Q 6

PLAYBOY: What's the toughest thing about living with you?

David Caruso: I want things done my way. I know how it should be, every little detail, and I'm not good at bending to other people's methods. I load the dishwasher my own way, I do the laundry my own way. I'm working on this problem. Hourly.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: We have talked about King of New York with nearly all of your co-stars and asked them to help women understand its appeal to men. What is your take?

David Caruso: It's like an urban version of The Wild Bunch. Quite a few gunshots. A lot of testosterone. The thing about King of New York is the cast. For Abel Ferrara to put all those people--Walken, Snipes, Fishburne and me--into the same movie for a total budget of $8 million says quite a bit about the project and about the people who have come out of it.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: Care to explain Christopher Walken?

David Caruso: You really meet Chris Walken on the other side of "Action!" When you're dealing with him face to face, Chris is kind of eccentric. He is everything but eccentric when you meet him on the other side. You get to grip the floor on the first few takes because you can't be prepared.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: Let's say you had access to NYPD Blue co-creator David Milch's dream state. What plot line for Detective Kelly would you suggest?

David Caruso: Eventually, he'd leave the police force. Sometimes I flirt with the possibility of Kelly going into public life. There's a horizon beyond the 15th Precinct for him. But because of the responsibility he feels, he hasn't allowed himself yet to dream past his badge. Sometimes I wonder if Kelly is completing his father's life out of some sense of duty. Milch's twist on it would be to make Kelly go through a serious crisis and attempt to move on and really get to the bottom of the issue. Then David would have him discover that, in fact, he should be a police officer. He would choose it on his own.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Your boss, Steven Bochco, is known for his eloquence and his ability to be elliptic. What's the fewest words he's been able to use when answering an important question?

David Caruso: "Fuck'em."

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Which episode was hardest for you to leave at the office?

David Caruso: Episode 12, when Licalsi walks into a tavern and breaks up with Kelly. I was sitting at the bar and she said, "You can't take me back, can you? Based on all of this and who you are, I can't come back." Then she got up and said, "Bye, Johnny," and she walked out. That killed me. Licalsi was there for Kelly at the lowest moment in his life, and then she made a mistake. And it built up over 12 episodes, which is like six movies. So Amy and I had this whole arc going, and then it crashed. I suddenly realized that maybe we would never do another scene together, and that was a loss. A real relationship took place on camera. As performers we jelled, and it just went poof! As a result, we really were vulnerable that night. It's harsh. And there's not much I can do about it. I can't say, "We have to continue this relationship or I'm walking off the show," because the way the series is structured, these things have to happen. Since then we pass each other in the precinct house and stuff, but it's not the same. We don't work on the same days anymore, we're not in the same story lines. In a funny, sad way we truly have broken up.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: Licalsi's mistake involved killing two mobsters, partly as self-protection, partly to save you. To what lengths would you go, if you could get away with it, for the ones you love?

David Caruso: I would be willing to go pretty far, especially if my children were involved. I never have taken things sitting down. I'm not going to end up a victim on the six o'clock news if it's the last thing I do. The unfortunate part about our society now is that you can't be naive about how high the stakes are and how venomous the competition is. You have to be prepared.