TV
Hollywood is littered with young starlets who come out of nowhere, land a big role and suddenly get their images splayed across gossip pages and men's magazines. But Carrie Preston's ascent has been slow and steady. The 42-year-old has made the most of every role — first bit parts in films like Transamerica and The Stepford Wives, then guest spots on TV shows like Arrested Development and Sex and the City and, more recently, as Arlene Fowler on HBO's vampire drama True Blood.
In her latest film, That Evening Sun, she steals scene after scene as Ludie Choat, a long-suffering farmwife trying to survive on the former homestead of an aging Tennessee farmer (Hal Holbrook) who's having trouble letting go. The film adapts one of Southern author William Gay's short stories, and gives Georgia native Preston a chance to return to her roots.
"When I became a classically trained actor, I lost the accent," she says. "And then my first major Hollywood movie was My Best Friend's Wedding where I was playing a Southerner. So you can take the girl out of Georgia, but you can't take the Georgia out of the girl. I'm glad because I like being able to call it up when I need it. I think it's nice to have the luxury to distinguish between different types of accents, different types of class, you know, different characters, whereas a lot of actors in Hollywood just sort of put on this Tennessee Williams thing."
Preston has called forth her own opportunities, too, creating acting jobs when they weren't falling in her lap. In 2004, she launched a production company with a classmate from Juilliard, James Vasquez, and his partner Mark Holmes. Preston directed Daisy 3 Pictures' first feature, 29th and Gay, and starred in 2007's Ready? OK! alongside her real-life husband Michael Emerson (Ben Linus on Lost).
"If you're not being hired, then every little brick that you lay, you know, 'I built something here,'" she says. "I feel like since True Blood came on the air, a lot of things just all came to a head at the same time. It's been a really good year for me."
