Posts Tagged ‘carrie preston’

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

The Person of Interest season 2 finale, called “God Mode,” airs on Thursday, May 9 at 9pm on CBS. In the episode, guest star Carrie Preston returns as Finch’s love Grace Hendricks and BuddyTV spoke with Preston exclusively about what fans can expect from Grace in the finale.

Check out what Preston had to say about her part in finale, how Grace might react if she knew the truth about Harold, her favorite scene to shoot and what it was like working with her husband (Michael Emerson, who plays Harold Finch on the show).

What can you say about the season finale?

Carrie Preston: It’s very interesting because I shot those scenes back in November or December when they had to shoot all of my stuff before I went back to work on True Blood. So my scene were shot completely out of context from the rest of the script. They hadn’t finished writing the script, they had to in some ways make some decisions that they wouldn’t have made early about how they were going to carry out the scenes and what they were going to do with them. In some cases they even shot a couple of different endings to one of the scenes. So I don’t know exactly how they’re going to fold those in and how they’re going to be edited together. I also shot the scene where he proposed to me at the same time and we originally thought that was all going to be in one episode and then they spread it out. I’m going to be just as surprised as everyone else. Obviously Michael read the script and knows where the finale is going, but even he doesn’t know exactly how they’re going to edit it together and what they’re going to reveal and what they’re going to save.

Are all of your scenes in the past or are we going to see Grace in the present in this episode?

Carrie Preston: It will be in the past. The remaining scenes [in the finale] will be from the past.

Could we see her back again next season?

Carrie Preston: On a show that always dips back and forth between the present and the past, I would think that there would be opportunity to either continue to explore the past or to see what’s happening in the present. So, maybe? I would love that, it would be quite fun.

If Harold walked up to Grace’s door and told her everything and said he wanted to be with her again, do you think she’d take him back or would she not be able to forgive the fact that he lied to her for so long?

Carrie Preston: I think that she would definitely take him back. She made it very clear that she’s a person who is someone who accepts a person for who they are and that he could tell her anything and she would be okay with it. They seem to be soul mates. I’m sure it would be a lot to take in, but I would imagine that she would just be so grateful that he was still there because she’s been mourning him. But I think also she would probably want to hold on tighter, she wouldn’t want to lose him a second time.

Would Grace ask Harold to give up his connection to the Machine because it is so dangerous or would she embrace that life and maybe want to help?

Carrie Preston: I think probably her first concern would be for his safety, but at the same time she would probably really appreciate that he is doing a lot of good in the world with it. I guess she would just be, in a lot of ways, supportive of that; the bigger picture of what he’s able to do and the lives he’s saving because of this machine. We’ll see, I mean it looks like The Machine is quite compromised right now so it’ll be curious to see how they get out of that predicament.

What’s it like working with your husband on the show?

Carrie Preston: It’s quite nice because so many times you go on these shows you’re a guest star and you’re a pinch hitter and you have to really go in there and create a whole history with the other actor and you have to trust each other immediately. Sometimes that can take a little time and be a little challenging and in this case we obviously trust each other and respect each other as actors and love each other. So all that work that you usually have to do was already done so we then we could just get there and focus on the scene and figure out the scene together. It was also fun for me too, because Michael has been on that show for a while and was very comfortable with the character and the crew and the whole thing. When I walked on set to rehearse with him it felt to me like I was actually spending time with Mr. Finch and not my husband. So that was very helpful for me to get into the character that I didn’t know nearly as well as he knows his. So it was very helpful, he was able to — without even knowing his was doing it — he was able to help me to really be comfortable in the skin of this character that I was really just now getting to know

Any favorite scenes you’ve done as Grace?

Carrie Preston: I would say it was the scene at the Guggenheim. It was just so wonderful to go to that incredible museum after hours. We were the only ones in there besides the security and the crew and everything, but to be in that museum and shooting after hours was a really special experience that I wouldn’t have ever thought I would have. But I was getting so nervous because the cameras were getting so close to these Picassos and all these priceless pieces of art – – there we were acting with them right next to us.

What do you think now that you’ve heard a little more about the Person of Interest finale from Carrie Preston? What do you think will happen to The Machine? Any theories on what we’re going to see from Harold and Grace’s past in the episode?

Person of Interest airs on Thursday
nights at 9pm on CBS.

Source: BuddyTV

Michael Emerson and his wife Carrie Preston maintain a 2-week rule while away filming their respective shows. Watch his People Magazine Interview by clicking on the photo:

By LAURI NEFF

NEW YORK — Michael Emerson has played a serial killer, a mysterious, villainous Island leader and currently stars as a billionaire computer genius on “Person of Interest.”

But he says playing the romantic interest for his real life wife has been his most unsettling role.

Emerson plays the off-beat Harold Finch in “Person of Interest,” which airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. Eastern. His wife Carrie Preston has a recurring role as Finch’s former fiance, who believes he is dead

The couple has acted together in a few independent films and Preston even played Emerson’s mother in an episode of ABC’s “Lost,” but this was their first romantic pairing. This season even showed the characters’ first kiss.

“Neither of us are the kind to get a lot romantic work in front of the camera so for us to get a big old languid first kiss with music underneath it and everything — that’s a first in my career,” he said.

Emerson said having his wife play his love interest can be tricky: “It’s a little hard to turn off her wife-ness to me to make her just this other character.”

Still, the Emmy-winning actor said he’s happy to have his better half on set — even though he didn’t help get her there. “Maybe Jonah (writer Jonathan Nolan) called me on the phone and said, `Would you have a problem if we asked your wife to play a character that we’re working on?’ And I said, `No.’ That’s how much I politicked to get her the part. I was completely unaware of it.”

Preston, who also appears in “True Blood” and “The Good Wife,” also found working with him a little strange but that nothing was more bizarre for them than watching the kiss on TV.

“We both sat and watched it together at home on the sofa and we got all kind of giggly and shy about it. It was like we didn’t know how to look at each other,” he said. “It’s like, `Oh God, there we are. We’re kissing.’”

Source: Comcast

You can view the larger version of these photos here.

Sandra Gonzales has and interesting blurb and videoabout Michael Emerson and his wife Carrie Preston in the EW website. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video (so I am including the link) and, besides,  most of you must have seen it on TV during the last week of November. Here it is again, anyway.
~Edith

‘Person of Interest’: See Grace and Finch’s first date — EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Following ‘Lost,’ Michael Emerson has settled into hit series ‘Person of Interest’
  

• He spends lots of time with former co-star Terry O’Quinn on a new island, New York

• Emerson voices the Joker in an upcoming animated film

• Emerson’s wife, Carrie Preston of ‘True Blood,’ guest stars this week

To view a larger version of this photo, click here.

(CNN)—For five years, Michael Emerson was the villain who stole just about every scene on “Lost.” (And he has the Emmy to prove it.)

He was such an important part of that landmark series that it only seemed to make sense that he ended up on the side of good, keeping watch on the island when it was all over.

Now Emerson is on the island of Manhattan, filming “Person of Interest,” one of the top dramas on television.

On the CBS sci-fi procedural, Emerson plays Finch, a mysterious genius whose creation, the Machine, can predict crimes before they happen. This time, his character’s motives are more pure.

Emerson spoke to CNN about settling into this new role, an accidental visit to the set of “Gossip Girl” and his old friend from “Lost,” Terry O’Quinn.

CNN: Now that you have a year under your belt, is Finch still a mystery to you?

Emerson: He’s still a bit mysterious to me. I play it every day and I hope I play it well. I don’t have a very elaborate mental biography for him, I must say. I think he must evidently be a lot like me, because whatever my instincts are about the scenes tend to be the things that get used.

CNN: Would you describe him as a good guy at this point?

Emerson: I don’t think his altruism is in doubt. If anything he has misgivings about the purity of his suicide mission for justice.

CNN: With so many productions going on in New York, I heard you had a run in with one of them.

Emerson: One day we were shooting downtown in the financial district. We just finished a scene and the company was breaking up to go to lunch. I don’t know if I stood and gabbed with somebody on the curb. Next thing, I looked up and couldn’t find anybody from our company, and I guess I zoned out when they drove me there in the van because I couldn’t remember which direction I came from. I started walking and I got to another camp and it looked like ours. But it was another show. [Laughs] I’m sure they would have fed me. I think it was ["Gossip Girl"].

What if it were more surreal or absurd, where characters from “Person of Interest” walked into “Big Bang Theory” or something like that? That’s a fun idea that has been completely unexplored.

CNN: Do you run into your old friend from “Lost,” Terry O’Quinn, who is shooting (the now-canceled-but-still-in-production) “666 Park Avenue?”

Emerson: It’s fun to have an old pal from the other island here on this island. He lives less than 20 blocks away from me. We get together every week or 10 days.

It is a bit [like old times]. It’s just the setting is more urban and we’re much better dressed. We both have really nice clothes in the shows we’re doing now.

CNN: What did you two have in common on “Lost?”

Emerson: To start with, we had age. We were both the oldest guys on that show. We had many more things in common: small town Midwestern backgrounds, and we both moved to big cities to pursue the unlikely dream of being an actor. We both ended up accidentally on a big series. We had some of the same work habits. We had so many things in common. We had a bunch of the best scenes on the series. It was good, intense, dark work and yet we had good laughs doing it.

CNN: So you were a villain and now you’re a hero.

Emerson: I’ll stick with that. Villains generally are more fun, but they’re hard to maintain. I guess anything is hard to maintain in TV land. I’m happy that my character on “Person of Interest” has enough ambiguity that it’s still compelling in that villain way, except he’s not. He does operate on the wrong side of the law so at least we have that.

CNN: Do you ever talk about projects you can do with your wife, Carrie Preston (“True Blood”)?

Emerson: We sometimes talk about plays we’d like to do together. That shows how our minds work.

I shot a few scenes with her on “Person of Interest,” which was a great pleasure. We’d never done TV work together.

CNN: What about a guest spot on “True Blood”?

Emerson: I’d be happy to do it, but I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. I can’t go on there and play anything sinister because I’ve kind of done that. I guess I could play an innocent. I’ve said I’d be happy to play a humble human who gets torn apart by supernatural beings.

The characters I like on that show are the most ancient ones. I like Godric. I like thinking about how he looks like he’s 19 but he’s 2000 years old.

CNN: And what was it like voicing the Joker in the “Dark Knight Returns” DVD movie?

Emerson: If I knew how significant it was to play that role in that franchise, I think I would have been terrified when I took it. I must have been busy or distracted, because I went in there carefree. I had not seen these recent big screen “Batmans.” That’s probably a blessing. Later when I saw Heath Ledger, I thought “Oh, God. If I’d have seen this, I might not have done it.” As it was, my only role model was Cesar Romero, and I thought, surely I can do as well as Cesar Romero.

CNN: Did you get to laugh?

Emerson: I did. It was a chance not to be repressed or contained. All the shows I do, it’s all about keeping a lid on it or staying small. When you play the Joker, the sky’s the limit. You can turn that thing up to 11.

I know it’s a franchise where people have very high expectations and loyalties to whomever has played before, so I hope they’ll accept me.

Source: CNN

Jimmy Aquino and Michael Emerson have been friends for many, many years. If you ever listen to any of the many interviews that Mr. Aquino has done with Michael Emerson (CNI) , you can sense how relaxed Michael Emerson is when talking to Aquino. You can also sense that they have a history together and that they do like each other. Here’s a great and recent interview Jimmy Aquino made for Stated Magazine. There are some new information even for the die-hard Michael Emerson Fan. Enjoy~Edith

By Jimmy Aquino, Pop Culture Contributing Editor

This blog is really about Michael Emerson, but Carrie Preston is his wife and many times when she is interviewed, she talks about her husband. And she does in this article from Vulture as well, enjoy:

Carrie Preston is best known as Arlene Fowler on True Blood and Elsbeth Tascioni on The Good Wife, both wacky characters in their own right. But she’s only making a cameo in her latest film, That’s What She Said, which she directed. The comedy, now in limited release, is an adaptation of the play Girl Talk by Kellie Overbey (which Preston also directed) and features three very different women: an optimist looking forward to a prospective date (played by Marcia DeBonis), a cynic who no longer believes in love (Anne Heche), and a nymphomaniac who uses sex to feel better about everything (Alia Shawkat). In the case of the last, if a partner isn’t readily available, she’ll retire to the nearest public restroom or hop on a subway train, which has a vibrator effect on her. Preston chatted with Vulture about orgasms on the subway, women in Hollywood, and modern dildos.

You really get the sense that you’re in the real New York with this film — not a glamorized, idealized version of the city.
It was really important to me to depict that. This morning, it was pouring rain. Pouring. I’m wearing heels and a very tight dress, and I had my hair all down and everything. My sweet husband [Michael Emerson] cut together from an old poncho a little hair tie for me — and I looked like the biggest bag lady! I had a hair tie that was blue, I had a black raincoat, a red umbrella, and a pink purse, and boots, with my high heels in a bag. And looking like that, I took the subway because I’m never going to catch a cab in the rain. It’s not Sex and the City, and I feel like the movie tries to capture that.

The subway scenes, you mean.
Illegally filmed, by the way.

Both scenes employ methods that people might want to borrow: first, Anne Heche’s pretense of having Tourette’s to get people to move away from her, very handy; and second, Alia Shawkat’s technique of getting an orgasm from the train’s vibrations.
You wouldn’t believe it, but we actually shot Anne’s scenes in a very crowded subway. That was my costume designer and script supervisor who were sitting next to her, because we didn’t have any money for background. People sort of looked, laughed a little bit, and then went right back to whatever it was that they were doing. They couldn’t have cared less: “Eh, Anne Heche doing something weird, whatever.” Same with the orgasms. No one batted an eye. Although that was very subtle — you had to know. But Alia was changing costumes on the subway in between the takes, so we were on the subway holding up coats to help her change clothing, and there was a camera operator, a boom operator, and me, so it was pretty kamikaze to shoot. We were doing this, mind you, at three in the morning, and on the A train — but, still, the subway was alarmingly packed at that hour.

Is the A train the best train for orgasms?
I wouldn’t know because I’ve never tried it, but in theory, yes. [Laughs.] There’s no O train, so I think it’s the A. There are fewer stops, so you definitely have a longer run at it, to get the rhythm going. It’s a good stretch. You could do it all the way to JFK. I love that in the movie, when she says she has spontaneous orgasms on the train, people ask, “Which train? Which line?” I mean, she wants to know exactly where she needs to go to get it on.

Where did you get Alia’s dildo for when she wants her orgasms in slightly more private locations?
The props woman on the film, she went everywhere, and she would send me these pictures and videos of these sex toys, and I was like, “Too much!” They all had these wings and things, and I was like, “Does no one just make a plain vibrator anymore? Can you find something that’s not out of a science-fiction movie?” Most of them have all these appendages, and for that shot, I just wanted a phallic symbol. I didn’t need it to be an alien thing on the floor that was moving around, so we had to craft that.

This started as a play in 2004, long before raunchy female comedies became en vogue again.
When Kellie wrote this script, there were no Bridesmaids running around. There was no Bachelorette happening. There were no Girls on HBO. There was none of that. I’m happy about those — I love Bridesmaids; I was there opening night — but I feel like Hollywood has amnesia. Do they not remember the silent films that were almost all starring women? Do they not remember the screwball comedies? Do they not remember Lucille Ball? They don’t, and they forget, and we’ve had some major amnesia, and we’re starting to come back into it. But if I’m going to watch men grabbing their crotch onscreen since the beginning of the talkies, we need a tit for tat.

I thought it was because Marcia’s character had just shaved at first, but she’s grabbing her crotch because of a yeast infection.
Movies don’t usually address any of that, any of the stuff that we do. Here’s a woman holding up a centerfold, shaving, trying to live up to an ideal, and you know she’s not going to. She represents many, many women in the world that Hollywood will never give a leading role to.

Unless you’re Melissa McCarthy.
And then they make an exception. And I’m glad that’s happening. But it’s very rare. As a feminist and a woman who believes in representing all females in film, I thought the only way to do that is to make it happen yourself. If we sent Kellie’s script to Hollywood, this would not be the cast. They would just want someone who puts glasses on and goes, “Oops! I’m adorkable!”

You’re on hiatus right now for True Blood. Any discussions yet with the new showrunner [Mark Hudis] about how things might change for Arlene and Terry?
No, but he’s wonderful, and he’s a big supporter of Arlene and Terry, so I’m curious to see what they’ll do what with our characters. Right now, I’m doing a three-episode arc on my husband’s show, [Person of Interest], playing his fiancée. We’re doing flashback scenes, and it’s so fun to be working with him, to be on set with him and see how he works with that character. It’d be fun if he could ever cameo on True Blood, too!

I love Carrie Preston’s movies. They are so original and now, here’s another reason to watch That’s What She Said: