‘Elsbeth’: Carrie Preston Previews ‘Thrilling’ Process Behind ‘The Good Wife’ Spinoff (Exclusive)

It’s been eight years since The Good Wife ended and just over a year since The Good Fight. Now, fans of the franchise will be getting another series very soon, focusing on Elsbeth Tascioni. Carrie Preston is back as the titular attorney for Elsbeth, which takes things to New York City. The spinoff will see her taking on an investigative role and helping the NYPD with her unique point of view. Ahead of the highly-anticipated series premiere, Preston chatted with PopCulture.com about the new spinoff and finally having her own show after all these years. She admitted that it’s “very humbling.”  

“I have to say, I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve been acting for decades and have been very fortunate in my career. And I’ve played lead roles in movies, but it’s always been my dream to play a lead on a TV show,” Preston said. “And that’s a crazy dream when you’re a woman, especially a woman getting older. So it wasn’t like I would ever be disappointed if it didn’t happen, but because it has, it is not lost on me how extraordinarily humbling and thrilling it is. And I think I appreciate it now more than I probably would’ve or had, really… I would’ve appreciated it in my twenties, but I wouldn’t have had the history that I have to really understand how extraordinary it is. So, I’m approaching it with a great amount of gratitude and a great amount of joy.”

Fans were first introduced to Elsbeth Tascioni in the first season of The Good Wife and she soon became a fan-favorite. She appeared in 14 episodes of the CBS legal drama and five episodes of its Paramount+/CBS All Access spinoff. Preston explains that as Elsbeth was appearing in more episodes of The Good Wife, some people were telling her she should have her own series. “And I thought, ‘Well, that sounds great, but that’s not up to me. I’m just I’m just the actress playing her.” So, I wasn’t sure those stars would ever align,” Preston shared. “And then they moved on to The Good Fight, which is an incredible show, and I was very grateful that they brought me back for that to do some guest work and also to direct for them and just remain in that world with Robert and Michelle King and with all the brilliant writers on that show.”

“And then at the end of that, Robert and Michelle, during the pandemic, they started watching reruns of Columbo, and they thought that was when they got this idea, ‘Oh wait, that Elsbeth got a bit of that in her. She has an unconditional way of thinking, and people often underestimate her.’ So that was how they came up with the idea,” she said. “And luckily, CBS thought it was a good idea too, and they asked me if I wanted to do it. I was like, ‘Of course. Of course, I’m there.’ So here we are.”

Elsbeth is not your average lawyer, as she has unique methods and ways of solving cases, but she still proves herself every single time. Now that Carrie Preston is able to play her on a full-time basis rather than just occasionally every few seasons, she says that it’s been “really fun” digging deeper into her story since her “personality is pretty consistent.”

“It’s just now we’re in a completely different genre,” Preston explained. “We’re in a police procedural now. We’re not on a legal drama. We’re on a police procedural, and it’s a comedy on top of it. So we’ve got all of the new context around the very consistently surprising and unorthodox character. And so for me, it’s been fun to find the different layers to make sure that in the midst of all that, she’s still grounded and to lean into the comedy, but at the same time to really make sure that she’s still somebody who’s thinking and is on planet Earth. So it’s really fun to map that out as an actor, spend time with the text, and dig as deep as I can into it to find what’s going on around the text and not just what’s happening on the line. That’s always been the key to playing the role, is finding out what is actually going on between the line and the work.” 

It’s going to be exciting to see Elsbeth off in her own world, but it wasn’t as easy as some would think. Preston would “go for stretches, years, and not play her, and then I’d have to get back into her mindset very quickly.” She said, “And then, almost a year ago, we shot the pilot. It’ll be a year in March that we shot that pilot. And then we had this traumatic dual strike. Before we started shooting the series… We just started shooting. I went back and rewatched some of the old episodes, and I never do that, just because I wanted to refresh my memory. I didn’t really quite remember what I had done all those years ago. And that was interesting; it was watching something that I don’t even know. But it was interesting and helpful to see, ‘Oh, okay. Okay, I see how she deals with these situations.’ And that helped me to get back on the saddle for the series.” 

Carrie Preston will soon be back as the lovable attorney, and it’s going to be so great to see her back on screen again. For more than a single episode, as well. Make sure to tune into the series premiere of on Thursday, Feb. 29 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.