Carrie Preston didn’t think she’d ever be headlining her first television series, much less as a character she’s played off and on for 15 years. The seasoned actress, whose small-screen resume is filled with memorable supporting parts in “True Blood” and “Claws,” first played Elsbeth Tascioni in 2010 in “The Good Wife.” She was an eccentric but brilliant lawyer with unconventional methods of solving tough cases. The character’s unique tics, scatterbrained quips and sunny disposition made her a fan favorite, winning Preston her first guest-actress Emmy in 2013. She reprised the role in the spinoff “The Good Fight,” where she directed two episodes.
When creators Robert and Michelle King gave Preston her own star vehicle with CBS’ “Elsbeth” — a “Columbo”-inspired “howdunit” police procedural — the 57-year-old actress was more than ready for the opportunity.
“This is definitely my dream job,” Preston said of playing the titular heroine, who is now a consultant for the New York Police Department, where she was working with her best friend, Kaya (Carra Patterson). “This is something I’ve wanted and hoped to get, but never really dreamed that I would at this stage in my life. So the fact that it’s happening now makes me appreciate it maybe more than had it happened in my 20s.”
Building on years of guest work in “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” led Preston to be reinvigorated by her character. For more than a decade, Elsbeth was there “to serve another show” and “brought on when the other characters needed somebody to save the day, so to speak,” the actress said. Now there was room — and, more importantly, time — for Preston to inject more depth and dimension into Elsbeth.
“I’m not the side dish anymore, I’m the main course,” she said.
The series delves into Elsbeth’s personal life, notably her dynamic with her gay son, Teddy (Ben Levi Ross), who was referenced throughout “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” but never seen. “To make him a fully fleshed character and to see what Elsbeth is like as a mom, to see her maternal instincts, to see their relationship blossom, the writers didn’t make the obvious choices,” Preston said. “There was just enough conflict but not enough for it to be stereotypical, like an overbearing mom. These two people love and respect each other; they’re similar but also vastly different.”
It also opened the door to a (literal) murderers’ row of talent who have funneled through the show to play ball, from Mary-Louise Parker as a decluttering guru and Tracey Ullman as a professional psychic to Stephen Moyer as a homicidal theater director and Preston’s husband, Michael Emerson, as an adversarial judge. Preston, though, is partial to Eric McCormack’s chilling turn as the charismatic founder of a holistic wellness center in Episode 9 of Season 2.
“It was a different world,” she said. “Shooting outside [New York City], it added a freshness to it. It had such a wonderful range of comedy and drama. When our show rides that line, it’s at its best.”
“Elsbeth” also earns originality points when it gets a little weird. Case in point: the Season 2 finale’s hallucinatory musical number reuniting many of the series’ memorable killers. “It was certainly something I didn’t think we would ever get to do, but at the same time, it fits right into the tone of the show,” she said with a smile.
With two seasons of “Elsbeth” under her belt, Preston thinks she’s just scratching the surface of her character. She has plenty on her wish list for Season 3.
“More relationships with people,” Preston said. “Seeing how Elsbeth deals with her best friend going to another job — what’s going to fill that void, if anything? Deepening the relationship with Teddy and seeing if there could be more of a romance with Angus (played by Ioan Gruffudd). But mostly, digging into the work. That’s what this show is about — a woman reinventing herself through her work.”
This story first ran in the Drama issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
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