‘Elsbeth’: Why Gloria Reuben Loves Her Introduction as Wagner’s Wife

Elsbeth is about to show a softer side to Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), and you’re going to love how the charming, quirky, and just plain fun show does that.

The April 11 episode introduces Wagner’s wife, Claudia (Gloria Reuben), and from her first scene, you can immediately see why she fits in so well into Wagner’s world and is good about separating him from it. Also in the episode, “Love Knocked off,” Retta guest stars as an elite matchmaker who goes to extreme lengths to keep her socialite client from finding out the truth about her perfect new husband. When he goes missing, Captain Wagner assigns Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) and Kaya (Carra Patterson) to investigate.

Below, Reuben introduces us to Claudia and talks about working with Preston and Pierce.

Over the first few episodes, we’ve mostly seen the gruff side of Wagner, but his wife is very different. So introduce Claudia.

Gloria Reuben: As Wendell said, having his wife there will reveal more of the character’s sweet side—Wendell is sweet to begin with—so I think that that’s one of the things that will be revealed in the first episode when Claudia is introduced.

Michael Parmelee/CBS

I really like the way she comes into his office, because you get a sense of their relationship just from what we see of them in a few scenes. And the showrunner, Jonathan Tolins, has said that their marriage is very loving, so talk about their relationship a bit.

I love how you said that as soon as Claudia enters her husband’s office, you get a sense of what the relationship is like. I agree. This is one of the things I loved about rehearsing that scene right out of the gate: Okay, I want to hang the coat up because this is just what she does every time she does visit her husband and give him a kiss. She’s cordial to Elsbeth. “Oh, nice to meet you.” All of that. And then she kind of weaves in a little bit with what’s going on in the room. She’s beside her husband. And then she kind of knows when [to leave], “Okay, I know you’re at work.” There’s a great deal of respect for each other and a great deal of sweetness and love.

How much do you know about their backstory that you can share?

Wendell and I basically started talking about it when we knew we were going to start working together because on the page is what’s on the page. And it’s just the first episode that Claudia is introduced. So he and I started talking about our extended family, what that looks like, our marriage as a whole, and the kind of pivotal points throughout our marriage that have really shaped our marriage, and it’s still quite fresh. So we’re still kind of investigating and finding more detail and more nuances. That certainly will happen on the page as well in future episodes. But I love that since his character is a new character as is mine, there’s a lot of fresh ideas. There can be a lot of imagination, a lot of creativity that’s used and mined, if you will, to expand and amplify this marriage and this couple and themselves individually as well.

What does Claudia think of Elsbeth? Because I love their dynamic already with what we see in this episode.

[Laughs] It’s funny because I think that there’s an immediate kind of genuine curiosity that Claudia has about Elsbeth. She looks at her a little bit, this very exuberant, kind of excited, high-energy personality, and it’s a little bit disarming in a way. However, I feel like there’s something so genuine—certainly, of course, genuine about Carrie, but about the character as well—that Claudia can pick up on. And so later on in the episode, you get to kind of see this simpatico in terms of more of a curiosity, kind of wanting to know who this Elsbeth gal is. And that’s something, too, that I like about Claudia is that she’s really curious about people. I really like that quality.

Does that mean we could see her getting in on some investigating?

That’s funny. [Laughs] That would be funny. Oh my goodness. As far as I know, that’s not being planned. However, yes, Claudia will be back, let’s just put it that way.

I think what it is with Claudia is that she lets herself be charmed by Elsbeth in a way that her husband can’t let himself be, and that’s why we see that difference in the way they both relate to her.

Yeah, exactly.

Related

Roush Review: 'Elsbeth' and the Art of the Light Mystery

We do know that Elsbeth is investigating Wagner and his and Claudia’s foundation. Should we be questioning if there’s more to Claudia than meets the eye?

I think as with every human being, there’s always more to what is initially introduced—and for good writing, which is obviously on this show. I cannot wait to discover what that might be.

Talk about working with Carrie and with Wendell.

Wendell and I crossed paths many, many times at events. I saw him when he was on Broadway and at certain things here in the New York theater and film community. But it was our first time working together, so there was a familiarity in terms of saying hello and chatting for a few minutes now and then. But from day one, our energies were so aligned and a natural ease with each other we’ve shared. So that’s been really, really helpful, needless to say. Claudia’s introduction in the episode was really easy and a lot of fun and very collaborative and very welcoming, with both Wendell and Carrie.

I had never met Carrie before, and right out of the gate—and this is because Carrie has this wonderful personality. She is an extremely open, generous person. Her soul is just a generous soul. Her spirit is just—that’s just who she is. And so that kind of energy of just welcoming everybody is really palpable and put me at complete ease right out of the gate. I love how smart she is, how funny she is, how grounded she is, how creative she is, and how supportive she is. I want to be her when I grow up. How talented she is, all of that. She’s really something special.

Elsbeth, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS