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How The Good Wife Provided Carrie Preston's Perfect Escape

How the hit CBS drama helped the Emmy-winning actress deal with her grief

By Chris Harnick Oct 16, 2014 1:30 PMTags
The Good WifeJeff Neumann/CBS

For Carrie Preston, slipping back into the eccentric role of Elsbeth Tasiconi on The Good Wife couldn't have come at a better time. The Emmy winner—she won in 2013 for playing the quirky lawyer on the hit CBS drama—had just lost her father when she returned to work on The Good Wife season six.

"This time around, my father had just passed away, and so I went right into shooting fairly quickly after that. It was a little bit more of a challenge this time because I was still—I am still—in the grieving part, but it was a fun time," Preston told E! News about reprising the character. "It was a great escape too, to get inside this person who is so different than me and just enjoy having a moment away from my own life. With Elsbeth, you really don't have room for anybody else's thoughts when you're playing her. You really have to stay focused on just her and spend time with her. Thankfully they gave me delicious things to do, so it was a welcome escape."

Preston has been playing the recurring role since 2010, but said it's still difficult to slip back into Elsbeth's skin because there's usually a gap between arcs.

"I hadn't done her in almost a year when I came back this time. It does take a moment to get adjusted to her mannerisms, her rhythms. Her rhythms are very specific, I've made the choice to make them quite quick and mercurial and so that does take a bit of a moment to get back into the swing of it," she said.

When Elsbeth returns to The Good Wife, she'll be squaring off against her friend and sometime client Alicia Florrick, an "uncomfortable" time for both of them. This is the first time Julianna Margulies and Preston have been on opposing sides of the courtroom.

Jeff Neumann/CBS

"Well, Julianna is just so extraordinary in that role and also as a person. She's very game and collaborative and supportive, but she's also formidable as Alicia, especially this season! She has just tapped into her power," Preston said. "It's really wonderful to watch, isn't it?…I've loved the evolution of her character. That's no different in this standoff against Elsbeth. Both of them are very strong, very smart women who have different ways of approaching their work. I think it's fun and exciting to see them square off against each other…I hope it will be fun for the fans because they know that both these women have their own ammunition and they'll be surprised in the methods that they both use to go up against each other."

When viewers last saw Elsbeth, she had just partnered up with Rayna Hecht (Jill Hennessy), a lawyer who was being sought after by Alicia and Will (Josh Charles) and Diane (Christine Baranski) in season five. Look for Rayna to be "baffled" by Elsbeth, but at the same time respect her because she delivers results. "These are both women who are ambitious and strong and very, very capable. They are both going to do whatever it is they need to do to win the case. I think that Rayna…is willing to take that leap of faith and trust that Elsbeth is on some kind of path that will lead to—hopefully—a victory."

Jeff Neumann/CBS

Preston and Hennessy also bonded off camera. "Really, what a wonderful person [Jill Hennessy] is. We had a great time. You spend these hours and hours doing courtroom scenes and you really get to know a person pretty quickly...She brought her guitar and we had little sing-alongs. That was really fun, to get a new friend out of it."

Preston's comeback also marks the return appearance of Kyle MacLachlan as AUSA Josh Perotti. Sparks flew the last time time those two were in the same room. It's safe to say they will again in this two-episode arc.

"They have met their match in each other, I think," Preston said of her character's love interest. "You would think that people who are so similar would not be so attracted to each other, but they are, and somehow in their alternate universe is very normal."

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Elsbeth has history with almost every single character on The Good Wife, including Kalinda (Archie Panjabi). "Elsbeth, really does, I think, wish she was Kalinda deep down. She's really fascinated by her! [Laughs.] I decided she was totally fascinated by everything that is Kalinda," Preston said of upcoming Kalinda scenes. "But yeah, there's not too much there, but it's always fun to think about what a lunch between the two of them would be like."

Preston's character is known for the comic relief. In the past she's tangled with an anti-Semitic bear, used a treadmill desk and ran down a track holding all of her belongings. This time? Penguins. That's all Preston would say. "Yeah, it's a very interesting and fun—I hope, for the fans—insight into what goes through Elsbeth's mind on her way to her revelations," she teased.

Even though you've been clamoring—we have been too!—there's been no headway on a spinoff or any more The Good Wife episodes this season for Preston.

"If it were up to me, I'd be there all the time," she said with a laugh. "So I keep my fingers crossed that they find a way to get her back there. I was very happy with these two, so if that's all they can spare this season, I'm pleased to have been a part of it already. "

As for the spinoff, it's just wishful thinking right now. "I wish that Twitter and all my fans were a network or a studio because I would already be in my fifth season of the spinoff," she said, laughing. "But no, no one who has any authority or anything like that has said anything to me, but I am so flattered that people enjoy the character so much that they want more. I guess it's that old adage, ‘Leave them wanting more.' I hope that I will continue to do that in the next couple of episodes."

The Good Wife airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBS.