Carrie Preston Jokes She’s Encouraging New ‘Elsbeth’ Castmate Lindsay Mendez to Snag Her ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ Co-Stars Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff For Guest Spots: “We Would Love That”

By Hope Sloop

Not a day goes by that we aren’t hoping Carrie Preston convinces her new Elsbeth costar, Lindsay Mendez, to talk her Merrily We Roll Along BFFs Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff into guest-starring on the show. See what we did there?

Ahead of the Season 3 premiere of Preston’s CBS dramedy, the actress sat down with DECIDER to chat about the upcoming 20 episodes, as well as the next crop of guest stars, a group that includes names like Stephen Colbert, Julia Fox, David Cross, and more. Also starring in the new season is Mendez, a Broadway icon with titles like Wicked, Dogfight, and Godspell to her name. More recently, though, the former Elphaba became old friends with Groff and Radcliffe in the 2023 Merrily revival in what many theater critics called a redemption for the Stephen Sondheim show.

Now, Preston — who told DECIDER she saw the show featuring the Broadway trio during its run — jokes that she’s going to tap into Mendez’s theater circle to nab the Harry Potter star and the Frozen voice actor for her own series.

“‘Hey guys, I’m having a good time on this show,'” Preston joked of what she hopes Mendez tells Groff and Radcliffe. “We would love that. I mean, Jonathan Groff is very busy with his show and Daniel Radcliffe is pretty busy himself. These guest stars are so great that it’s a miracle that we’re able to even work out any of their scheduling. But of course, I would love that.”

PHOTO: CBS

She added that while not necessarily the case, showrunner Jon Tolins has been known to write guest-starring roles specifically for actors — something he did for Matthew Broderick in Season 2 — and that if Groff and Radcliffe are open to it, it’s just a matter of working out the logistics and getting them to set.

Preston said, “You’ve got to find the holes in their schedules and make it all line up for them to come and be with us for a couple of weeks.”

Keep reading for DECIDER’s full interview with Preston for Elsbeth Season 3.

DECIDER: I can’t believe we’re back already! Carrie, how does it feel to be going into Season 3?

CARRIE PRESTON: I just feel so grateful that the show has caught on and that people want to see it. And that CBS has given us this gift of 20 more episodes. We’re in the thick of it already. We’re almost done with Episode 6, starting Episode 7 next week, and it’s going great. It’s just going really well. We’re in our groove. 

Well, you guys have already announced some pretty big guest stars, one being Stephen Colbert. This is kind of his first role back as a proper actor since the announcement of the end of The Late Show. What was he saying on set about being back and acting?

It seemed to me that he was absolutely thrilled to be doing a scripted show and to be using the great acting chops that he has. I mean, this guy can do anything. He can do improv, he can be a talk show host, he can do political commentary, he can be an actor. It’s really impressive. And he’s what a great person he is. You know, I only met him the one time that I went on his show when we were just launching Elsbeth. And he was so lovely. It was my very first late-night interview, i’d never been on late night before, and it was the perfect way to be introduced into that. It was strange for me to then be the hostess for him on the show. And yet he’s playing a late-night talk show host on our show so there were all these fun layers.

Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS

And he’s working with two of his old friends, Amy Sedaris and Andy Richter. And so I think he was really happy to be reunited with them. And also, the week before he came to play with us, he found out that his show was not being renewed. And so I think it was probably a boost, you know, for him to have something to, to concentrate on that wasn’t about that. As a matter of fact, we were a little worried that he was going to be too busy to come and do it with us. But true to his nature, he made it happen and honored his commitment and was really flawless.

Well, how was it having all three of them on set together? Was it improv central? Did anyone ever have to be like, “Let’s rein it in, guys, we have work to do.”

No, they’re all very serious about the work, which is why they’re so good at what they do. They take everything that they do seriously. And yes, they’re also incredibly funny. They think so quickly on their feet. The jokes and the lightheartedness was refreshing and fun but when it came down to somebody calling action, they were hitting their marks and bringing all of their talent to the scene. Amy was just delightful, I mean, she’s hilarious. Like, the crew was just eating up everything that she was doing on and off camera. We had this scene together where we had to do an improv quote, unquote, and it was all scripted. But she and I were able to kind of bring our theater chops to that to make it fun and fresh and that was one of my favorite scenes that we got to do together. The thing that’s so wonderful about Elsbeth for me is that there are all of these guest stars that I have admired for my whole life as an actor that are coming on to play and I just feel so honored that they want to come and spend time with us.

One of my favorite things about Elsbeth is all of the referential elements. Stephen Colbert playing Scottie Bristol, and then you have Lindsay Mendez making Merrily We Roll Along jokes. Did you get to see it on stage?

Oh sure.

She’s an icon! Was she down for all the little jokes?

She loved it. She loved it. And even at one point, when I was doing the big scene where I sum up the whole crime at the end, we were about to start shooting and I realized, oh, gosh, I have the best resource here. I said, “Lindsay, is there any like, little thing that you and the guys, Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe, did together? Like some little gesture or something?” And she goes, “Oh yeah, we did a thing like this” [locks her fingers]. So I worked that into my monologue just for the fans who might have seen that show. And you know, we love to do things like that, to add in little textures, little layers for the fans. And even if only 1% of the audience gets it, the rest of the audience knows that there’s something rich happening again.

Photo: Getty Images

Since Lindsay’s there now, any chance we might be seeing Jonathan or Daniel on the show? Are you looking at Lindsay and telling her to spread the good word, like, “Hey guys, I’m having a great time on this little show.”

“Hey guys, I’m having a good time on this show.” I mean, of course, we would love that. Jonathan Groff is very busy with his show and Daniel Radcliffe is pretty busy himself. These guest stars are so great that it’s a miracle that we’re able to even work out any of their scheduling. But, of course, I would love that. And I know Jon Tolins, our showrunner, would love that. And they write roles specifically for people who want to be on the show, like he wrote that episode for Matthew Broderick last year. You’ve got to find the holes in their schedules and make it all line up for them to come and be with us for a couple of weeks.

Carrie, it’s been a pleasure. I have one final question for you. I’ve been asking pretty much everybody I interview these days: What do you think would be your character’s current favorite television show?

Elsbeth would probably like Only Murders in the Building. I mean, she would like the detective side of that, you know? But she would probably like it because she wants to smile and laugh. So I think she would probably go for that.

The first episode of Elsbeth Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+. New episodes premiere Thursdays on CBS at 9:30 p.m. and stream the next day on Paramount+.

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