Carrie Preston cut her teeth in Hollywood guest-starring on a number of sitcoms at the turn of the millennium. When the multi-cam shows began to disappear, Preston landed roles that still showcased her comedic quirks, but in a more dramatic setting.
In NBC's "Crowded," Preston not only gets to play straight comedy, but she also gets to do it in a leading role opposite Patrick Warburton, who plays her husband. The opposites-attract nature of their relationship was the first sign for Preston that NBC would pick up the show.
"We're good complements to each other. His style of acting, it's very droll and dry and my style of acting is definitely more animated and kinetic plus he's super tall and I'm short. So just the picture of it looks right and everybody felt it," Preston told Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview.
Your TV daughters, played by Miranda Cosgrove and Mia Serafino, appear to be polar opposites.
Yes, definitely. They definitely fall into those stereotypes [Cosgrove's character is buttoned-up while Serafino plays a free spirit]. In a lot of way, it's like commedia dell'arte - everybody fits into a type and the writers, they dance around that and they embellish on that. In this situation you've got the braniac daughter [Cosgrove] and, to put it nicely, [Serafino is] the free-spirited daughter and that does create some fun conflicts.
Mia and Miranda are just delightful young women and I was very happy to have them in the cast. We really did bond quickly. We were a little girl pack and I was very grateful that they wanted to include me. After run-throughs, we'd go have our little lunch. It was such a good group to have to feel familial and more than just colleagues. That was great. They're great girls and so talented. They have such great heads on their shoulders, which isn't always the case. We got lucky. And they hit off. They were sisterly from day one.
The shooting schedule for "Crowded" allowed you to fly home to New York often. Does that flexibility help you maintain a strong relationship with your husband, Michael Emerson?
I think for sure. Plus, we enjoy each other's company, that's number one. We've been together for 21 years. We've been married for 17 and we just keep growing and learning from each other and enjoying each other. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, I think, so we enjoy our time together because we know inevitably we're going to have some time apart. It really does make you take advantage of the time that you have at hand. So we've gotten really good at that. We also don't have children so it's made it easier for us to move between things. I think that is helpful to the relationship for us. We have a little dog that we share and we love and he completes our little family.
A few of the shows your husband starred on have cast you as his wife. Is that casting natural?
Yeah, it does come up. For example, in "Person of Interest," they asked Michael first, "Hey, do you mind if we offer this role to your wife." Michael was like, "Go ahead. See if her schedule will allow it." We kind of stay out of each other's business in a way, so it was fun to work with him on that and we've had other times where people have wanted us to work together on something and we've gone, "You know what, no. I think I'm just going to let that be yours." And other times we're like, "No, let's do that! That sounds fun." It really does depend on many factors. It definitely works. I don't know if they would have thought of me for that role if I wasn't married to him, but I know they thought it would be something that the fans would enjoy and they definitely have. And so have we.
For more with Preston, click here to find out what the actress imagines a "Good Wife" spinoff starring her character, Elsbeth Tascioni, would look like.
