Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hi. Everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about
Speaker 1: the bold and sometimes quirky choices we make. From her
Speaker 1: Emmy Award winning turn as the brilliant and unconventional Elsbeth
Speaker 1: Tascone on the Good Wife and the Good Fight to
Speaker 1: leading CBS's hit series Elsbeth, Carrie Preston has turned her
Speaker 1: quirk into clarity and curiosity into power. Endlessly versatile, Carrie
Speaker 1: has moved seamlessly between comedy and drama, television and film stage,
Speaker 1: and directing from Elsbeth to True Blood and Clause to
Speaker 1: The Holdovers. She has built a career defined not by
Speaker 1: chasing trends, but by choosing roles that feel surprising and
Speaker 1: emphasize individuality. That instinct continued to pay off this year,
Speaker 1: earning her a Critics Choice Best Actress in a Comedy
Speaker 1: Series nomination. Offscreen, Carrie brings that same intentionality to how
Speaker 1: she lives, Supporting all kinds of human rights, enjoying a
Speaker 1: long and loving marriage with fellow actor Michael Emerson, and
Speaker 1: in an industry that can reward bitter competition, Carrie quietly
Speaker 1: has built a reputation for being gracious and kind. She
Speaker 1: doesn't just play characters who choose themselves and others. She
Speaker 1: lives it. So happy to have Carrie Preston with me today.
Speaker 1: There's something I think that's really great about you is
Speaker 1: that you and your husband, Michael Emerson have been together
Speaker 1: for a good minute.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You both share life and creative work together. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure over the is it twenty six years now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been married twenty seven. Yeah, we've been together
Speaker 2: for thirty one.
Speaker 1: Wow, whoa wow, Hello, I'm praying, I'm bounce to you.
Speaker 2: I'm losing count, you know, I'm like, wait a minute,
Speaker 2: wait a minute. What is it? Sort of like when
Speaker 2: sometimes when people ask me what aide, how old are you?
Speaker 2: I'm like, I think you know, it's it's like that
Speaker 2: with with the with the marriage for sure, just you know, well,
Speaker 2: first of all, time is flying by, and then second
Speaker 2: of all he's just been such a steady that I
Speaker 2: I don't need you.
Speaker 1: Know, Yes, I'm sure over the over all the years,
Speaker 1: you've seen all the ups and downs of the life
Speaker 1: of not just one actor, but two. Yes, being married
Speaker 1: to another actor I means sharing a very uncertain industry,
Speaker 1: one that comes with a lot of all the things, rejection, stress,
Speaker 1: absurd schedules, not aligning, having to be in the public
Speaker 1: eye so much of the time. How do you and
Speaker 1: your husband choose to protect your marriage?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, you know, we're like that boring married couple,
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm saying we we like we we
Speaker 2: we stay home when we can, we next together. Well,
Speaker 2: we have you know, similar interests. We it's all those
Speaker 2: things that you like learned in kindergarten, you know. We
Speaker 2: we respect each other. We we say please, we say
Speaker 2: thank you, We know how to share. You know. It's
Speaker 2: just those things that help, you know, keep the marriage
Speaker 2: going and keep and keep it protected because there is
Speaker 2: that respect for each other, and there's that joy, and
Speaker 2: there's that understanding of what the other one is doing,
Speaker 2: you know, supporting each other in choices. Oh, I want
Speaker 2: to go and do a series. It's going to shoot
Speaker 2: in another city for we don't know how long. Right,
Speaker 2: how are we going to navigate the time of part?
Speaker 2: We have like little rules, you know. We talk every day.
Speaker 2: We're old school. We talk on the phone.
Speaker 1: Don't really be a telephone, you actually talk into it.
Speaker 2: We talked into it like this. Wow, I know, it's weird.
Speaker 2: We don't do the FaceTime. Well, I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: just that's how we started. And so that's what feels
Speaker 2: comfortable to us, is just the miihoring of the voice.
Speaker 2: And we if we're apart, we try to see each
Speaker 2: other at least every two weeks, you know. It's like
Speaker 2: we rule and even if it's for a day, we
Speaker 2: see each other. And somehow that seems do you have worked?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's crazy because I'm sure both of
Speaker 1: you are just moving a million miles an hour in
Speaker 1: different directions a lot of the times. Yeah, but that
Speaker 1: staying connected is so important.
Speaker 2: It is, it is, and you know, it's it's interesting
Speaker 2: this time, at this time in my life, I'm I'm
Speaker 2: the super busy one, and he's the one that's kind
Speaker 2: of enjoying not being busy, right, And that's has been
Speaker 2: a wonderful balance for us because he is really great
Speaker 2: at domestic things, like he takes care of the home
Speaker 2: and our lives. And you know, he just brought me
Speaker 2: lunch to make sure I was eating, you know, like
Speaker 2: he's because he knows I'm I'm busy doing things for
Speaker 2: the show and and and I like that he understands
Speaker 2: the weird hours. He understands when you know, I have
Speaker 2: to get up at four am and I, you know,
Speaker 2: I have to go to bed at a certain hour,
Speaker 2: or I'm always having lines or whatever it is. And
Speaker 2: I think it helps that we both, you know, have
Speaker 2: been in the same perfection and you know, we get
Speaker 2: what those weird demands are. And then when we neither
Speaker 2: one of us is working, we really take advantage of
Speaker 2: that time together. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so glad it's working out for you being
Speaker 1: married to an actor, because yeah, it was a little
Speaker 1: challenging for me, but that's okay. I'm happy for you.
Speaker 2: Well, we don't really talk about the industry much.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good idea.
Speaker 2: And that's good idea. And you know, we watch each
Speaker 2: other's work and just go amazing and then that's it.
Speaker 2: You know. He we worked together. He came on Elsbeth
Speaker 2: last season. He did ARC and it was funny because
Speaker 2: they they you know, everybody loves Michael. He's brilliant. Yes, yes, oh,
Speaker 2: let's figure out how to keep him on longer. And
Speaker 2: Michael was like, I'm good. I like, I just want
Speaker 2: to be in this amount, and then I want to
Speaker 2: give the show back to Carrie and let her just
Speaker 2: that's her show, and you know, and I want her
Speaker 2: to I don't want to be a part, you know.
Speaker 2: I only want to be a part of it to
Speaker 2: a certain degree. And that was very healthy for us.
Speaker 2: I think I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've played so many unconventional women who succeed by
Speaker 1: kind of leaning into what makes them different. Yeah. What
Speaker 1: what such interesting choices? What was there a moment in
Speaker 1: your own real life or even in your career when
Speaker 1: you consciously chose yourself over fitting into the mold.
Speaker 2: I feel like all the time. You know, I had
Speaker 2: an amazing I have an amazing mother, and I had
Speaker 2: a very supportive childhood in encouraging me to be who
Speaker 2: I am and to find whatever passion it is that
Speaker 2: I want out of life. My mom's was a visual
Speaker 2: artist and art therapist and so very supportive of letting
Speaker 2: each of her kids be individual and who we are.
Speaker 2: And so I feel like it was kind of inherent
Speaker 2: in me from the get go to do that. And
Speaker 2: when I fell in love with theater, I fell in
Speaker 2: love with acting, there was never trying to talk me
Speaker 2: out of it. You know, and even when I was
Speaker 2: a kid and starting to do plays, when I was
Speaker 2: like nine years old, I was wanted to play the
Speaker 2: strange characters, the weird characters, the character characters I wanted
Speaker 2: to play. You know, I didn't want to play Cinderella
Speaker 2: or snow White. I wanted to play the ditsy maid
Speaker 2: or the kookie fairy godmother. You know, I wanted those parts.
Speaker 2: And I don't know why. I mean, I don't know what.
Speaker 1: It was like, they seem more fun, they.
Speaker 2: Were more fun, and they got to do more interesting
Speaker 2: things and so and I feel like I, you know,
Speaker 2: was able to bring my own unique brand, even though
Speaker 2: you know, people like when I was in college and
Speaker 2: even when I first got out in the industry, it
Speaker 2: was like, oh, you're an angenue, you should don't play
Speaker 2: the I was like, no, I don't want to do ingenue.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to. I want to do
Speaker 2: the you know, that's not who I feel like I
Speaker 2: am on the inside.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't match up, doesn't match up. So
Speaker 1: good to know that about yourself at such an age too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But the industry, you know, when when I was
Speaker 2: certainly launched into it, I went to school for a
Speaker 2: really long time. I really liked it.
Speaker 1: You went to Juilliard, but I went to before that.
Speaker 2: I went to college, so I was you know, I
Speaker 2: was in school for like a solid eight years and
Speaker 2: and and loved that. I liked the you know, the
Speaker 2: kind of insular womb that it was, you know. And
Speaker 2: then when I got catapuled it out into the industry
Speaker 2: in the nineties, you know, it was very much about
Speaker 2: what's on the outside. Oh yes, you know, as you know,
Speaker 2: and I was just I just couldn't I just couldn't
Speaker 2: quite just couldn't quite keep up with that, you know.
Speaker 2: It was just like I just like didn't know how
Speaker 2: to do that. So I, you know, just kept leaning
Speaker 2: into you know, playing these fun supporting roles and a
Speaker 2: lot of them ended up being comedic. And I found that,
Speaker 2: you know, I that was something that I could offer,
Speaker 2: and it would be the less pressure on on on
Speaker 2: all whatever the requirements that you be on.
Speaker 1: The y the standards.
Speaker 2: So what I would have hold on to that when
Speaker 2: you say choose me, I would choose that, you know, say, no,
Speaker 2: I'm leaning into this, I'm choosing this right I want to.
Speaker 2: That's what I feel like. I have to offer, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't. I don't really like the term
Speaker 2: character actor because like, we're all characters. Yeah, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Like Joy Roberts is playing a character.
Speaker 2: But you know that word I like to I like
Speaker 2: to call us more like illusionists, you know, people who
Speaker 2: are really illusionists, yeah, who want to create an illusion,
Speaker 2: but being somebody different than them.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you just always really stayed true to
Speaker 1: your authenticity. And that's so admirable. Like even when the
Speaker 1: industry wanted to change it, get rid of it, make
Speaker 1: you do what everybody else was doing.
Speaker 2: It's painful. It's painful, you know. I remember one time
Speaker 2: I gotten you know, I was a theater girl, right,
Speaker 2: So I was doing all this theater and I had
Speaker 2: been in theater school and stuff, and I didn't know
Speaker 2: what style. I didn't know about styling, I didn't know
Speaker 2: about stylists, I didn't know about any of that stuff,
Speaker 2: and so I would just sort of dress the way
Speaker 2: I want to dress. And I had just gotten some
Speaker 2: new clothes and I thought they were really cute, and
Speaker 2: you know, I did my makeup and my hair in
Speaker 2: the way that I thought I looked pretty. And I
Speaker 2: went into an audition and you know that, I got
Speaker 2: a call from my agent, well, we have some feedback
Speaker 2: for you, okay, And I was like, oh that I
Speaker 2: hold the feedback. Yeah, I hate the feedback, you know.
Speaker 2: I was like, you were great, you were like one
Speaker 2: of the best actors. But they said you need to
Speaker 2: start paying more attention to how you look, and okay,
Speaker 2: I just I was like, what does that mean? Like,
Speaker 2: I don't even know what to I don't even know
Speaker 2: how to do. And I said to my agent, I
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't know what to do with that,
Speaker 2: and she was like, well, you know, maybe you should
Speaker 2: get a stylist. And I was like, I can't afford
Speaker 2: a stylist, you know. I couldn't afford to get somebody
Speaker 2: who could do that. So I just had to like
Speaker 2: live with that and then think, okay, well what does
Speaker 2: that mean in terms of business. I guess it means, I,
Speaker 2: you know, I need to I don't know, change my
Speaker 2: hair color and do a little I don't know, do
Speaker 2: some stuff.
Speaker 1: I noticed myself up a little.
