WEBVTT - Work in Progress: Carrie Preston 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:14.720 Hey everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Welcome 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.919 back to Work in Progress, Whipsmarties. We have a guest 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.600 today who has been dubbed the Queen of Quirk by 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.280 The New York Times, and you know how I love 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.520 a quirky lady. Carrie Preston joins us on the show today. 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.840 I am so excited to talk to her about how 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.960 she built her unconventional attorney named Elsbeth Tousconi in her 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:44.159 hit series Elsbeth, because this character actually originated in a 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.839 guest episode on The Good Wife and just kept coming 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.519 back for more, then appeared on The Good Fight, and 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.720 then apparently thanks to a Colombo rewatch, the creators said, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:01.280 hold the phone, that's the show that Elsbeth. I want 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.800 to talk to Carrie about how she's carried this incredible 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.360 character over fifteen years, how she figures out how to 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.880 make so many people in the world feel represented on screen, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.520 what brings her joy as an artist, and how she 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.679 found her artistic voice it was earlier than you might think, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.479 and what it's like to figure out ways to use 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:27.480 her platform for good being so rooted in joy from 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:32.600 supporting the LGBTQ community with glad to advocating for folks 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:37.279 with Parkinson's alongside Michael J. Fox and his foundation. Carrie 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.360 really takes her goodness on screen to off, and I 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.000 just can't wait to hear from her how she manages 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.560 to balance it all. Let's dive in with Carrie Preston. 0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:59.880 Thank you for coming on the show. I'm so gigd 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.080 you're here. You're just the absolute coolest human and I'm 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:04.720 like really amped about it. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.000 Well, I should say first that I was on a 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:14.000 jury once for an indie film festival and yeah, yeah, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.400 was one of the in competition and it was like 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.560 such an easy this should be the winner for me. 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:23.799 Oh my gosh, it win. 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:25.320 So there you carry. 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.680 Thank you you and Michael. You guys were great together. 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.320 Oh thank you. We had such a special time making 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:33.000 that movie. 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:35.639 The two of you were just like electric together. I 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.720 don't even know. I mean, it was just like riveting 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.160 from the minute it started and it was brilliant the 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:41.600 whole thing. 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.760 Oh, thank you so much. That really means a lot. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.799 I really appreciate that, and you were awesome. Thanks well, 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.760 You're so awesome, And I just I love when I 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:53.960 get to sit down with people whose work I adore 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.280 and who are just doing such cool things in the world. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.119 But I kind of like to go back to catch 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.560 up to where we are are, because I feel like 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:07.160 when you're a person who you know, folks know they 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.240 love watching you on TV. You know, they know your 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.839 body of work, they know you, and I know you 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.840 as this person. But I wonder if you know you 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.000 got to be in you know, your own sci fi 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.840 movie and hang out with yourself when you were nine 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:25.920 or ten, you know, like have a day in the 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.160 park in the city with your younger self. Would you 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.160 do you think you would see yourself today in her? 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.000 And do you think she would be like, oh cool, 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.320 I see how I turned into you? Or did your 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.280 life just take like a totally unexpected series of turns 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.640 and you had no idea you'd be doing this for 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:46.080 a living. 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.880 You know, I grew up and making Georgia okay, And 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.960 you know that's a smaller town. It's not. It's not 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.960 the smallest, you know, it's a but it's in Georgia. 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:05.080 And you know, there weren't like actors that were coming 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.200 up in that town, you know what I mean. It 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.560 was It wasn't like that was the thing that you 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.880 you would you would aspire to do was to be 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:13.400 an actor. 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.800 Yeah, you didn't grow up like next to Times Square. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.280 I wasn't like going to the professional after school or 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:24.279 any of that stuff. But I'm definitely a little bit 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.600 of what you might call a lifer, you know. I 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.400 started to doing az when I was eight years old. 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:36.279 My older brother John, he started doing community theater and 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:38.839 I was like, I want to be like him, So 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.200 I started doing plays and we had very supportive parents. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.400 My mom. My mom's an artist. She was a painter, 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.880 a sculptor and did art therapy. Wow, even knew what 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.520 that was. I mean, she called it expressive art. She 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.080 didn't get a degree in art therapy, but she got it. 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.480 She got certified and expressive art, which is very similar, 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.520 So she was doing that kind of thing. My dad 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:08.360 geotechnical engineer, so he's like the left brain side of things, wow, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:10.919 you know, and my mom was like the right brain 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.400 side of things. And luckily they they didn't try to 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.720 fight us on that, like, you know, they were like, oh, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.080 you want to be creative, We're going to let you 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.919 do that. I mean I was I was when I 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.599 was like six years old. I remember playing in the 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:33.680 front yard and acting like there were cameras in the 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:38.840 trees and then trying to act natural. Wow, like why, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.840 don't know why. I don't know how that feeling like 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.719 cameras were watching me. So that was just something that 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.279 I don't know was maybe ingrained in me. But you know, 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.359 by the time I'm twelve, I'm starting my own theater 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.640 company with the kids in the neighborhood. You know, I 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.880 was Now I was that kid who just was like, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:03.320 I love to do this. Now. I don't know if 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.679 it was because I needed more order in my life. 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.640 I don't know what it was, but I was gravitating 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.640 towards it, and I started doing community theater and I 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.119 would you know, but I wasn't playing like the leads. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.039 I was always playing the comic sidekick. I was always 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.120 playing like you know, and I would put on the 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.400 fanny pack and the flasses and the you know, I 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.760 would do the funny character voices. I was already pressing 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.440 around with that and not really knowing what I was doing. 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.080 Wow, it's so interesting that you say that. Every once 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.680 in a while, I think about moments in my own 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.920 childhood where I go, oh, there it was where you know, 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.039 my parents would be out and I was finally old 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:49.960 enough to stay home by myself, and I'd be like 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.120 doing a scene in the living room alone because I 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.000 felt like, oh, I've got a house all to myself, 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.599 and now I can work on this. And even now, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.200 I mean this morning, I was, you know, walking from 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.240 one end of the subway station to the other to 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:06.440 catch a train, and I was like, God, this whole 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.960 thing just feels like a movie. And I catch myself realizing, like, 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.520 if I was shooting this, I'd have a camera on 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:14.440 a Delli track over there, and oh, look at that 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.480 cool and there's a guy with a you know, a 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:21.080 violin over here, and I'm always thinking about it that way, 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.400 but I I didn't. I guess I've never really even 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.480 thought to talk about that until you just did and 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:29.880 I went, oh, we do. We do have a weird 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.320 thing that we do, I guess when we're our day. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.600 Yeah, I mean, because otherwise why would we be doing it? 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:38.679 Because it's a very hard business to get into. 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.800 So there must be you know, into me and to 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.600 be in yeah, and to maintain and do all of 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.920 the peripheral things that go go along with it, yeah, 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:50.800 you know, including the not getting the. 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.000 Job part, which is way more than the getting the job. 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.080 Oh so all of that stuff. If we didn't have this, 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.160 I don't know original kernel of Yeah, this is this 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.000 is what I this is what I want, what I 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.000 need to do, I at least need to try to 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.280 do it. Or I got to be creative in some way. 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.440 And I've always felt that way, like I got to 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:15.200 be creative in some way, Like even when I was younger. Yes, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.640 it was the acting part, but I started directing and 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.160 writing and doing all that stuff at the same time 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.240 because I just wanted to make things, you know, And 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.360 I would also make puppets and paint and make you know, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:31.920 because my mom was an artist. You know, we were 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.920 always doing, you know, some kind of arts. So there 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.839 was an appreciation for it and just a desire to 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.960 express myself in some way. And so that has come 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:48.280 in handy as my life has gone on in this 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.840 in this creative pursuit, because when I find that, Okay, 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.800 well maybe I'm not being hired right now, well I'm 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.880 going to go ahead and make my own stuff, right, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.280 there's that empowerment there that I think, I think it 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.600 was nurtured. I'm lucky it was nurtured at a young 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.680 age by parents who didn't try to talk me out 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.040 of it, by teachers who were like, yeah, yeah, you 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:17.080 could do that. We don't quite know how to teach 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:18.560 how to do that, but we can get you to 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.680 the places that can you know, that kind of thing. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:25.840 That's really really very cool because what I'm hearing you 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:30.000 talk about is the fact that, as the phrase goes, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.200 because you could see it, you were empowered to believe 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.400 you could be it. Your mom was an artist, so 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.560 you could be an artist. And I think to be 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:42.120 given the tools to express yourself from such a young 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.840 age and then to have that natural inclination to want 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.760 to use those tools be fostered. 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:50.439 What a cool. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.080 Just what a cool series of empowering events that must 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:56.040 have felt like as a kid. 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:02.600 Yeah, yeah, it did. And also just the the joy 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.679 of it, you know, the you know how it is 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.760 like when you when you key and when you're doing 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.640 the role and it just starts to take over and 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:17.920 you just feel like you're expressing something bigger, You're in 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:22.760 charge of giving something bigger to the world. You know, yes, 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.080 you know, the the translation of what it is to 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.280 be a human through you know, through your your instrument. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:35.600 You know, I don't know that. There's just something very 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:41.320 thrilling about that, and it's it feels like a contribution. 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.880 Yeah yeah, I always I talk about this sort of 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:51.960 singularity I experience where it feels like for me, the 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.640 journey into the character, where it really comes alive in me. 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.800 It's the amount of work it requires and the creativity 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.080 and the excitement and the joy you're talking about. And 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:07.080 then suddenly I feel feelings that I know are not mine, 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.200 but my body doesn't know we're not mine. And in 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.800 that moment, it's like those feelings can represent everyone who 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.920 might watch it. At some point I can give it 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.280 away and it's you know, it's like the it's like 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.320 the two butterfly wings, and I feel like I'm just 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.360 in the body in the center and it's so. 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:30.160 Cool. Yeah yeah, like Martha Graham says, the body never lies. Yeah, 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:34.120 you know, And so it maybe a little you got 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.080 to like work on your own mental health because sometimes majorly, 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.920 like you just said, your body doesn't know and so 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.520 sadly you're carrying some kind of trauma around that you 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:45.320 actually don't have. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.760 So yeah, yeah, I feel like that's an interesting part 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:51.840 of our job nobody ever really talks about is like 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.719 you you really have to have some mental health practices 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.040 if you want to stay sane and do this for 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.160 a living. Yes, it sounds like you got to build 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:05.840 such a big toolkit from such an early age. But 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:10.000 to your point, you know, making Georgia is not times square. 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.280 Was it a surreal kind of adjustment for you to 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.280 leave home and come to Juilliard and be in the 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.760 mix of this city and that kind of professional pursuit. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:28.400 Well, I got the great privilege and benefit of going 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:35.360 to some undergraduate schools before I went, so I got 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.679 to have a little bit of a bridge. Okay, you know, 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.599 so I went first, I went to the College of 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.880 Charleston for a couple of years, and then I met 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.200 a professor there who said, let's get you some stronger 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.920 training than we have here. So they got me. He 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:57.160 got me to audition for a very tiny, but very powerful, 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.400 little liberal arts school in southern Indiana called the Ununiversity 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:05.000 of Evansville. And there was a Loudes who had started 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.600 that program uh and and fostered the program and turned 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:14.880 it into really a world class little training womb. And 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.840 so I went there for a couple of years and 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:23.079 really got some really solid training. And one of the 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:28.000 things that he and the professors there take great pride 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.360 in is that they helped place their students in the 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.600 top graduate acting schools in the country. Yeah, and so 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.600 they really have like an incredible rate still of student 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.560 to you know, Juilliard, Yale, m y u UCSD like 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.080 the you know, some some really solid solid training grounds. 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.120 And I loved school. I was one of those wirdos 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.760 that just loved me too, and I got the top 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.960 of it. So I just kept going, you know, so 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:04.000 because I ended up going from undergrad to four years 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.760 at Julia Julias was at the time when I was there, 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.360 a four year program, and so you know, that was 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.280 an additional four years. But it was a really good 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.640 way for a small town girl to acclimatize herself to 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:24.120 that what you were saying, large ocean of a place, 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.200 you know. And uh and so I had that, I 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.040 had the the you know, the benefit of being in 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.360 a in a school that could prepare me for it, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.280 and so having that kind of insulated vibe, but still 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:42.600 being right smack in the middle of Manhattan, you know, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:50.160 Lincoln Center, you know, which had its wonderful you know benefits, 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.640 which was going getting to go see all those shows 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:57.200 and you know around all those different artists at that school. Yeah, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.320 all the different disciplines you know, really shaped me and 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.400 had you know, gave me even more of an appreciation 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.880 of all the fellow artists that you know, I had 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:10.000 the privilege of being around. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.080 What were some of your favorite things that you got 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:15.520 to do as a student there. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.320 I mean we were there, you know, from eight am 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.280 until like midnight, you know, every day we were there, 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:28.120 and so we would have these like classroom projects, you know, 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.960 so it felt like we were just doing these plays 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.080 for each other and for the faculty and for each other, 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.520 and so that we were able to feel like less 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.640 of the pressure of performance. The school, the the program 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.160 is built to kind of lead you up to the 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:51.200 public performance side of things, and you know, to get 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.600 you in a place where you feel free and stuff 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:58.040 and you're working with the same people. You know, you 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.600 have your core class, and that's who you go through 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:05.160 this four years with, you know, for better and sometimes 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.160 for worse. I mean it's a lot, you know, it's 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.160 a little bit like boot camp for acting. You know, 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.280 there's a joke that some people call it the jail 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.360 yard school because you know, you're kind of stuck in 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:21.760 this like you know, pressure cooker. In some ways, I 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.400 found it to be invigorating. I'm still very close to 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.880 a lot of my classmates, and we had a crazy class. 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:33.360 But along the way, we formed our own theater company, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.760 and we ended up doing a season, a couple of 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.800 plays in between in the summer between our second and 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.680 third year of school, and so that was like a 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.920 really special thing too. To to to get this group 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.960 of people and take what we were learning out into 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:52.000 the world, and. 0:16:54.040 --> 0:17:00.360 That's really cool. And the desire to keep going, you know, 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.440 it's your summer break, and all you want is more 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:04.680 of what you're doing in school. What a great indicator 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:06.440 that you're on the right life path, right. 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:07.720 Yeah, exactly. 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:08.800 It's so cool. 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.080 Got to because I was studying the classics, you know, 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.400 I was learning how to do Shakespeare and stuff. From 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.679 the very beginning of college, I started auditioning for summer 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.320 Shakespeare programs, and pretty much every summer I would go 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:29.000 to you know, Georgia Shakespeare, Utah Shakespeare, California Shakespeare. I 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.040 would do I would get to do Shakespeare even when 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:37.480 we did our little Juilliard company, we did a Shakespeare play, 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.399 so you know, I was constantly cutting my teeth on 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:48.000 you know, some of the the most you know, iconic literature, 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.000 dramatic literature, that they're the stuff that we all keep 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:52.840 going back to. 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.159 Yeah, artists, I love that. 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:57.720 How fun. 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.680 We'll be back in just a minute after a few 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:09.080 words from our favorite sponsors. I imagine when you get 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:13.520 to reflect, you you know, they say hindsight's twenty twenty, right, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.840 like you see everything so clearly. You see what you 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:20.480 were building and what you loved and was coming back 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:26.560 to this character of Elsbeth. Did it kind of feel 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.920 as exciting as the way you're talking about looking back 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.760 on that Shakespeare period. Because it's not lost on me 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.320 that you started playing this character fifteen years ago and 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.840 then played her across two shows and now you're playing 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.520 her in this third show. It's like, it feels like 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:44.879 a thing you get to revisit and build and build 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.640 and build on in a world. And you know, maybe 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.920 it's a stretch, but in my observation in this moment, 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.639 I'm like, hold on, it almost feels like you returning 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.800 to Shakespeare over and over and over again. It's like 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:01.760 you're getting to do a version of that now, or 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.600 does that track or does it feel crazy that tracks? 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.159 I hadn't really connected that those dots, So thank you 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.000 for that, because it really, it really is making me 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.440 think about it in a in a in a way 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.480 that feels like it's part of a longer trajectory. You know, 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:26.720 there's not a day that goes by that I'm not amazed, grateful, 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:32.960 and humbled by getting to play this character. Not a 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:37.320 day goes by because it is, like you just said, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.600 it's not lost on me. It is really not lost 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:44.879 on me. I'm I'm a fifty eight year old woman 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:53.560 who has been doing character roles my whole career, happily supporting. 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.120 I've had played leads in movies, et cetera, indies and stuff, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.840 but mostly I'm you know, I've been there to support you, 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:05.480 and happily. I love it, you know, I love being 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:10.040 trusted with those kinds of roles. You know, when it 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.560 first started out, you know, everybody who always wants to 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.800 kind of pigeonhole you and tell you like this is 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.080 your type, you know, And so when I was young, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:22.920 it was like you're the ingenoux and I was always like, okay, 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:28.159 but I don't make that angeneu really interesting because like 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.840 I want to just play you know, like the pretty 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.600 young thing, like especially in Shakespeare. Yeah, And when I 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:41.880 first got out of Juilliard, I got to audition for 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:46.520 The Tempest, which was being done as Shakespeare in the Park. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.200 It was George C. Wolfe, the Great Director's first Shakespeare 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:55.920 that he'd ever directed. It was Patrick Stewart playing Prospero. 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:59.359 And I was auditioning for Miranda, which is, you know, 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:04.320 one of the news in the Shakespeare cannon. But I 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:08.479 was like, yeah, but if your girl, who's you know, 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.280 fifteen and you have only since you were a baby, 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.760 lived on an island with a bunch of dudes, your 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:22.960 dad a monster affair, you know you're gonna be like 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:23.800 the pretty girl. 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:24.119 In the dress. 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:25.760 Like how are you going to do that? 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:26.840 No way, You're going to be. 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.879 One of the lost boys, gonna be a tomboy you 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.240 want to be. So I went whole hard on that, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.760 you know, hot off on my hair, went for the tomboy, 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:43.040 the damming you know thing, and really turned that, tried 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:48.479 to turn that character into somebody a different interpretation of 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:52.200 that role. And got you know, got the park, got 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:54.119 to do it. We moved it to Broadway and I 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.960 may mayor Broadway debut doing that, and I thought, no, 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.960 you don't have You can be a character actor in 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.760 a conta news package. You can be is what we're 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:12.080 always doing character acting. I mean we're creating characters, right, Like, 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.280 aren't we supposed to be doing that. We're not supposed 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:18.159 to be doing the audience's interpretation of what the leading 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:22.200 lady is. We're supposed to bring who we are married, 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.679 well read on the page, the text work that we do, 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:27.360 the work we do with the other actors, the work 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.200 we do with the director, and create something that's fresh. 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:36.600 So I felt that and that's part of just because 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:39.440 I went to school and I was taught to do 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.920 the deep, you know, mining of the character. So when 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:44.800 I got the role, this is all leading up to 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.439 when I got the role of Elsbeth, I tried to 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.720 apply the same principles to that as I add to 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.439 these Shakespeare roles, like what are we going to do 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.400 with this character that makes her different? 0:22:58.119 --> 0:22:58.399 Yeah? 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:00.440 How do I bring myself? What am I going to do? 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:02.200 How does this woman think? You know? Just started doing 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.840 that deeper work and not just be now part of 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:07.760 it was that was written, but you know, not just 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:11.640 be like the the lawyer of the week, like what 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:17.359 can we do this? Something something singular, and the fact 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.520 that they were given they gave me that license, the 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:26.800 fantastic that always starts with the page, but they gave 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.119 me that license and then kept inviting me back to 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:35.199 well yeah, and then it became this alchemy between what 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:37.679 they were writing and what I was doing and you know, 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.679 here we are, but there's no guarantee that like we 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:47.040 would get to do a show that way. Well, like 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:49.400 when they told me this was in twenty twenty, when 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:55.000 Robert Michelle you know, reached out to me because it 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:59.439 was COVID. We were all locked down. They were seeing 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:01.639 the end of the good fight. They knew that that 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:03.800 was going to be coming to an end soon, and 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:05.200 they were like, what are we going to do next? 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.479 And they had been rewatching episodes of Colombo and they 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:11.840 were like, huh, maybe that's maybe we could put Elsbeth 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:18.440 Tasioni in a situation like that. Then simultaneously, Elizabeth Vincent Telly, 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:20.959