Sometimes movie magic comes at a high cost.
Carrie Preston appeared on the Jan. 29 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, and she chatted with the host about one of her earliest roles in 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding.
“Isn’t that the best?” the 57-year-old actress said to Clarkson, 42. “That was when the romantic comedy was queen.” Preston and Rachel Griffiths played twin sisters who were both bridesmaids for Cameron Diaz’s Kimmy. Kimmy, in turn, was engaged to Dermot Mulroney’s Michael, whose best friend, Julia Roberts’ Julianne, is trying to get him to call off the wedding to be with her instead.
“We had that big scene where we sang ‘I Say a Little Prayer,’ ” Preston told Clarkson. In the scene, Julianne’s friend George, played by Rupert Everett, pretends to be Julianne’s fiancé to make Michael jealous (when in actuality, he’s gay). He gets the whole wedding party to sing the song.
And even though the scene is romantic comedy magic, Preston said it was much less whimsical in real life. “And there we were singing, and we started that scene, and you know, it takes place in a crab shack and a lobster house? That took two 12-hour days,” she said. “So you can imagine the smell.”
TriStar Pictures
“You see it and it looks really fun, but by the end, we were all ready to move on,” the actress said. “I don’t think I’ve had a crab or lobster since.”
Preston’s big break came when she was cast as Arlene in True Blood, which ran from 2008 to 2018. Beginning in 2010, she began appearing on The Good Wife as Elsbeth Tascioni. After also portraying the character on The Good Fight, she now plays the role in CBS’s Elsbeth, which sees her solving crimes in New York.
TriStar Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Preston is married to Lost alum Michael Emerson. Back in March, Preston told PEOPLE about how she and Emerson, 70, navigate their sometimes-long-distance marriage. “We have to, because of work, spend a lot of time apart,” she explained. “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.”
Still, she said, “I do think there is something to the old adage, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’ I really do think that is true.”
In December, Emerson guest-starred on Elsbeth as a foil for the title heroine. “It’s interesting, weird and complicated,” he told PEOPLE of working with his wife. “It’s like a two-layered acting day. You have to act like you don’t know this person that you woke up with in the morning and treat them as if they are a fictional character, and as your adversary, not your spouse. So it’s a lot going on. A lot is being tuned out while a lot is being opened up.” Preston teased that he’d be back on the series multiple times.
“Playing those different dynamics is just fun,” Preston added.
Elsbeth returns Jan. 30 on CBS and streams on Paramount+.
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