Carrie Preston Dishes The Good Wife Twist That Sets the Stage for Something Big...Perhaps a Spinoff?

Will The Good Wife spinoff Carrie Preston? The beloved guest star dishes on that possibility and more exclusively with E! News

By Chris Harnick Mar 17, 2014 2:00 AMTags
The Good WifeCBS

Twist! The Good Wife introduced Jill Hennessy's Rayna Hecht, and we bet you didn't see the outcome of that storyline coming. Warning, spoilers ahead for "A Few Words," the March 16 episode of The Good Wife.

Lockhart/Gardner and Florrick/Agos both wanted to nab Rayna and the $60 million that came with her. The two firms vied for her attention, and Alicia was tasked with really nailing her American Bar Association speech.

In the end, it was Elsbeth Tascioni (returning guest star Carrie Preston) who managed to woo Rayna so much so that the two are starting their own firm together.

CBS

"I was surprised when I was reading the script. Of course, I immediately as an actor go, 'What does that mean for me next season?' because obviously I want to come back and do more, so I don't know what that means, but it could be something really fun, to have yet another competitive law firm thrown into the mix," Preston told E! News. "I don't really know what that means, but it was pretty cool, and when I really thought about it, it wasn't really a surprise. Of course Elsbeth would swoop in in her fortuitous way and hit the bull's-eye."

Elsbeth celebrated the big news by singing at the piano with Clarke Hayden, played by Nathan Lane. But the screechy notes weren't much of a stretch for Preston who said she "sadly" didn't have to adjust her singing voice for Elsbeth.

"I was definitely working some of the more comedic bits, but I'm not the strongest of singers, and there I was in front of Nathan Lane having to sing, you know, of all people," Preston said. "So I was able to use that situation to make the lack of Elsbeth's talent very apparent."

But what does this mean for Elsbeth? Preston isn't sure, but now that True Blood, Preston's main show, is coming to an end—the final season is filming currently—Preston said she's game for whatever The Good Wife producers have in mind, be it a spinoff or adding her to the cast permanently. However, there's been no official talk…yet.

"I think they concentrate on the season at hand, and then we'll see. I'm hoping that they'll want to open up a dialogue with me, but you know, there's lots of things that go into something like that happening, but my fingers are crossed," Preston told E! News. "I would love to continue playing this character, not only because I love the character, but it shoots in New York and my husband's there most of the year shooting Person of Interest, and it would just be amazing for us to actually be working in the same city."

CBS

In addition to the husband factor—Preston is married to Lost veteran Michael Emerson—the Emmy winner said Elsbeth is "probably one of my favorite characters I've ever played in anything, stage or screen." And she already has some ideas on how the spinoff would work.

"A spinoff could really work in that kind of Monk way, a drama but has a lot of levity to it and, you know, it's the case of the week and how is this woman going to use all of her mind tricks to make it happen in surprising and entertaining ways?" she said. "It could work, but I don't know how CBS would feel about that."

You hear that CBS? Carrie Preston is waiting for your call.

The Good Wife airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBS.