Carrie Preston‘s real-life husband, Michael Emerson, is joining her CBS series, Elsbeth, in a recurring role.
The news was announced on Sunday, October 20, during the panel for Elsbeth at New York Comic Con. Emerson, 70, is set to join the cast starting with the show’s December 12 episode, and his character will serve as a foil to Preston’s Elsbeth Tascioni.
Emerson is playing Judge Milton Crawford, who is described as a “haughty, soft-spoken and bespectacled man from an old New England family of public servants who sees his place in the nation’s elite as a birthright.”
The couple, who have been married since 1998, has shared the screen before in projects such as Lost and Person of Interest. The Elsbeth crossover also has a special connection since The Good Wife spinoff series was created by Robert King and Michelle King. The screenwriting duo recently worked on Evil, which starred Emerson.
Preston, 57, previously opened up about working with Emerson, telling Parade in 2017, “It was really great on Person of Interest because we were playing people that were totally different than us, so it was really a fun thing to do. I remember looking at him one day on set and realizing, ‘Oh, I’m not standing here with Michael Emerson, my husband. I’m standing here with Harold Finch.’ It was pretty exciting. I’m really in awe of his talent, as is everybody else.”
Carrie Preston Michael Parmelee/CBS
The actress reflected on how being married to Emerson helped their onscreen collaborations.
“We met 23 years ago doing a play together, and we’ve worked together several times since then. It’s wonderful working with him because there’s a shorthand,” Preston shared at the time. “We don’t even rehearse together at home. We do our separate work the way you would do to anything else, and then show up on the day and don’t have to worry about establishing some level of trust because that’s already there. So we get to play off of each other. He’s so brilliant.”
She continued: “We obviously have a real connection, but we also have a real respect for each other, each other’s work ethic and each other’s talent. It’s a real joy to not have to worry about any of the other stuff, building a relationship out of nothing, which you have to do with people that you only just meet.”
It’s not every day that one gets to work alongside their significant other, but several celebrity couples have been lucky enough to do just that over the years — even after tying the knot! John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, for example, have appeared in a few of the same projects. The first time they worked […]
Earlier this year, Preston opened up about celebrating 26 years of marriage.
“We have to, because of work, spend a lot of time apart,” she told People in March. “I think he and I, maybe more than some other couples who are together all the time, we really appreciate the time that we do have together.”
Preston said distance helped the couple keep “things fresh,” adding, “I do think there is something to the old adage, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’ I really do think that is true.”
Elsbeth airs on CBS Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.
