EXCLUSIVE: CBS‘ Elsbeth is gearing up to introduce the latest addition to its recurring cast, Michael Emerson, who will play a foe unlike any the show’s titular heroine has ever faced.
On December 12 at 10 p.m. in the Season 2 episode titled, “One Angry Woman,” Emerson’s character, the unusually difficult Judge Milton Crawford, has the pleasure of meeting Carrie Preston‘s Elsbeth, a brilliant legal mind who ends up in his courtroom when she becomes a true New Yorker by serving jury duty. The murder trial easily nudges Elsbeth—currently working as a consultant for the NYPD— back into lawyer mode, a throwback to the character’s The Good Wife years. Unfortunately for Crawford, Legal Eagle Elsbeth is fierce and will cause unnecessary headaches for him.
Deadline has your first look at Preston and Emerson, who have been married irl for nearly three decades, in Elsbeth. Below is a Q&A about their collaboration on the dramedy and the potentially dangerous dance their characters partake in this season.
Carrie Preston and Michael Emerson in the Elsbeth episode, “One Angry Woman”
CBS
DEADLINE: You’ve co-starred in Person of Interest previously, how did this latest collab come together?
CARRIE PRESTON: Journalists always asked me who I would want to be on the show because we have such extraordinary guest stars. So, of course, I said, “Oh, it would be fun to have Michael.” I won’t say it was my idea because anyone is lucky to have Michael. Our showrunner Jon Tolins, and [show creators] Robert and Michelle King wanted to find something tailor-made for Michael, so they found Judge Crawford.
DEADLINE: This Judge Crawford is quite the character. You have played some baddies before and Crawford is definitely one of those. What insight can you give into what he brings to the series?
MICHAEL EMERSON: He’s haughty and ambitious. He’s kind of an Ivy League, blue-blood. He’s a person who thinks highly of himself, and he appears to crave higher office, and he’ll do just about anything to make that happen.
DEADLINE: Carrie, Elsbeth crosses paths with Judge Crawford when she is assigned as an alternate juror on a murder case in his courtroom. She returns to her legal roots after becoming frustrated with the defense team’s attorney. Did you enjoy doing that again?
PRESTON: I’ve been really excited since we started doing Elsbeth to find an opportunity to see her in her legal sweet spot, her comfort zone. You see her in that world again, the legal world. She’s usually the smartest person in the room and uses that to great advantage. In this case, she has met her match with this judge. And it’s always fun to play Elsbeth get thrown off her game and see how she gets back in the game. Michael’s character definitely does that for her. When the show has a little bit of danger, it always ups the stakes.
CBS
DEADLINE: Michael, Elsbeth proves to be a real thorn in the side of Judge Crawford and it throws him for a loop. Would you say she keeps him on his toes?
EMERSON: Oh, yeah. I think he’s been a judge for so long, that he’s used to never being questioned. He feels he’s kind of a law unto himself, like everyone he underestimates. Elsbeth, when she came through voir dire, he thought, “Ah, here’s another daffy, manipulable woman. I’ll get her in there and she’ll be putty in my hands.” But he will be dismayed to find that she is a legal prodigy and not awed by authority figures.
DEADLINE: Without giving away too much, Elsbeth and the Judge will go toe-to-toe on this case. What was it like to play that out?
EMERSON: It is fun. I have to say that it’s a little more after work because part of me is having to set aside the fact that I know Carrie and that I actually got out of bed that very morning with her. So I have to erase that and that takes some mental power. I have to pretend that she’s someone I don’t know but in fact, it’s a character named Elsbeth Tascioni.
PRESTON: The fun thing about working with Michael is that, we’ve been together for 30 years. We’ve been married 26, so we have this ease with each other. We didn’t even talk about the scenes at home and we didn’t work on them together. We did the minimum, we just ran the lines for words in the van on the way to work to make sure we knew the lines. And then we just showed up and were able to put each other’s performances in the other’s hands.
EMERSON: We’re so in the habit of leaving the other one alone with their work. We don’t rehearse together. I don’t help her out, as if she needed it, and she doesn’t help me out. We just keep our professional stuff separate and private, sort of.
CBS
PRESTON: It was very fun to show up and see what Michael had cooked up as this judge. I didn’t know what he was going to do with it. He, of course, has been watching me play Elsbeth for 14 years. So he maybe had a better idea of what I was going to do, but I didn’t know what he was going to do. So it kept the scenes very active, and there was a lot of spark and crackle when we were working together.
DEADLINE: Fans were so excited when your casting was announced, especially your fans who enjoyed seeing you both in Person of Interest...
PRESTON: I got to play the love of his life [in Person of Interest], you know? So we got to bleed over a little bit on what our real relationship is. Luckily, he is nothing like Judge Crawford, and I’m not that similar to Elsbeth, so we did inhabit these very different characters together and that was fun.
EMERSON: This will be the first time I’ve ever had to play against Carrie and not like her, as in not have warm feelings toward her.
DEADLINE: We have this behind-the-scenes photo of you two together and Carrie is on your lap (featured image above). With you both being such busy actors, did working on Elsbeth give you more time to spend together?
PRESTON: Yeah, because we don’t see each other now during the week. I get up at four in the morning and then I’m gone until after dark. Then when I come home, I’m lucky if I can get a meal in and a shower, and then I’m back to bed.
EMERSON: Really, the only way for me to spend time with my spouse is to get a gig.
PRESTON: He had to say yes, what would we do?
EMERSON: Oh, hello? It’s me your husband. [Laughs]
CBS
