By Jessica Wedemeyer
2:29am PST, Feb 27, 2026
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It's been more than 15 years since Carrie Preston made her debut as Elsbeth Tascioni on
The Good Wife back in 2010, and the character shows no sign of stopping on her CBS spinoff, which recently scored an early Season 4 renewal.
Wonderwall.com caught up with Preston during a break from shooting the second half of
Elsbeth's third season to get the scoop on what's in store for the crime-solving non-practicing attorney — and her relationship with possibly shady NYC mayoral candidate Alec Bloom — in the coming weeks. She also dished on the police procedural dramedy's buzzy guest stars, wacky wardrobe and more, plus — in the spirit of characters who stick around for a while — see what she had to say about rebooting
True Blood and revisiting former Merlotte's waitress Arlene after more than a decade away from Bon Temps.
Keep reading for the highlights from our chat, and catch new episodes of 'Elsbeth' on CBS on Thursdays…MORE:
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WW: Congratulations on the early renewal for Elsbeth Season 4. How does that feel?
Carrie Preston: "I just feel grateful that the crew has a job to come back to. Hollywood got hit pretty hard by COVID and
the strikes, so it's been slow to get back up and going. The fact that we are able to do a show that shoots in this great city and employs so many talented people — not just the crew but a lot of New York actors… We've worked really hard to create a reputation that we're a great place to play and that you'll be treated well when you come and play with us. So I feel relieved that we get to do that for another season in this crazy volatile time for film and TV — and, dare I say, maybe the world."
WW: Elsbeth features a never-ending stream of A-list guest stars. Who are some of your favorites?
Carrie Preston: "It's just one present after another. … Jonathan Tolins, our showrunner, is always excited to be the one to tell us who we're getting or who we're trying to get — or people who've reached out and said, 'Oh, I really want to be on the show.'
Steve Buscemi asked to be on the show, which was incredible to think that Steve Buscemi is sitting around watching
Elsbeth. I love that. He loves the show. He'd seen every episode, and he said he had some friends who had been on the show and they had a good time. These are busy actors who don't usually do a lot of guest spots because they've got their own thing going on, but they want to come and play with us for eight or nine days and stretch their wings and play something different and maybe do something different tonally than they're used to doing. It's really exciting.
Some of my greatest idols have been on the show — Tracey Ullman, Dianne Wiest. Like, I couldn't even believe that. Every time I would do a scene with [Wiest], I would just stare at her like a stalker. She was so sweet and just let me stand there just staring… I didn't dream that we'd be able to get people that I dreamt of working with to come and do it. … The fact that people do want to come, I feel really proud of that."
WW: You've been portraying Elsbeth for more than 15 years since the character debuted on The Good Wife in 2010. What does that mean to you?
Carrie Preston: "It is crazy. … I feel so humbled by the trust that people put in me. … I'm just grateful to be a part of it and to be given the permission to not try to repeat what I did on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. I don't even fully remember those episodes. I went back when we first started shooting and looked at some of them, and I thought, 'I think I need to be where I am now with her,' because that character has also aged 15 years and has lived thorough things and has seen a lot of stuff in her life change and grow and all of that stuff. So it was OK for me to work with this character in a new way. And we have incredible writers who are giving me things to make that happen."
WW: Elsbeth has the most fun wardrobe. How do her looks come together?
Carrie Preston: "That's all Dan Lawson. He's the only person who's ever costumed the character. He started on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. Elsbeth is his vision. … I trust him implicitly, 100%. I stand there like a paper doll and he gives me my character. It is such a part of how this woman is expressing herself, and it's such a part of how the show is expressing itself — it tells the audience, 'We're in technicolor now.' We're in the New York City that's being seen through Elsbeth's eyes — it's richer, it's more vibrant. It's electric. It's got something that elevates it and is inspirational, so I think that's part of what we're doing tonally overall with the show. It's different."
WW: The mid-season finale left off on a cliffhanger with the revelation that Alec might not be who he says he is. What can you preview about Elsbeth's relationship with him?
Carrie Preston: "Teddy is a little doubtful about him and is worried about his mother getting into a situation with somebody that might not be what he seems — and Elsbeth has fallen for the guy. But she's still very much herself, and very much her primary relationship is with her work, which is what I love about her. That's her romance. That's the romance on the show is Elsbeth and her work. I like that about what we're doing and what we're saying about women. That said, the heart wants what the heart wants, and sometimes the head maybe doesn't see — they don't talk to each other. That goes for her relationship with her son and her relationship with Alec. So you're going to see her sort of being caught between these two things."
WW: In the spirit of characters who stick around for a while… A few years ago, there was a lot of buzz about a potential True Blood reboot. How would you feel about revisiting Arlene?
Carrie Preston: "All of the actors that I keep up with periodically, we all got on a text thread together, and like… none of us had heard about it. … I had so much fun doing that role. It would be interesting to see what Arlene is up to now. When we last left her, she was with a vampire. Is she still with him? Her kids are all grown now and I'm sure out of the house — or maybe not. The character was such a survivor, and I really appreciated the whole long arc that she got to have on that show. That character really grew, I think, more than maybe any of the characters. She started off as quite the bigot, really — just not able to even acknowledge that vampires exist. And then by the end, she's in love with one. What a great journey. So it would be fun to see that — I wouldn't mind revisiting that."
