camera and just destroy me and the cameraman. Just killed us. I take off running and the eye of this horse is right here. And the next thing, just, boom! I am laid out flat and the next thing I know I am in an  ambulance and my head is taped down and I look at my buddy, his eyes are fluttering like this and we were holding hands.

Craig Kilborn: Yeah?

[Audience laughs]

Craig Kilborn: Oh, you had to become an actor then.

Eric Close: Yeah, I had to become an actor. Yeah.

Craig Kilborn: So you say you are fearful of being a director?

Eric Close: The only guys that didn't get hurt were the guy on the horses. They were the actors and--

Craig Kilborn: So you said - -

Eric Close: So I said I am on the wrong side of the camera. That's for me!

Craig Kilborn: It's interesting that you decided to be an actor at a -- at a young age, I want to be a director and you had no desire to be on the screen?

Eric Close: Well, I did plays when I was growing up but I went to U.S.C.And it's a business school and everyone was going into business. I still want to direct, no question. That is part of my goals.

Craig Kilborn: They'll let you direct "Without A Trace" one time, won't they?

Eric Close: We'll see. We'll see.

Craig Kilborn: Come on, you're one of the power players on that show. And that show by the way is huge now.

Eric Close: You said it, number one show in the world.

Craig Kilborn: Is that what I said?

Eric Close: Yeah. Right? Number one show in the world.

[Applause]

Craig Kilborn: Let's see. I guess we all had odd jobs before our careers took off. You were working in a bank?

Eric Close: I can't talk about that with you, man.

Craig Kilborn: What?

Eric Close: I can't talk about the odd jobs. I can talk about a couple of them.

Craig Kilborn: Banking?

Eric Close: Yeah, yeah. I was a banker.

Craig Kilborn: Teller?

Eric Close: Yeah, I was a bank teller.

Craig Kilborn: What does that involve?

Eric Close: You know I actually thought about-- I was the merchant teller and so I was responsible for ordering all the cash for the bank. You know, it's tempting, man, when they bring in loads of cash. Like $300,000.

Craig Kilborn: What do they do, do they have a thing to sign?

Eric Close: Oh, yeah. You tell the branch manager how much money you need and the guys come in with the guns and bring in 250 or whatever you need. We were in the World Bank downtown, which is that tall building in downtown L.A.

Craig Kilborn: What if you steal like a $20? That's okay, right?

Eric Close: That's cool. That's cool. It's lunch. It's lunch money. You write it off. Slush fund.

Craig Kilborn: Did you ever get held up?

Eric Close: Yeah, yeah, I did.

Craig Kilborn: Now wait a second, I was joking.

Eric Close: No, I did.It was a sort of a holdup. What ended up happening-- there's all these rules, if you are a bank teller. If someone comes in and tries to hold you up you are supposed to give them the money, let them go and push the button.

Craig Kilborn: Push the little button underneath that we see in the movies?

Eric Close: Yeah. I am human, man. If someone pulls a gun on you, you're going to take off.

Craig Kilborn: Wait, wait, wait.

Eric Close: What? So ---

Craig Kilborn: Wait, wait. What do you mean, you ran?

Eric Close: No.

Craig Kilborn: You took off?

Eric Close: I didn't run, man. I was standing there and I look up and there's a lady standing in line and she's got her hand inside of a paper bag and she's kind of shaking and immediately I am like, this lady is going to rob me. I knew it before. And she is like two people back. And we hadn't even pushed the button, like ding, where the next person comes up. Please don't let her be my window. And she comes to my window and as she is walking up -- just before she gets there, her lips start to open to say 'I...' -- and I said 'I'll be right back' and I took off.

[Audience Laughing, Cheering]

Craig Kilborn: Okay. This really happened, but you can change it a little bit to save face here. I mean, you can act like you were the man and--

Eric Close: No, I went to get my uzi. No, anyway, so I walk down and I get the manager and I said hey, there's this lady at my window, I thinks she's kind of weird or whatever. Come on back. And she said, okay. So as we're walking back, she stops to help somebody else with a problem and I didn't realize that so I get back to the window and said 'Uh, Ma'am…' and my manager is not there and I look back and she looks right in my eyes and says, 'I got a gun.' And I looked down at the bag and I said, 'I'll be right back.'And I took off again.

[Audience Laughing and Clapping]

Eric Close: I'm not proud. I'm not proud. I admit it.

Craig Kilborn: Wait. When you press the button, don't they come?

[Applause]

Eric Close: I didn't -- I didn't press the button.

Craig Kilborn: I am thinking in my head. What I would-- I would-- This may be wussy as well. I would duck down -- I would hit the floor and press the button and let the security guards come in.

Eric Close: You see, the problem I have with that is these counters are not big and they can jump over and boom, boom, boom.

Craig Kilborn: Oh, oh, oh. Then that makes sense. 'I'll be right back.' So what happened?

Eric Close: She took off. She freaked out. And she knew I was up to something. She was afraid of my tactics.

Craig Kilborn: So, when you say 'I'll be right' back twice, that scares people off.

Eric Close: Yeah. They thought I was crazy.

Craig Kilborn: 'I'll be right back.' 'He's crazy. He's going to keep leaving and I won't be able to steal any money.' That's a good story though. 

[Applause]

Craig Kilborn: Well, listen, we are out of time, but at the end of the show you want to spin the wheel?

Eric Close: I want to spin that wheel. Yeah.

Craig Kilborn: "Without A Trace," on CBS on Thursday nights. Big hand for Eric Close.

[Applause]

Craig Kilborn: We'll be right back with Rufus Wainwright.

[After the commercial break, Eric Close spins the Price is Right wheel and comes very close to the $1.00 mark]

[Applause]

Craig Kilborn: Closest so far.