Carrie Preston Is Adamant that ‘Elsbeth’ Is Not Naive

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 11, “Ol’ Man Liver.”]

It should come as no surprise that someone with as much zest for life as Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) comes from a family of people who frequently live to 100. That piece of Elsbeth’s family history was revealed in the Elsbeth Season 3 midseason premiere on Thursday, February 26, when Elsbeth met Archer Kopunek (Hamish Linklater), a wealthy biohacker obsessed with trying to live forever. Here, Preston gets real about why her beloved character from The Good Wife and The Good Fight is no naive Pollyanna, like some may presume her to be.

Archer was obsessed with extremely healthy living. He paid for a doctor to design him the scientifically perfect diet and exercise regimen in the hopes that it would help him live much longer. His biggest obstacle to reaching his ideal “cellular age” was damage to his liver resulting from his drinking habits in his 20s. He killed a 22-year-old to steal his liver for an elective (on Archer’s part) transplant.

When Elsbeth started investigating, Archer looked into her life, too, discovering that she had three family members live to 100. He coveted her genetics, especially when his bio-tech revealed that she was at a lower cellular age than him without even trying. As Elsbeth made clear when she cracked the case, the secret to life is enjoying living it. It’s an admirable perspective to have when your career is defined by death.

Preston explains how Elsbeth maintains her joie de vivre, and how that helps her solve murder investigations.

“She’ll jump right in. She takes a bite out of life, but she also knows about empathy, compassion, connection,” Preston explains. “She knows how to connect to other human beings even when they don’t want her to. She somehow is able to break it down really quickly, and that’s where the clues come out. That’s how she gets them to say a thing they didn’t really want to say, or she sees them think a thing and knows what it is because she’s a huge empath. I think that’s an exciting way to live and must require a stamina that is much younger than her years.”

“That’s probably what makes her have such a younger cellular age, and also just willing to see the positive,” Preston goes on. “They say you can extend your life by years if you just make a list every day in your mind of 10 things that you’re grateful for. They’ve proven that it can actually extend your life by years. Having a dog extends people’s lives because it opens you up to something outside of yourself. And that’s Elsbeth times a million. I imagine that she’s giving thanks everywhere she goes all the time.”

Preston firmly believes that Elsbeth’s endlessly positive demeanor is not naive.

“It’s not Pollyanna-ish. It’s a discipline,” she asserts. The character, to Preston, exemplifies that “what you can do with your mind will change how you can live in your life.”

While Elsbeth has her own specific brand of wisdom, Preston admits that she still makes mistakes. This episode was an example of that as well.

Michael Parmelee / CBS

Elsbeth’s son, Teddy (Ben Levi Ross), is now a journalist. In the December midseason finale, he discovered a lack of verifiable information about mayoral candidate/Elsbeth’s current fling, Alec Bloom (Ivan Hernandez), and his purported history of childhood homelessness. Teddy revealed that information to his mom, and she confronted Alec about it in the midseason premiere. Elsbeth believes him, going against her own son’s judgment. Was that a mistake? Is the other shoe bound to drop with Alec, and is Elsbeth’s romantic interest in him clouding her judgment?

Related

‘Elsbeth’: Carrie Preston Teases ‘Blind Spots’ With Teddy & Alec in Season 3 Return

“Is it a mistake to trust the person that you want to trust? I don’t know if that’s a mistake,” Preston argues. “She wants to believe him because of how he is with her, and they’ve been intimate. She wants to believe that, and he’s very convincing.”

Preston admits that “the heart and the head maybe aren’t speaking to each other” when it comes to Alec. Why doesn’t Elsbeth believe Teddy?

“Because she hasn’t seen that, and she’s the most perceptive person,” Preston says. “She trusts her own sense of perception. She trusts because she’s got such a keen observational gift, and that’s what’s gotten her where she is as a lawyer, and now as a detective that’s not really a detective. She trusts her own instincts, and she’s not believing it.”

It may not be a mistake to trust the person she’s dating, but it might be a mistake to underestimate her son.

Elsbeth, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS