Carrie on crime-fighting
Elsbeth star Carrie Preston reflects on leading a television series for the first time in a series that puts her character from The Good Fight in the spotlight, and considers the revival of case-of-the-week dramas and how she’s adjusting to being recognised in public.
With a career spanning almost four decades and including appearances in shows such as True Blood, Happyish, Person of Interest and Claws, US actor Carrie Preston admits she has no complaints about the supporting roles she has played. Yet throughout that time, she had always wondered what it would be like to lead a TV show of her own.
Now with Elsbeth, she is finally number one on the call sheet after the character she played in both The Good Wife and The Good Fight landed her own show.
“Oh, gosh, it’s such an honour,” she says, speaking at the Monte Carlo TV Festival. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve played the leads in movies before. I love TV, I love doing TV, I love watching TV, that’s what I love to do. But [I never thought] that would ever really happen, certainly at this point in my career, because I’ve been doing it for a long time and these opportunities just don’t come along that much. So it’s pretty profound, really.”
Produced by CBS Studios for the CBS network, Elsbeth follows Elsbeth Tascioni, an astute but unconventional attorney who utilises her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD.
After leaving her successful legal career in Chicago to tackle a new investigative role in New York City, Elsbeth finds herself jockeying with the toast of the NYPD, Captain CW Wagner (Wendell Pierce), a charismatic and revered leader. Working alongside Elsbeth is Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson), a stoic and ethical cop who quickly develops an appreciation for Elsbeth’s insightful and offbeat ways.
As spin-offs go, Elsbeth is a remarkable example, as the character made only 19 appearances across two shows that ran for a combined 13 seasons and 216 episodes. But what Preston believes makes the show “fun” is that it isn’t trying to repeat what The Good Wife and The Good Fight have already done. “This show is a police procedural. It’s not a legal, political show,” she says. “Already, tonally, we’re in a different world. It feels like a new show. So in a way it’s the same character, she’s consistently her, but it also feels new because I’m playing things that I never get to play in The Good Wife and The Good Fight.
“I’m not in a courtroom, I’m at crime scenes and I’m doing different things. It has a lighter tone than those two shows, so I get to lean into some of the comedy that I love doing, but also finding the heart of the character, finding the vibe of the character. In this situation, it has been fun to sustain it, to be living in the skin of the character for a whole episode as opposed to one or two scenes. It just feels exciting.”
When Elsbeth first appeared in The Good Wife, a show that debuted 14 years ago, Preston knew there was something “special and different” about her character. Even back then, she was described as a female Columbo. Now, the actor recognises that an entire Columbo-style show has been built around Elsbeth, as she becomes a fish out of water in a new world.
“The character is also a fish out of water in the television landscape, so it works hand in hand,” she notes. “Nobody expected this character to get a lead [role], yet it seems to be doing well. No one expects Elsbeth to come in and solve the crime, and this is what she’s doing. I like it that there’s a parallel between what’s happening and reality. No one expected Carrie Preston to lead a TV show on the network, and here I am. I relate to all of it.”
Launching in February this year, Elsbeth isn’t the first show on the box to return to the Columbo-style crime investigators who wrap up a new mystery in every episode. The Natasha Lyonne-led Poker Face probably takes that claim, but by the time that show debuted in 2023, Elsbeth was already in development.
Preston remembers being in “deep talks” about the show when they saw Poker Face air. “We were like, ‘Dang, shoot.’ We were already doing it, I promise,” she says. “It must be in the zeitgeist. People want to lean on that old-school structure because it’s comforting.
“We’ve had all these really wonderful, prestige, dark, long-arc TV shows. Now people’s attention span is so fractured with social media, but also just with the challenges of the day, that they want to watch something that’s cathartic. They can have a beginning, middle and end, and they can have some joy and see delights and positivity in the world.
“Something great about our show, too, is it’s all dealing with upper-crust criminals who are trying to get away with murder,” she adds. “And on our show, they don’t. So that’s good. That’s a good message.”
Elsbeth marks the latest series from husband-and-wife showrunning team Robert and Michelle King, the creators of The Good Wife and The Good Fight who also count Evil, The Bite and Braindead among their credits. Preston praises them as collaborative leaders who surround themselves with top talent while giving them the chance to thrive. One example is Jonathan Tolins, a writer who came up with them on The Good Fight and has now been given the chance to be the showrunner on Elsbeth.
“He runs the writers room, picks the writers and has the final say on things. [The Kings] have a say in it, but they’re also very trusting,” Preston says. “They trust the creative process and they know what it means to surround themselves with people who let them do their work.”
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The support for the team also extends to Preston. “With this role, they really let me run with it, in a way,” she says. “Sometimes people at the networks and studios can be a little prescriptive. But they’re not. They guide you, but they let you express yourself how you want. That’s fun. They do that with everybody. It’s pretty nice to see.”
However, she doesn’t feel the need to step up to the writers or directors with story points or character moments she feels might work for the show. “A lot of times, most of the time, I really love what they give me, and I feel like it’s our job as actors to do everything we can to make the script that we’ve been given work,” Preston says. “I don’t think it’s our job to give script notes. I know some actors would disagree with me.
“Because I’m also a director, I know the prep that goes in before we ever even show up. Some actors don’t know that. So I try to be respectful of all the work they’ve done before I show up, and I want to hear what the director and the writer’s ideas were because they’ve been spending months on that, or the directors have been spending a couple of weeks thinking about that scene way more than I have. Then if it still doesn’t fit right, we dialogue. That’s how I work.”
Preston has previously directed episodes of Claws, The Good Fight and Your Honor but doesn’t have any immediate plans to step behind the camera on the second season of Elsbeth, which will comprise 20 episodes – double that of season one. Instead, she is just focusing on playing the lead and, like the Kings, putting her trust in the team around her.
“I’m pretty happy with what’s happening,” she says. “The scripts are great. I love Jonathan Tolins. We get along beautifully, so that’s a relief, and the directors we get have been great so far. I’m just hoping that that will continue.”
The main challenge on the show, she reveals, is prepping one script while shooting another simultaneously. Playing the lead also means Preston doesn’t get a lot of downtime during shooting. “I’m holding two episodes in my brain at once, and that can be a little challenging, but luckily I’m a pretty good multitasker,” she jokes. “I’m not quite as good as Elsbeth, but I have learned how to manage that workflow in a way that is productive enough. It doesn’t drive me too crazy, but it is tough. You gotta make sure you take care of yourself, and make sure you if you are not getting your needs met, you need to ask. I’m kind of learning as I’m going.”
Preston is also learning to deal with receiving more public attention than she was ever used to as a supporting actor, something that is only going to increase as Elsbeth gains greater prominence at home and overseas. Paramount Global Content Distribution has sold the show to broadcasters including TF1 in France and Sky Witness in the UK.
“I’ve played so many different characters, so I’ve had the chameleon career, the illusionist career, and I feel grateful that I’m playing something people recognise,” she adds. “A lot of times, people don’t know my name, but they know Elsbeth. So I have a name; it’s just that it’s not always Carrie Preston. It’s Elsbeth, but I’m fine with that.”
tagged in: Carrie Preston, CBS, CBS Studios, Elsbeth, Michelle King, Paramount Global Content Distribution, Robert King, The Good Fight, The Good Wife