Logo text

Elsbeth Tascioni has wrapped her final case of the season. While the critically acclaimed CBS hit has settled into what feels like an effortless groove, propelled by its charmingly quirky eponymous hero and the best guest-cast on TV — this season alone featuring standout villainous turns from the likes of Stephen Colbert, Dianne Wiest, Amy Sedaris and Steve Buscemi — it remains a marathon for star Carrie Preston. A marathon she’s grateful for, to be sure — but as demanding a gig as she’s ever had. The True Blood and Claws alum, who won an Emmy for playing Elsbeth in her previous iteration on The Good Wife, remains dynamite in her first-ever lead TV role after decades of supporting and guest parts — as original and unusual a protagonist as you’d expect to find on broadcast network.

The season three finale saw Elsbeth’s son Teddy (Ben Levi Ross) movingly propose to his boyfriend, Roy (Hayward Leach). Kaya (Carra Patterson) returned again after being absent most of the season, undercover and overlapping with Elsbeth’s case of the week. And Patti LuPone proved to be one hell of a guest-star-note to go out on, portraying a cabaret singer holding onto her beloved New York apartment for dear life.

In an exclusive post-finale conversation below, Preston reflected on Kaya’s season three absence and why we might see more of her going forward, how LuPone made her cry, and why she’s relieved that going forward, Elsbeth will be classified as a comedy at the Emmys. 

***

Was there a guest star this season where you were like, “I cannot believe I’m acting with this person right now” while working? 

So many of those, but I will say Dianne Wiest. Hannah and Her Sisters, her performance in that, it’s just something that is indelible in my brain and everything since. I was such an epic fan of hers. And then to look in her face, be able to act with that face? Poor thing, she had to wear a nun’s habit all day long. We were shooting in this church in Hamilton Heights and it was not the most comfortable set. But she was a dream. 

You also get Patti LuPone singing to you in the finale.

I don’t know how they edited it, but she made me weep.

It’s there. It just speaks to what the show is overall — it’s not too common in network TV where you can have this long moment of watching you overcome with emotion at the sight of Patti LuPone singing.

That moment was one of those where I zoom out and look at my life through the eyes of the little-girl me. I said to Patti’s face, “I don’t know what I did in life to be so lucky to have someone like you come and do this show with me. I don’t know.” I have that moment with so many people. Tracey Ullman came onto our show a second time, playing a completely different character. I’m so proud of us that we’re a show that can do that. [Showrunner Jonathan] Tolins was saying he’d like to see an entire season of Elsbeth where Tracey Ullman plays all the villains. A lot of the audience won’t even know that that’s a different actor — that’s how good she is — but especially on a network show, which tends to sometimes be a little more tentative. “What we know works” and “don’t do anything new.” Hats off to CBS for saying you can be creative in the network space, and they’re letting us do that.

The finale had a few meta touches, but one of them was the simultaneous airing of the fictional procedural Father Crime, which had appeared on Elsbeth previously. There’s a line about how they shoot in New York, so they get all the best guest actors.

That’s what I love about the writers, they always like to put little moments in there where the audience is aware that we are aware that we’re doing a show. It’s a touch that elevates it from your traditional procedural. 

It was nice to see Kaya back in the finale too, in a new secret identity. How did it feel doing the season with a lot less of her at least, only three episodes total?

Oh, I miss her. I miss her so much. I love it when she’s there. But I think everything happens for a reason. Carra just had another child and was able to be with the family, and those hours are long. It was great she got that time and then when she came back, she was ready to be back. Hopefully we’ll have her back more next season. I know she wants to. But it’s also been wonderful for the character because we see what that friendship means to her by it being absent. It’s such a welcome thing when Elsbeth gets her back. And also for the Kaya character, she gets to be in an interesting and dangerous thing on her own. Elsbeth wants Kaya to thrive.

What were you excited to explore with Elsbeth as a character this season?

I really liked what we did with Alec the mayor-elect (Ivan Hernandez), and dealing with somebody who she has an extreme attraction to but realizes that she has a blind spot. The writers don’t really give Elsbeth a blind spot much. That made Elsbeth more vulnerable. I always like to find the vulnerability in the character.

Is there anywhere you hope the show goes in season four, along those lines?

It would be fun to see family. Maybe meet a parent, a mother or something. Peel back that layer. We’ve seen her as a mother. We’ve seen her as a girlfriend and in an intimate relationship. We’ve seen her as a best friend. Let’s see her as a daughter. I think that would be really fun. And then of course, I’m sure we would have a really fun time casting that.

The possibilities feel endless there. 

Well, I once did a play many, many years ago, and Mia Farrow played my mother. That worked out pretty well, and I feel like you could see Mia Farrow as Elsbeth’s mother. I could also see Bette Midler. But we’ll see. We’re just happy to have season four.

I’m curious: What was your first regular TV role on a network show?

I did my fair share of network pilots, some of which would have a short season. It was a show called Emeril starring Emeril Lagasse. It was a long time ago. I think we shot 13 episodes and they only aired maybe 11. They cast the chef, Emeril, as the lead of a sitcom. He’s not an actor. It was 2001. It found a niche audience. But they surrounded him with actors: Lisa Ann Walter, Sherri Shepherd, me, Robert Ulrich. They got Emeril a little acting coach, and we would all help him with things and we would tell him how to deliver a line and whatever. Then he would make us food.

So here on Elsbeth, then, you’re finally in the lead. How did you find the pace of leading it? How have you settled into it over the years?

It was really overwhelming at times just because of the sheer hours, and also the pressure that I was trying to not feel too much and just concentrate on the work. But nonetheless, the pressure is there for the show to find an audience and be successful. Even though we did only 10 episodes in season one, it meant I was doing a lot of double duty. I was doing a lot of press to promote it because people were like, “What?” Either you watched The Good Wife and you knew who that character was, or you didn’t. A lot of our audience came to us having not ever seen those shows, which I thought was great. They still liked it and wanted to watch it. But it just meant I was trying to play the role in the best way I knew how.

It’s also just, the culture of being a lead is being a hostess all day long, because I at least want to lead the show in a collaborative, ensemble kind of way. That includes making the crew feel welcome, making every person who comes to our cast — even if they have one line — feel welcome by taking care of them. That takes a lot of energy on top of playing Elsbeth. But Elsbeth is a very energetic, caring person, so luckily both of those things coexist. But the hours were long. We were also figuring out how to shoot it in eight days on season one, and we really couldn’t because the scripts were a little bigger. And they would shoot the murder [cold open] while I was finishing up on the previous episode. So season one pretty much wrecked me physically.

But it worked. 

We saw that people were liking it and when they picked us up for a second season, it was one of the most exhilarating moments in my life, being able to tell the crew. I did it on camera during a take. They took Wendell [Pierce] and myself and Carra [Patterson] into a separate room, and they said, “We’re going to get a pickup. They’re going to announce it in half an hour.” I was like, “We have to tell the crew.” Wendell was like, “Let’s do it on camera.” So we figured out a place in the scene where I could tell the crew. They were all watching and the director didn’t know, nobody knew. It was a serious scene between me and Wendell, and I got up and went around to his side of the desk and everybody was like, “What the heck is going on? Not how we rehearsed it.” I was like, “No, you don’t have to find a new job because you have one and you have one and you have one! Because we just got picked up for season two!” It was literally the greatest privilege of my life.

I interviewed Donna Lynne Champlin earlier this year, and she guest-starred on Elsbeth last season. She told me the biggest lesson she’d learned as a frequent guest star is to take her cues from no. 1 on the call sheet. I’m sure you took that wisdom to heart, as someone who spent most of her career in guest and supporting parts. 

I’ve seen and learned from what works and what doesn’t. I do make it my mission to really make sure that no one ever feels unwelcome. It’s just extraordinary how many times I’ve walked on the set and no one has said a word to me.

Wow. Really?

It’s just so weird. Everybody’s in their own world. I get it, it’s tough, but it’s not hard to do that. 

I mean, I learn a lot every day. The crew will tell you I’m a little hard on myself sometimes. I have set a really high bar for myself and when I feel like I haven’t achieved that, I can get upset with myself. I want it to be fantastic. Then it’s hour 12 and I’m doing a five-page monologue and my brain breaks. It’s okay. It happens to literally everyone. I can be okay with that and just sit in that and go, “Sorry, everybody, give me a second and let me go back and start it again.” But I come from theater, so it’s just ingrained in me not to do that. I’ve learned how to pace myself. I have a real method now that works where I can do it, but then I give myself a tiny bit of time off only on a Saturday where I’ve got to rest the brain because before I was just, every day all the time. You can’t sustain that in any job.

I’m not a kid anymore. Sometimes I’ll come up with what I like to call “Elsbeth bits,” and then I’ll go, “Oh shit, I have to do this now 500 times on all the different angles and I will have to amend it. I can hurt myself.” I have to be careful.

Describe an Elsbeth bit for me. 

An Elsbeth bit is: Why walk into a room where you could slide? Or if I walk into a room — and the production and set designers now know this — I will find something that I’ll need to then put into the shot and do a scene. Not paying much attention to what I’m doing with this [grabs table centerpiece], but just knowing that some part of me is really enjoying playing with this. Her DNA is about being able to think one thing, say one thing, and do another thing with your body.

Do you feel content just focusing on this role right now, especially given how demanding it is? Or are you looking to see what else you could do in between?

This is plan A, so I kind of want to make sure that I am enjoying that, doing it as well as I can and taking care of myself in the process. I’m not really pursuing other things. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it if something wonderful came along during the hiatus that would be potentially great. But it just hasn’t happened so far. I want to make sure that I’m playing Elsbeth Tascioni in the best way, where I can give it my all and not get too overwhelmed or overrun or whatever. I was offered a play. I haven’t done a play in a really long time, and that’s my first love. But I would’ve started rehearsals when I wrapped and then I would’ve finished performances when I went back. And I just thought, “That’s a lot.” Also, I feel like my husband [actor Michael Emerson] would maybe be ready to move on to someone else. (Laughs) He’s been very patient.

He’s had his fair share too of these periods too, though, right?

Yeah. But I thank God for him because he’s really running our lives. I’m gone all the time. He’s so supportive and he’s so happy for me.

I want to ask you about the show’s reclassification at the Emmys as a comedy. I first interviewed you for this show years ago, before the series premiere, and back then you described it as a comedy. So I imagine you’re like, “This makes sense.”

Oh yes. I was very happy and grateful that CBS and the producers and everybody petitioned for it, and that all the awards shows agreed. At the very beginning, when I heard that we were in the drama category, I was like, “Oh, okay. Well, if y’all want any awards, they’re not going to happen. Mark my words.” I just said it and they were like, “Oh, no, no. We think, because you won the Emmy before and it was in a drama…” I was like, “But I’m a comedic character.” I don’t like to be right about something like that. But once we got going, I think everybody realized, “There’s no way we can be in the same category as The Handmaid’s Tale. Not that we’re in it to win an award — I do feel grateful and the show’s had success, and I also already did get that award for playing her. But it was very affirming when the Critics Choice Awards, the first awards show after we got into the comedy category, nominated us. It was validating.

Without naming names, you are funnier than many shows that have been competing in the comedy categories, some of which are also great shows. 

Oh, yes. I know what you’re saying. The Academy can be partial to the streamers, but I’m just glad that we’re officially holding down the hour-long comedy category on CBS. There’s precedent for it. 

When we first spoke, you called getting this part a dream come true. How does that land with you, three years later?

Every day I walk on set, I remind myself that this is a miracle. I don’t want to ever get too used to it. If I’m exhausted or whatever, I’ll say, “This is a miracle.” That gets me out of it. If I’m like, “Oh my God, I’m not going to be able to memorize all this.” I go: “This is a miracle.” It’s this wonderful mantra to keep going back to because it is a miracle. It is miraculous. When a show gets made well, gets promoted well, gets to the audience and they receive it — so many things have to fall in place for that. So that’s the way I think about it: as a miracle.