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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 6, “Gold, Frankincense, and Murder.”]
Carrie Preston‘s Elsbeth Tascioni got a very special gift at the end of Elsbeth‘s first Christmas episode on December 5 on CBS. After solving the murder mystery of the week — which featured Christopher Fitzgerald (the original Boq in Wicked on Broadway) and SNL‘s Vanessa Bayer as a lethally unhappy couple at the head of a Christmas commercialism empire — Kaya (Carra Patterson) helped arrange a surprise so Elsbeth wouldn’t be alone on Christmas.
Kaya and Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) brought a surprise guest to Elsbeth’s for the holidays: her son, Teddy Tascioni! Teddy has been only been mentioned, never seen throughout The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and this Preston-led spinoff, but that changed when Ben Levi Ross made his series debut in the final moments of the episode.
Teddy spends every other Christmas with his dad, and this was one of those years. Elsbeth was looking forward to spending the holiday with temporary roommate and colleague Kaya, but Kaya would be spending Christmas with her family on a cruise. She couldn’t leave for the holiday without helping her friend feel less lonely. The Elsbeth family affair continues in next week’s episode, when Preston’s real-life husband, Evil‘s Michael Emerson, makes his series debut as a judge who Teddy will find suspicious.
Ross is best known for his work in musical theater; he was an understudy for the roles of Evan, Connor, and Jared in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and played Evan in the national tour. Get ready for him to become a familiar face on Elsbeth. Here, Ross breaks down his debut to TV Insider, sharing details from his chemistry read and time on set with Preston and what’s next for Teddy.
Congratulations on the part. This is a very talked about character, but never before seen. Are you excited to be part of the series and bring Teddy to life?
Ben Levi Ross: So excited. This is an actor’s dream to have something that has existed in a universe and then come in and get to make it come to life. I’ve been a fan of the show before this, so I was super familiar with Elsbeth. Thinking about Carrie’s work in the show and what she’s built and then getting to hop into the family is super fun and exciting.
Did you watch The Good Wife and The Good Fight before Elsbeth?
I have to say, I did not watch The Good Wife or The Good Fight, but I did watch Elsbeth. That was where I picked up. I actually didn’t even know that she was a spinoff. I thought that this was an original thing when I first started watching, and then I realized that it was a spinoff. I watched Season 1 because A) I loved it, and B) I had a lot of friends that had done little roles here and there.
Tell me what you knew about Teddy coming into this. What did they tell you about the role when you were auditioning?
Just that he was not living in the city, and I knew there was a boyfriend that was in the picture. They really left it quite open in terms of characterization. [Showrunner] Jonathan Tolins was really excited about this part because he had been thinking about her family for the whole last season. So I did audition. I had a chemistry read with Carrie, and it was so natural. It was so easy. She was so warm, and she’s very maternal the way that she plays Elsbeth. Elsbeth has this warm, Midwest maternal energy, so all I had to do was really allow that to penetrate and then I felt like a son very quickly. It was really believable on both of our parts, I think.
CBS
For your chemistry read, was that a scene from Season 2 Episode 7?
It was a lot of them. It was snippets of almost every time [they’re together onscreen in 207]. I think me and Carrie mainly did [a] scene at the end of the episode where I’m sort of checking in with her about what’s going on with her life.
Was Teddy’s debut the first scene you filmed?
Yeah, that was the first scene we filmed, and I knew that I was coming in a week later for the next episode. So in some ways it was very meta because I was meeting Wendell and I was meeting Carra and I was meeting the actors that I was going to be working with and also Teddy would’ve been meeting them too. So that was nice. And I have to say, that was the first time I’ve ever been in Santa Claus getup.
Have you since learned anything about Teddy’s backstory that viewers don’t know?
Actually, viewers know more than Teddy does about certain things about his life, like the job situation, the fact that his mom greases the wheels a little bit and helps him get the job that he’s in right now. That’s an interesting thing to come in with. There’s already a little bit of movement happening with Teddy’s character, but I think the more that the show goes on, the more opportunities there will be to explore his life. Because at this moment in the very beginning, he really is a catalyst for us being able to see Elsbeth in a different position. We haven’t really seen her as a mother. We haven’t seen her as a parent. And so in these two episodes, especially 207, that’s my main purpose at the moment. But there’s more to come.
What can you preview about Elsbeth as a mother?
You will see that some of her avoidant nature of some of the secrets that she maybe has, you see that she can’t hide when she’s talking to her son. That’s a really special thing that happens in parent-child relationships. Your child can see through the wall that you keep up. They know you the best. That’s just a really nice dynamic to have on the show. And you see where her [traits] converge and diverge between the two of us, because Teddy’s definitely not a replica of Elsbeth, but he is her child. So you see some similarities.
CBS
We’ve only seen Teddy as dressed as Santa so far. Does he share his mother’s fashion sensibilities?
Listen, he’s a chic boy. I can give you that. It’s so funny, I was out to dinner with a friend the other night who was wearing a costume piece of mine that I had just been wearing that week [on the show], this very cute jacket. I was like, where is this from? And he was like, this is a very expensive jacket! And I was like, I’ve been wearing that on set for the last four days.
Michael Emerson makes his series debut next week, and Teddy will be looking into this judge that he plays a bit. What can you share about that?
A fun door that’s opened here is that Teddy takes interest in Elsbeth’s line of work a little bit. We definitely see that he’s a questioner as well. He doesn’t just believe exactly what’s on the surface, so when he hears them talking about this case, he takes it upon himself to do some research. That’s definitely something that I think could be fun to explore in the future, just more of seeing Teddy accidentally, or not accidentally help his mom on cases with certain things that trigger her brilliant mind. It’s a small moment [with the judge], but I think it lands and shows the kind of person that he is, the kind of mind he inherited from his mom.
Is there anything that you suggested for the character, or did the show have a very clear idea of who Teddy would be?
It’s pretty clear just from the page in the first couple of episodes, but the fun thing about doing TV is that it’s being written as it goes. Because I’m now playing this part and because I’m in touch with our showrunner and because me and Carrie are pretty close now, there’s just things that are going to develop because I’m playing the part. But I also bring a lot of myself to a lot of the parts that I play, so some of that humor is definitely something that is maybe just mine. I think that Teddy, because I have a dry sense of humor, has a little bit of that come through. It’s the kind of thing where, because I’m playing the part now, whoever’s writing these episodes will have my voice and my wry sense of humor in their head. It’ll just continue to develop, and I’m excited to see what happens next.
Teddy currently lives in Chicago, but is he moving to New York?
Gosh, who knows. You’ll see that his boyfriend is moving to New York, and so that’s what’s taking him there. That’s the journey. His push and pull on the show is that he doesn’t want to like New York, but he ends up feeling like he does really like it. But it’s pulling his partner away from him, so it’s frustrating. You’ll just have to stay tuned.
Tell about working with Carrie and developing this mother-son rapport.
Oh, gosh. She is truly one of the best. For someone who has to get up at 4 a.m. five days a week and shoot no matter what, she is so incredibly alive and warm and welcoming to every new cast member. There are constantly a lot of new cast members when you’re doing a show like this. I’ve learned a lot from her, honestly. Not just from take to take how to make things different and make things alive, but how to be a really kind and considerate and professional actor on a set. She’s been playing this part now for 14 years, which is insane. It’s inspiring to see the story of Elsbeth, to land where she has landed this part because you don’t see this. It’s just such a testament to what she’s been able to do with this character and have people fall in love with her. We have nicknames for each other now. Mine [for Preston] is not fully solidified. She calls me Teddy Ben. It’s adorable. I’m still working out the kinks in [her nickname].
What do you call her?
Mama Care. “Bear” is weirdly the thing that’s in both.
Teddy and Mama Bear. That’s perfect.
Yeah! I just adore her. Also she’s just brilliant. I just need to say, she’s a Juilliard-trained, incredible, incredible actress. I’ve been a fan of her since True Blood, and she’s an amazing director too. She’s directed theater, she’s directed TV. I think she’s just one of the best.
She’s just so endearing too. The character is even more endearing because of that. How was it seeing Carrie and Michael work together?
It’s amazing. It’s so cool that they’re with each other. I unfortunately did not cross with him at all that episode, but I’m so excited just as a fan to watch his arc in the show because I think that he is also so brilliant. And we get to see him stick around for a while this season too, which is really exciting. I wish I was in the room where it happened, but I wasn’t.
And how does Teddy get along with Elsbeth’s work family?
We see that it very quickly works. I think that that makes sense and is a testament to him and Elsbeth having these similarities because even though some people are wary of her, she falls into the world pretty easily and everyone ends up loving her. And so I think that they really wanted to show that Teddy brought a similar energy. He’s just happy that they’re taking care of her and that she has made friends and that she’s doing well in New York. Because at the end of the day, that’s what he cares about the most, is that his mom is happy and is doing well.
Elsbeth, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS