Elsbeth isn't 'like any of the other detectives on TV.' Carrie Preston wouldn't have it any other way.

Carrie Preston has known Elsbeth Tascioni for 15 years.

She first played the quirky lawyer with a penchant for brightly colored clothing and unconventional thinking on an episode of The Good Wife in 2010, winning an Emmy in 2013 for the role and returning for guest appearances several times.

The character now has her own spin-off show — CBS’s popular procedural Elsbeth. She plays the title character, who moves from Chicago to New York City and works to investigate crimes with the police instead of defending the accused in court.

“I never expected I'd have my own show, or that Elsbeth would be the center of a show, but the character did stay with me,” Preston told Yahoo Entertainment. “She's very infectious. She's joyful and positive and curious and mercurial and has this brilliant mind. That just doesn't leave you easily when you play it. It stays with you.”

Since Elsbeth was technically a guest character on The Good Wife and The Good Fight for many years, she was never sure when she’d be coming back onscreen.

“I look at every day as a miracle and as if it’s the last day that I get to play her, because I don't want to waste a moment,” she said. “People really love that she's unconventional. She's not like any of the other detectives on TV.”

One of Preston’s favorite things about Elsbeth is that fans tell her she “represents a lot of people who are underrepresented.”

“Women who are reinventing themselves, who are relying on their brains to get through the day. They're not attached to a particular man or person,” she said. “They have their own way of doing things that's unusual, and their brains work in a different way than maybe the people around them.”

One of Elsbeth’s signature characteristics on the show is how she’s able to notice clues and quirks that other people can’t because of her unusual way of thinking. This has led fans to speculate whether Elsbeth might be neurodivergent, but Preston didn’t want to put a label on her.

“We’re all very careful not to diagnose her because she is such an individual. She is solely and decidedly who she is, and I love that about her. She is unique,” Preston said. “If we were in any way to put some kind of diagnosis or label on her, I think that would limit her, because inevitably I wouldn't live up to whatever the diagnosis is, or it would invite more conversation that couldn't be answered.”

“I just like to say she's Elsbeth,” Preston added.

Another beloved element of the character is how she’s always wearing bright colors and tons of accessories. Preston credited Dan Lawson, the series’ costume designer who has fine-tuned Elsbeth’s look since her debut on The Good Wife, for making her such a “visual character.”

“I love her style. I'm somebody who likes to wear color. That's always been something that I've enjoyed my whole life. I always like to wear patterns and colors,” Preston said. “I mean, ask my mom! She used to call it ‘humor dressing’ because I would mix patterns and do things that were, you know, maybe not what the other kids were doing.”

Elsbeth took inspiration from Preston’s personal life in another way — the show cast her real-life husband, Michael Emerson, as her onscreen adversary. They’ve worked together many times over the years, but this is the first time he played the villain.

“I would definitely put this at the top [of the list] of all the things we’ve done together,” she said. “We’re going head-to-head, so that made for some very interesting and electric moments that we haven’t been able to share before as actors.”

“And we certainly don’t share any of that in our real life,” she added, laughing.

Without spoiling Emerson’s character’s fate, Preston said it was “thrilling for the show,” albeit “sad and scary.”

“I think it shocked all the fans!” she said.

The Elsbeth Season 2 finale airs May 8 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.