By this point in the 2026 TV schedule, it’s safe to say that Elsbeth is about as well known for recruiting celebrities to play killers as it is for Carrie Preston wearing bright colors and arms full of tote bags. The new year alone has featured Midnight Mass’ Hamish Linklater, Somebody Somewhere’s Jeff Hiller, and Boardwalk Empire’s Steve Buscemi, who Preston described “flailing around” on set. Now, a former Succession cast member is stepping into the stylish shoes of a presumed killer, and she spoke with CinemaBlend about taking legendary fashion icon Anna Wintour as an example.
J. Smith-Cameron comes to Elsbeth on April 2 to play Isadora “Izzy” Langford, the woman who runs a glitzy debutante ball where a patriarch is murdered. Because this is Elsbeth, the murder weapon isn’t just a common firearm or knife. This victim of the week will be stabbed with a sword, and assuming the popular drama-turned-comedy follows its usual format, then Izzy is guilty of murder most foul.
But “foul” tends to be pretty fun on this show, and I spoke with J. Smith-Cameron about going from the dramatic Succession to the comedic Elsbeth on CBS. She noted that while “Succession had a lot of comedy on it,” she hadn’t done anything quite as quirky as Elsbeth “in a long time, or ever.” She went on:
Article continues belowI had so much fun kind of creating that character. I decided that she was obsessed with Anna Wintour and wanted to have the weight and chic of Anna Wintour. She didn't have the imagination to come up with their own version of that. [laughs] So I ran this idea by the creatives, and they were all like, 'Okay, let's try it.' So I had a little wig that was roughly the same sort of honey brown kind of color, and I wore a lot of statement jewelry, and there were some scenes where I'd wear my sunglasses.
If you thought the idea of The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly meeting Anna Wintour at a fashion show was fun, a killer who fashions herself after Anna Wintour on a CBS comedy could be right up your alley. The fact that Izzy is a character who chooses to go full Anna Wintour rather than the show writing a character to resemble her (like the aforementioned Miranda Priestly) makes this celebrity guest star role all the funnier, as far as I’m concerned.
There is one way that Izzy doesn’t turn herself into a full caricature of Anna Wintour, but she does take a few steps in that direction, as you can see in a sneak peek. Her accent was a different kind of acting choice, as J. Smith-Cameron explained:
My character doesn't have a full English accent, but she has sort of an affectation of one, like she's putting on airs. And that was sort of written in that she was sort of pompous. And I was like, 'Wouldn't it be more fun if she's not so much pompous as just someone who very much takes herself very seriously and wants to seem exactly like Anna Wintour?' Her assistant is terrified of her. All the debutantes are terrified of her. She gets her way on everything, and she's meticulously dressed.
Fans can thank the guest star for giving Izzy Langford a Transatlantic accent to convey how pompous she is, without going so far as to fake an English accent to complete the Anna Wintour transformation. While you’ll have to tune into the episode on Thursday night to see the full context, I think the early looks are enough to show just what J. Smith-Cameron is talking about with her “meticulously dressed” character.
And the actress had a hand in developing the look as well! She went on to credit costume designer Dan Lawson, about whom Carrie Preston has said wonderful things over the years, from praising how he crafted Elsbeth’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s look to making sure that she can wear sneakers and comfortable clothes whenever she has to do take after take of a physically taxing scene. Smith-Cameron shared:
I collaborated with the clothing designer for this, Daniel Lawson, who's just a brilliant, brilliant costume designer who did both Good Fight and Good Wife. And I don't know if you remember those shows, but those women on that cast were dressed in the most gorgeous suits all the time, and the men, for that matter, so we had remembered each other, and we've known each other for a while, and he sort of went with the idea, and he really loved it.
The duo did avoid following one of Anna Wintour’s real-life signature wardrobe choices, all because some of those choices already belong to another character on the show. The actress explained:
We'd find all these statement necklaces, and Anna Wintour loves to wear bright, zingy colors and florals, but that's sort of Elsbeth's look. She's the really zingy, colorful one on that show, so I wore more subdued colors than Anna would.
If all of this puts you in the mood to get an early look at J. Smith-Cameron as Izzy, the Anna Wintour-loving woman who may or may not have murdered somebody with a sword, you’re in luck. An early sneak peek shows her meeting Elsbeth Tascioni herself, and showing off that special look and accent:
Tune in to CBS on Thursday, April 2 at 10 p.m. ET for the new episode of Elsbeth, called “Deadutante,” following the latest episode of Matlock. The comedy has already been renewed for Season 4, and the Season 3 finale won’t air until late May, so there’s still plenty of Elsbeth and Co. on the way before summer hiatus.
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