ELSBETH: Ben Levi Ross on Teddy’s Future in New York, Familial Tension, and His Favorite Moment to Come

December 16, 2024 by Marisa Roffman

“One Angry Woman” – Elsbeth finally makes it as a true New Yorker when she is summoned to jury duty and lands on a murder trial where she faces off with the unusually difficult Judge Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) who will prove a formidable adversary, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 12 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*
Pictured: Ben Levi Ross as Teddy
Photo: CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

ELSBETH’s Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) got a special holiday gift from Kaya (Carra Patterson) and Wagner (Wendell Pierce): A surprise visit from Teddy (Ben Levi Ross).

Though their reunion didn’t go exactly as planned—Elsbeth spent much of their time together on jury duty, and getting entangled with a nefarious judge—there’s more to come for the duo now that Teddy’s boyfriend is moving to New York.

Here, Ross talks with Give Me My Remote about his early ELSBETH days, how Teddy might play into episodes later, and the scene he’s stoked for fans to see in 2025.

You started your run on the show doing a scene with all of the regulars. What was it like to be so surrounded by them in your first episodes?
That’s a really important scene, because you see Elsbeth’s kin very quickly get comfortable with people that she very quickly got comfortable with. So I wanted to make sure that we got that feeling: That he could be sort of talking smack about New York with these people, and they’re not taking it too seriously, and they’re not thinking that he’s stuck up, or anything. You want to see that they can talk shop and that it’s comfortable. That they’re happy to have him there in the precinct. And just as an actor, there’s nothing more “thrown into the deep end” than just being told to do a scene with the regulars that have been doing this show for an entire season and know each other so well. So I was really happy to just get that right off the bat in the first episode that I’m in.

Wagner and Kaya were the ones to bring Teddy to town. What are his thoughts on their relationship with his mom?
He’s just really happy that she’s created a good life for herself. And so even if [he doesn’t] know the exact details of why she’s doing this and why she’s chosen to stay in New York, I think he’s probably quite curious to see what’s been going on in New York. Like, I haven’t seen my mom in a while; I don’t know what her job dynamic is.

So I think he just wants her to be happy. And I think when he shows up and sees that these people are normal and not taking advantage of her and are really loving her for who she is, that’s like a really positive thing.

He specifically spends a lot of time with Kaya in episode 7, while his mom is busy with jury duty. What is his take on her?
I would imagine that it’s quite surprising that someone with such a sort of intense job, like Kaya—as an officer, and we see what she wants out of her career a little bit more in this season—that she’s so warm and, like, excitable. When she sort of pulls him out and wants to take him to Coney Island, I think that there’s nothing but good that comes from her. And he can recognize that pretty quickly, off the bat.

We also find out in the episode that Teddy’s boyfriend is moving to New York. How much will we be seeing of that relationship?
I think that you definitely will learn a bit more about why Teddy is in New York and continues to come back to New York. We definitely will explore more of that in this season.

“One Angry Woman” – Elsbeth finally makes it as a true New Yorker when she is summoned to jury duty and lands on a murder trial where she faces off with the unusually difficult Judge Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) who will prove a formidable adversary, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 12 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*
Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Ben Levi Ross as Teddy
Photo: CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

In what you’ve filmed beyond what’s aired, how are we seeing Teddy in the ELSBETH world? Is he there to showcase his mom’s personal life, is he helping with cases, or something else entirely?
You can definitely expect the full gamut; Teddy is just like part of the world now. And so he is written in a lot of sort of interesting, threaded-through, ways. Whether or not he realizes it, he does help her realize things about cases she’s working on.

And, also, we get to see her as a mother, and we get to see her shortcomings. And we see their relationship for what it really is. All of that happens this season.

Teddy is trying to keep up some boundaries, though, at least to start. How much is he able to keep that figurative wall up as they spend more time together?
That’s sort of the thing that I took, even just from the initial audition when I was reading these sides: I think that that’s really the place where we see their differences, and that feels like a very natural sort of mother-son dynamic. Where the mother has so much love for the child that he maybe becomes a little bit more rigid or a little bit more closed off than she is naturally. And I think the thing that I love also is that she is trying so hard to keep those boundaries, because she loves him, even though that’s the hardest thing in the world.

From what you filmed so far, and what you’re allowed to say, what is Teddy’s relationship like with his father right now?
That is not something that we’ve explored. So I don’t really know. I have my own thoughts, but that would just be mine.

What questions do you have about that, given what a big piece of his history/backstory that might be?
I think I have questions about everything. When you’re doing a show where things haven’t been written yet about a family dynamic, I could sit and talk for hours about what that did to him as a child. But I will cross that bridge when and if that door opens.

“One Angry Woman” – Elsbeth finally makes it as a true New Yorker when she is summoned to jury duty and lands on a murder trial where she faces off with the unusually difficult Judge Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) who will prove a formidable adversary, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 12 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*
Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Ben Levi Ross as Teddy
Photo: CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

On a lighter note, Teddy got to wear the iconic foam Statue of Liberty crown, which was so much a part of the show’s season 1 promotional material. What was it like to put that on?
Oh, it’s great. It’s so sort of perfect. And, by the way, that was written into the script; that was set from the beginning, that was something that they knew they wanted in. And I came on set to film that scene, and the Statue of Liberty piece is a part of the props department. It’s not a part of the costume department. And I got set, and I was like, “But where’s the Statue of Liberty crown? This is the biggest part of the costume!” And the props department was like, “It’s right here. Here you go. We’re good.”

“One Angry Woman” – Elsbeth finally makes it as a true New Yorker when she is summoned to jury duty and lands on a murder trial where she faces off with the unusually difficult Judge Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) who will prove a formidable adversary, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 12 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*
Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Ben Levi Ross as Teddy
Photo: CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

There was also an incredible moment where we saw the physical similarities between Elsbeth and Teddy. How much did you and Carrie work on that to get in sync?
Our director of the episode sort of came in with some of those ideas. And I think I just knew exactly what he was talking about so quickly because I’ve seen her do these things on the show for many episodes. So it was fun to do my Elsbeth impersonation, and then let it live in me, and let it become like an actual Teddy-ism as well.

You’re in the early parts of playing this role—hopefully, we’ll get to see you for years to come—but, so far, what has been your favorite part of being on ELSBETH?
Gosh, my favorite part is getting new scripts and just seeing what is going on. I’ve never really been on an episodic [series] like this, where you learn as you go as an actor. And that’s just such a fun thing because it’s like, “What’s what’s Teddy up to now? What’s this gonna be?” I’ve mostly worked in theater up to this point, and in the theater, you have your story that you know all of; it’s this one piece. And I think the really cool part about being in a relatively long-running TV show is that you grow as an actor with this character. And like you said, I hope to continue to do that for a while, for years to come.

Looking ahead, what is your favorite Teddy moment that’ll air in 2025?
We just filmed a very fun scene with a lot of characters from the ELSBETH world. And Teddy being involved in that was really fun. The more I get to interact with other characters that have been longstanding or aren’t new on the show, that’s so fun for me. I get to see him interact with all of these characters that everyone has already known.

ELSBETH, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS

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ELSBETH: Ben Levi Ross on Teddy’s Future in New York, Familial Tension, and His Favorite Moment to Come

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