Since the first time Carrie Preston stepped into the shoes of quirky attorney Elsbeth Tascioni in The Good Wife and its spin-off The Good Fight — a role she won an Emmy for in 2016 — she has brought a smile to viewers’ faces with her character’s unusual approach to problem-solving. With Preston finally getting top billing on a show by Robert and Michelle King , Elsbeth has inspired one of the most joyous police procedurals on TV. Of the show that Preston feels spreads lightness and levity — despite being about murder — the actor says, “Before, I would be a flavor that was coming in, now I feel like the main course.

” DEADLINE: When you started playing Elsbeth in 2010, what did you enjoy most about this character? CARRIE PRESTON : The thing that I always love about her is her mind, how prismatic it is and how seemingly scatterbrained she is, but how she’s actually the smartest one in the room. It’s really fun to play with both of those things — that both of those things exist at the same time. It’s something that we don’t really see that much in characters.

And figuring out the quick changes that her brain makes. It’s definitely inspiring to play her. DEADLINE: What is the balance there for you? Can she both be scatterbrained and the most intelligent person in the room or is one just a show to disarm people? PRESTON : I believe that one leads to other.

The fact that she has so much going on in her brain speaks to how brilliant she is and, because she.