‘Elsbeth’ Star Carrie Preston Talks Solving Stephen Colbert’s Murder, What’s Next in Season 3
Note: This story contains spoilers from “Elsbeth” Season 3, Episode 1.
“Elsbeth” is back for another round of kooky murders, which kicked off with the killing of a late night host played by Stephen Colbert.
Episode 1, titled “Yes, And…” caught up with the titular lawyer-turned-investigator as a visit to a fictional late night show hosted by Scotty Bristol (Stephen Colbert) turned deadly. After meeting the less-than-pleasant host before he taped a segment with one of her friends, the show introduced the dysfunctional relationship between Scotty, his executive producer (played by Amy Sedaris) and her husband (played by Andy Richter), who also serves as Scotty’s sidekick on the show.
Tensions between them reach new heights that night, which ends with the woman killing Scotty and making it look like a paper shredder accident. The investigation brings Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) into the fold, leading to a hilarious and twisted premiere episode for the CBS procedural.
The episode boasted a timely storyline given its ode to late night, after Colbert announced his “Late Show” will end at the end of the current season. But Preston said the episode had been written for months before Colbert’s announcement earlier this summer, prompting some concern ahead of filming.
“When I did hear that the Colbert show was ending, it was the week before we were going to start shooting. So we were all really nervous that he was going to be too busy and he wouldn’t be able to join us, understandably,” Preston told TheWrap.
“Luckily, he honored his commitment, because that’s the amazing and upstanding person that he is. He came on and seemed to have a ball,” she added. “Last year, Wendell Pierce went on his talk show, and Colbert had said, ‘I want to be a dead body on a CBS procedural’ and Wendell said, ‘I can help you with that.’ So he kind of manifested it for himself. It was just a ball.”
Beyond the murderous love letter to late night, Elsbeth also grappled with change professionally as partner Kaya (Carra Patterson) went undercover, amid Patterson exiting as a series regular with the promise of a guest star turn every once in a while. She also struggled with jet lag after returning from visiting her long-distance beau Angus (Ioan Gruffud) and celebrated her son Teddy’s (Ben Levi Ross) new job in New York.
Below, Preston breaks down the Season 3 premiere and teases what’s next:
TheWrap: What a fun premiere episode. We got a great case and it set up some interesting storylines for the season. What can we expect from this new chapter in Elsbeth’s story?
Preston: She’s just come back from Scotland at the beginning of the season, trying to make this long distance thing work with Angus (Ioan Gruffudd), it’s a challenge. And another challenge is that her bestie Kaya (Carra Patterson) is unreachable right now, because she’s undercover. Elsbeth is happy for her friend but she misses that, there’s definitely a tiny little void there.
But luckily Elsbeth has her work. She puts her heart and soul into it and she’s got some wonderful new partners that are helping her through these cases.
The premiere gives us this lovely and deadly tribute to late night TV and comedy, with Stephen Colbert playing the murder victim. What was your reaction when you read that very timely opening episode?
Our irony is that they wrote this months and months ago, way before it was announced that his show was going to be ending. So when I did hear that the Colbert show was ending, it was the week before we were going to start shooting. So we were all really nervous that he was going to be too busy and he wouldn’t be able to join us. Understandably.
Luckily, he honored his commitment, because that’s the amazing and upstanding person that he is, and he came on and seemed to have a ball. He was reuniting with old friends, Amy Sedaris and Andy Richter. The role was written specifically for him. It was very well written. He was playing like an evil side to himself. Last year, Wendell Pierce went on his talk show, and he had said, “I want to be a dead body on a CBS procedural” and Wendell said, “I can help you with that.” So he kind of manifested it for himself as well. But it was just a ball.
How was working with Stephen on set? He did a pretty good job as Scotty Bristol!
He was such a good actor. He’s really just on top of his game.
There was no acting required on my part [in our scene], because I was giddy to have him there, and Elsbeth was giddy to see Scotty Bristol. Normally, Elsbeth doesn’t get to have scenes with the victims. But Jonathan Tolins, our brilliant showrunner and writer, wanted to make sure that I got to have a scene with Stephen Colbert. So he came up with this scene of Elsbeth watching my friend Cheryl do her segment on Scotty Bristol’s show. And for me, that was also fun, because Marcia di Bonis, who plays Cheryl, is one of my closest friends. So having her there and then Steven and Amy and Andy are old friends, there was a lot of that going on.
We were also shooting where Sherri Shepherd shoots her talk show. She is an old friend of mine. So Sherri stopped by at one point to say hi. It was a really good energy during shooting.
Elsbeth works through this case with severe jet lag since she’s been visiting Angus. How much more will we explore about that connection this season? Will we see Angus again?
You know, Scotland is very far away from New York, so there’s a time difference and distance. The reality of how to sustain a relationship like that is kind of closing in on that. We’ll see what happens.
Elsbeth lost Kaia to undercover work, but we got to know a new officer played by Lindsay Mendez. Is she joining the rotating cast of Elsbeth companions? How was it working with her?
Yeah she’s in our rotation, which is wonderful. She’s fantastic. I was very happy to meet her and have her join us, because I was a fan of hers. I saw “Merrily Roll Along” and she was incredible in that. So it was really great to have her.
And we’ve got some other new faces that are coming in, and some familiar faces as well, with our detectives and one of our officers who will be back. It’s a clever way for the writers to keep the show fresh with those dynamics.
How is it doing this without Carra? What can we expect when she returns as a guest star?
It was really tough at first. I was reaching out to her all the time and going, “We miss you.” But it was fun when she came back. She already came back, and it was so great having her there, and everyone was so happy to see her. I just love their dynamic. And now we get to hear about her, we’ll get reports about her. So she’s still fresh in the mind of the show and of the audience. And she’ll be touching down from time to time and we’ll get to have that fun energy back.
The premiere also shares that Teddy landed a job as a fact checker for a newspaper in New York. What can we expect from having him around more?
We’ll get to see him in that new job and starting to blossom in that. He and his boyfriend are still together, so he’ll be on some of the episodes. Ben Levi Ross, who plays Teddy, is doing Broadway right now. He’s in “Ragtime,” so we have to work around his schedule, but he loves the show, and they’re going to definitely make that work with him.
I love those scenes with him, because it’s fun to see Elsbeth step away from her work and see her touch down briefly in her real life. And yet, Teddy has that same kind of curious mind, and so he’s always on the ready to help Elsbeth and vice versa. It makes sense that he would be doing something that’s a little similar to what Elsbeth is doing.
The episode also took on the subject of budget cuts, which Elsbeth eventually finds out is a measure imposed by Capt. Wagner to keep her in the payroll. Where does this take her from here?
It makes her feel like she wants to continue to be of value to the department, because it’s costing them to have her there. So she wants to continue to try to make sure that she’s helping the department look good by solving these cases with them.The pressure and the stakes are a little higher for her.
“Elsbeth” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT and streams the next day on Paramount+.
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