Speaker 2: Pitted myself up, and so I did that, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's sort of worked. But I just love it
Speaker 2: that now I'm playing this woman who ELL's Betasi, who
Speaker 2: dresses the way she wants to dress out. Now it's fabulous,
Speaker 2: but it's not like anybody else is dressing.
Speaker 1: Oh it's so good.
Speaker 2: You know, doesn't know how to do her hair and
Speaker 2: make up really, you know, she just does what she
Speaker 2: can with her life. I just love that from that point,
Speaker 2: you know, that moment in my real life that it's
Speaker 2: now lining up with I'm playing a character that was
Speaker 2: doing the same thing that I was. That's so cool
Speaker 2: doing them.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like full circle for you, full.
Speaker 2: Circle fifteen years though of.
Speaker 1: The same character Elisabeth. Oh, the course of three different shows.
Speaker 1: Am I right on that?
Speaker 2: You are right? Yes, What is.
Speaker 1: The secret to this role's longevity?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, well, in the Good Wife
Speaker 2: and Good Fight, you know, she was just recurring, like
Speaker 2: I would maybe play her once a year, if that.
Speaker 2: I think I played her over the those two shows
Speaker 2: maybe twenty times, nineteen twenty times over there, you know,
Speaker 2: And that was fourteen years of you know their shows,
Speaker 2: right right, seven seasons and another seven or six or
Speaker 2: seven seasons.
Speaker 1: So it's something about her.
Speaker 2: And then just something about her. I think she just
Speaker 2: has She's a very unique person. Her perspective on life
Speaker 2: is unique. She's very positive, she's very present, she's very curious.
Speaker 2: It brings a lot of energy and joy to her life.
Speaker 2: I think it's a choice. I think she talk about choose.
Speaker 2: She uses that. It's it is a decisive thing. It
Speaker 2: is something that you have to work at to be
Speaker 2: that way in the world. You know. I think our
Speaker 2: tendency is to, you know, not be that, because why
Speaker 2: you know, you you're opening yourself up more to being hurt,
Speaker 2: to be judged, to be all those things. And this
Speaker 2: is a woman who chooses, uh not to do that.
Speaker 2: And I think that's infectious, and I think people it's
Speaker 2: infectious for me to play her, but I think it's
Speaker 2: also hopefully what brings people back to want to watch
Speaker 2: her again. You know. Yes, yes, she makes things about
Speaker 2: not herself, about she makes it about the other person,
Speaker 2: about the problem, about the puzzle, about the mystery, about
Speaker 2: the law, the legal case she's working on. It's always
Speaker 2: about other things, which I think is it's kind of
Speaker 2: a subversive way of choosing herself.
Speaker 1: Right, right, Yeah, Her quirkiness is so fun because it's
Speaker 1: never explained or apologize for no really is yeah, right?
Speaker 1: And I think that it sounds like it was helpful
Speaker 1: for you to kind of be in that unconventional sort
Speaker 1: of state of mind. But do you think it's it's
Speaker 1: helpful for the viewers too. It's something that they're noticing.
Speaker 1: It's not something when you're unconventional, it's not something that
Speaker 1: you need to hide from, but it's something that you
Speaker 1: should protect and even highlight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I think I think it's true.
Speaker 2: And and but she's so singular, she's so unique, and
Speaker 2: people like to ask me, you know, what does she have?
Speaker 2: What is what is she on the spectrum? It's like
Speaker 2: what's going on? They want to diagnose her and I
Speaker 2: and we don't want to do that.
Speaker 1: You know, what do you say to her that while I.
Speaker 2: Say we don't we she is who she is, She
Speaker 2: is herself. She's not one thing. She's not a diagnosis.
Speaker 2: And plus, you know, if you were to diagnose, you know,
Speaker 2: you were to put like a diagnosis on somebody, then
Speaker 2: it opens it up to oh, well, well that's not
Speaker 2: really true, that's not that, that's not that thing, that's
Speaker 2: not that thing. And instead I think it's it's more.
Speaker 2: I think it's better in a way with this character
Speaker 2: to let her be who she is as a statement
Speaker 2: to let anybody be who they are. And you know,
Speaker 2: what's so great about her is that people don't see
Speaker 2: her coming, you know. And so when she's trying to,
Speaker 2: you know, have a cat and mouse, she has a
Speaker 2: cat and mouse with this with a killer, and she's
Speaker 2: trying to get them to slip up and say a
Speaker 2: thing they're going to because they are they don't know
Speaker 2: what she's going to say next or do next. Throws
Speaker 2: them off their game. It's unexpected, and I think hopefully
Speaker 2: that's what keeps the viewer watching too, is that they
Speaker 2: aren't expecting, right, And.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a great way for you to
Speaker 1: stay you know, like fresh and motivated, because you do
Speaker 1: never know what's going to come up, what's going to.
Speaker 2: Be right, Yes, it does, and you know, it's the
Speaker 2: most material I've ever been trusted with for in such
Speaker 2: a short amount of time, for twenty episodes. So it's
Speaker 2: I'm constantly my brain is constantly being engaged. I'm learning
Speaker 2: fifty page of dialogue every eight days. I'm submerged, I'm
Speaker 2: immersed in the world of this character and the world
Speaker 2: of our set. And I love it. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: a it's a wonderful creative gift, you know, able to
Speaker 2: do that, and to be to be trusted with that
Speaker 2: amount of material, and to be working with people who
Speaker 2: are giving me such wonderful scripts to work with, you know,
Speaker 2: It's it's like a once in a lifetime kind of
Speaker 2: experience I'm having.
Speaker 1: It's it's so great. Okay, So do you carry a tote?
Speaker 2: Do you? Okay, So I'm gonna show you. Actually I
Speaker 2: got I.
Speaker 1: Want to know what is in Carrie's tote as opposed
Speaker 1: to what would be an Els tote.
Speaker 2: So this is a tote bag that actually I work
Speaker 2: with a tote bag designer on.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's so fun.
Speaker 2: I know. I call it the carry it all the
Speaker 2: A R I E. They carry it all? Cute? I
Speaker 2: do I carry it all? I mean, this bag goes
Speaker 2: with me everywhere, and I've got everything that I need
Speaker 2: in it in the same way that Elsbeth does. You know, Okay,
Speaker 2: I carry my day's worth of gosh. I have everything
Speaker 2: in here, from hand sanitizer to and if I start
Speaker 2: to get a cold, I have like dual defense I've
Speaker 2: got like things, rollers, rollers, I got you know, get everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like me, Like, I don't want to leave the
Speaker 1: house because without all my things, because what I might
Speaker 1: need something.
Speaker 2: I mean, if I had had kids, I don't know
Speaker 2: what I would have. I mean I would have probably
Speaker 2: had to have a whole nother you know, stroller or
Speaker 2: something just to carry all the stuff.
Speaker 1: I was much more organized when I had the kids,
Speaker 1: like you know, their diaper bag or their whatever bag.
Speaker 1: But now it's like the bigger the bag, the more
Speaker 1: stuff I throw in it, and I have no idea
Speaker 1: what's even in there anymore.
Speaker 2: Well, see, this bag has lots of pockets, so I
Speaker 2: do know where everything is. I like the I am
Speaker 2: a pretty organized person. So that's why I like it,
Speaker 2: because it has lots of bad places for all them.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's a cute bag. So where if
Speaker 1: somebody wanted to buy that is?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: For sale?
Speaker 2: It is Oh yeah, actually you can go to Yobi
Speaker 2: mam Okay yob I Mocho Yobi and they have it's
Speaker 2: called the Carry It All.
Speaker 1: Uh so good. Yeah you did a low collab. I
Speaker 1: did really fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What has playing such a fashionable and colorfully styled gal
Speaker 1: done for your own fashion sense, has her style sort
Speaker 1: of bled across into your real life.
Speaker 2: I like to think that we kind of meet in
Speaker 2: the middle, you know, because I always have been somebody
Speaker 2: who is not afraid. So I always wore lots of color.
Speaker 2: I mean when I hid, my mom used to call
Speaker 2: it humor dressing. She was like, oh, you're humor dressing again,
Speaker 2: because I would wear like back, you know, some big
Speaker 2: baggy parachute pant or something, and I'd wear some oversized,
Speaker 2: you know, multicolored sweatshirt or and when I was really little,
Speaker 2: I love to wear long dresses. I just wanted long dresses.
Speaker 2: I thought it was just it was it was fun.
Speaker 1: To to twirl around. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even though no one else is everybody's wearing shorts
Speaker 2: and long down I just loved it. So, you know,
Speaker 2: I always had that tendency to want to have something
Speaker 2: that's you know, this is fun chitahs, you know, a
Speaker 2: little cheetahs on. Yeah, lots to have things that say,
Speaker 2: say a thing. Then I started playing Elsbeth and the
Speaker 2: brilliant Dan Lawson, who is our costume designer, who is
Speaker 2: you know, it's an extraordinarily talented genius. Uh you know,
Speaker 2: I just stand there like this and hands me the
Speaker 2: character and has done that since day one.
Speaker 1: I love that when you can just count on somebody
Speaker 1: that gets it.
Speaker 2: He gets it, he understands the character. He'll he sends me,
Speaker 2: you know, we have these epic fittings at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the season. I mean like, I'll do a nine
Speaker 2: hour fitting one day and the next day I'll do
Speaker 2: like a six hour fitting. And and so he's building
Speaker 2: up the closet for the season because we do twenty
Speaker 2: episodes and it's I can't do a fitting every right,
Speaker 2: you're busy. So he has got a whole closet and
Speaker 2: and he he puts all the clothes together on on on,
Speaker 2: He has a form that's that's uh, got my measurements
Speaker 2: and he just puts them on. And then he sends
Speaker 2: me photos and this is what you're wearing. And I
Speaker 2: never doubt it, you know, I never die. I'm just like, yep,
Speaker 2: great sounds good. Wow. Am I going to be able
Speaker 2: to you know, move around in it? Yes? Okay, good,
Speaker 2: you know, And and then I'll have these like little
Speaker 2: you know, spot fittings throughout the season. If there's like
Speaker 2: the Halloween episode or you know, which he went all
Speaker 2: out on this year. I wore four different looks from
Speaker 2: My Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn's looks from My Fair Lady,
Speaker 2: and they were all custom built.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that sounds fun.
Speaker 2: It was amazing, amazing, you know, from the hats and
Speaker 2: the whole thing. It was incredible. So you know this, uh,
Speaker 2: this guy's amazing and and he understands, you know, he
Speaker 2: understands like that the character needs the character dresses this
Speaker 2: way because she it makes her feel good. You know,
Speaker 2: she wants to go out into the world with an
Speaker 2: an expression of on her body of what's going on
Speaker 2: inside of her. But she also should be I think,
Speaker 2: and she also knows that people underestimate that her. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: and so you know, as a superpower.
Speaker 1: It's also another thing where they're like, wait, what's happening,
Speaker 1: what's coming for me right now? I don't know what
Speaker 1: this is. It's so colorful and very all these choices.
Speaker 1: It's so good. Okay, so this is your third season,
Speaker 1: right of Elsbeth.
Speaker 2: This is the third season.
Speaker 1: Yes, incredible, incredible, everybody check it out. It's out now.
Speaker 1: So whatever rock we've been living under, get out from
Speaker 1: under it and check out the show. It's so fun.
Speaker 1: But you are also producing the show now along with
Speaker 1: your show creators, which I think is amazing. How has
Speaker 1: this new title change things for you?
Speaker 2: I guess I just, you know, feel like I have
Speaker 2: a formal voice. I always had a voice. Thankfully, the
Speaker 2: people that I work with are very collaborative, they're very
Speaker 2: and they're also very, very good at what they're doing.
Speaker 2: John Tolan is our showrunner, is excellent, and so I
Speaker 2: feel lucky that I already have people that are that
Speaker 2: are able to receive what I say. But it just
Speaker 2: became a little more formal, as you know, with that
Speaker 2: producer producer credit. Yeah, And I mean, you know, when
Speaker 2: you're an actor and you're on you know, you're playing
Speaker 2: the title character, and you're on the show as much
Speaker 2: as I am, in a way, you're already a producer
Speaker 2: because you are producing what they're writing give the show.
Speaker 2: You're producing it, you know, like you're standing there doing
Speaker 2: it the level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So congrats on that. I mean, that just opens
Speaker 1: up a lot of doors for the future. But you,
Speaker 1: because you seem like somebody that likes to grow and
Speaker 1: likes to challenge yourself, you're not just an award winning actress.
Speaker 1: You're an executive producer like we just mentioned, and you're
Speaker 1: also a highly sought out director. Yeah, you directed, yes,
Speaker 1: which is a crazy amount of energy, and I know
Speaker 1: how hard that is, especially when you're acting and directing
Speaker 1: at the same time. But you directed Your Honor with
Speaker 1: Brian Cranston. Loved that show. I love the look of it.
Speaker 1: I love the way it was directed and shot. Great job.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which, if which episode you did, but
Speaker 1: it's in general.
Speaker 2: That show because I came on in the second season,
Speaker 2: but the way they do it, it's, uh, you block
Speaker 2: shoot two episodes simultaneously. So I was directing two episodes
Speaker 2: at the same time. Oh boy. And so it was
Speaker 2: really more like directing feature film because it was two
Speaker 2: hours of television, right and uh but in a you know,
Speaker 2: shorter amount of time than you get to direct. But uh,
Speaker 2: the producers on that were very open. They really let
Speaker 2: the directors be creative. They weren't prescriptive about these are
Speaker 2: the only kinds of shots that we do, you know.
Speaker 2: They were very what's your vision and they helped to
Speaker 2: to help you bring that to life. And so I
Speaker 2: felt I had a lot of creative agency with that,
Speaker 2: which I like, Yeah, it was, and it was probably
Speaker 2: the most challenging thing I've ever done as a director
Speaker 2: just because of that. The two and both of the
Speaker 2: episodes were different tonally. You know, one of them was
Speaker 2: very high action pack and the other one was had
Speaker 2: a little bit more of like, uh, a slower pace,
Speaker 2: more of a It was kind of the Denument in
Speaker 2: a way. It was like coming down off of this
Speaker 2: big high one that I had done. That must have
Speaker 2: been hard to do.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, it shows it once, so you mean you're
Speaker 1: like shooting one direction.
Speaker 2: Well, you're shooting more like its locations. So like when
Speaker 2: we would go and this location, we would do all
Speaker 2: the scenes that were in both episodes in that location,
Speaker 2: and then we had to go It was set in
Speaker 2: New Orleans, but we shot in a lot of it
Speaker 2: in LA in season two, so you know, finding those
Speaker 2: locations that look like New Orleans in LA you know
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, and then we would go to
Speaker 2: New Orleans for a week and shoot everything that we
Speaker 2: needed to shoot in New Orleans for both episodes at
Speaker 2: that scene.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that takes a lot of mind management, going flopping
Speaker 1: back and forth totally I.
Speaker 2: Know, but I love that. I don't know, I'm kind
Speaker 2: of I don't know, I'm weird about it, but I
Speaker 2: guess I really like. It's like a math It's like
Speaker 2: a huge math problem or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed that, enjoy putting that puzzle together.
Speaker 1: You are the puppet master.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And also I just you know, I love actors,
Speaker 2: and you know, they had some amazing actors on that show.
Speaker 2: And to be able to you know, work with them
Speaker 2: and help them and you know, and just you know,
Speaker 2: see their work come to life, that was a great,
Speaker 2: a great thing. Yeah. I don't know if I want
Speaker 2: to direct Elsbeth because I'm just on screen so much.
Speaker 2: I think it would I don't. I don't have that
Speaker 2: much i'd send you over that I think it might
Speaker 2: send me o it. Yeah, Well, is.
Speaker 1: There anything more in the industry that is calling you? Like,
Speaker 1: what's your next chapter look like? Do you think you
Speaker 1: know what?
Speaker 2: I'm being totally honest right now that this is the
Speaker 2: dream come true. So I really am doing my best
Speaker 2: to be present with it, to take care of it it,
Speaker 2: not overextend myself so that it gets compromised and focused
Speaker 2: saying focused but also knowing that the stamina that it
Speaker 2: takes really does require some downtime when I can get it,
Speaker 2: and not feeling like I need to pile in a
Speaker 2: bunch of work during my downtime. If we're lucky enough
Speaker 2: to get a season four, I'll have three months off,
Speaker 2: and I don't necessarily want to do something that takes
Speaker 2: up those three months. I do need to refill the well,
Speaker 2: you know, because I really love this job and I
Speaker 2: want it. I want to honor it and do it
Speaker 2: just as in the best way. I know how. I'm
Speaker 2: part of that is I've got to take kind of
Speaker 2: take care of myself. Yeah. I think it's a you
Speaker 2: know that more than anyone.
Speaker 1: It's a marathon, and it's easy to just spend it all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know how I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know you'll You'll use up your body budget.
Speaker 2: You know, Shoot, it's I spent it.
Speaker 1: How do you what does it look like for you,
Speaker 1: like during a work week, how do you choose yourself
Speaker 1: amidst that crazy schedule and all those demands.
Speaker 2: I'm very protective of my morning time, so I will
Speaker 2: get up early, and it's tough when you have to
Speaker 2: get up with something that starts with a four.
Speaker 1: It was a brutal Yeah, I miss those days.
Speaker 2: No, you don't. You don't miss them, but you know,
Speaker 2: you'll get your you know, And I get up and
Speaker 2: I always try to at least do twenty minutes of
Speaker 2: pilates nice, get the body going, and then I'll do
Speaker 2: a ten minute meditation every perspect that's that's enough. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that's like pretty much all I have time for.
Speaker 2: I can't go to the gym. I can't, you know,
Speaker 2: I'll work my plate's instructor, who's wonderful. She made me
Speaker 2: these twenty minute videos that I can go to if
Speaker 2: I can meet with her and online, I will if
Speaker 2: I have, like you know, I happen to have a
Speaker 2: morning free, I'm not in the first scene. I'll meet
Speaker 2: up with her in person in the studio. But you know,
Speaker 2: I definitely find that when I don't do that, my
Speaker 2: body doesn't feel like it's ready for what it needs
Speaker 2: to do that day.
Speaker 1: Right, right, it's you have to you're like a trained athlete.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like an athlete. Yeah, it's an an athlete,
Speaker 2: especially with my character because the way I enjoyed playing
Speaker 2: her is very physically. You know, she's embodies things, a
Speaker 2: lot of energy. Not from Europe, it's the whole, you know,
Speaker 2: head to toe experience.
Speaker 1: Well, I've loved getting to know you a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But before we go, Yeah, Carrie Preston, what was your
Speaker 1: last I Choose me moment?
Speaker 2: I mean, this morning, I knew I was had a
Speaker 2: busy day, I had a me and so I got
Speaker 2: up early, I made my smoothie, I meditated, and I
Speaker 2: just chose to do absolutely nothing for an hour. And
Speaker 2: it was an important thing because then it lined me
Speaker 2: up and grounded me for what I had to do today.
Speaker 2: It's busy right now, New York City is insane, and
Speaker 2: doing nothing for me is not the easiest thing to
Speaker 2: do because I'm such a doer too, and so it
Speaker 2: was a way to choose me. You know, it was
Speaker 2: something that I think I would maybe not normally do.
Speaker 2: I mean I could do it for ten minutes, but
Speaker 2: for an hour that was tough. Yeah, that's like.
Speaker 1: An hour long meditation you did this morning basically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just the best advice. I love everything you're about
Speaker 1: and I'm so excited for everything that's in store for
Speaker 1: you. You deserve it all. You're a good person. Carrie comes
Speaker 1: back with her colorfully enthusiastic Elsbeth on February twenty six,
Speaker 1: and please come back here for more of my conversation
Speaker 1: with Carrie Preston, when we jump into the challenges and
Speaker 1: advantages of aging on camera. Subscribe to this pod now
Speaker 1: to get notified when it drops.