Lana Condor opened up about the inspiration behind her Elsbeth guest role after apparent similarities to Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick‘s age-gap romance.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the Thursday, December 4, episode of the CBS series, Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) questions Peyton’s (Condor) alibi after a mysterious death.
“I know where you were the night of the murder,” Elsbeth says. “I do think that while someone was murdering Dave, you were meeting with a potential recruit. He wouldn’t give you up, but eighth grade seems very premature for college recruiting.”
Peyton defends her approach while helping her boyfriend, who is a basketball coach — and significantly older than her.
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“You don’t think he is talking to every program in the country right now? When I do it, it is an international scandal,” Peyton replies before explaining why the public reacts “so negatively” to her. “People act like it is the age difference between me and Russ, but really I just think they are miserable lonely losers who hate to see people who are actually happy.”
Peyton then makes it clear she is “not going to apologize for being direct” and ambitious.
According to the official episode description, Elsbeth “goes from the squad room to the locker room when a campus murder rocks the world of college basketball after an athletic director winds up dead following a heated confrontation with his basketball coach’s 22-year-old girlfriend.”
While the scripted show has fictional cases, Thursday’s episode appeared to take some inspiration from Hudson and Belichick’s relationship, which Condor, 28, didn’t deny.
“A little bit of that [inspired my performance],” she exclusively told Us. “Also, I never yuck anyone’s yum. In this episode, I’m with a much older man, whom I love.”
Condor continued: “Love is love, no matter how the weirdness of it might be perceived by others. I was really excited to work with Sam [McMurray] because I think he’s an amazing actor.”
Condor gained recognition for playing Lara Jean in the hit Netflix franchise To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, based on Jenny Han’s book series, and she appeared alongside costar Noah Centineo in all three films.
Since then, Condor has remained booked and busy with projects such as Worth the Wait, Valiant One, Ballerina Overdrive and now Elsbeth.
“I just felt like it would be a fun way to maybe be seen in a little bit of a different light,” Condor shared about her guest role on the CBS series. “Predominantly, I am known for To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and I wanted to show a different layer.”
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Condor was thrilled to push her boundaries as an actress.
“I was very excited to be a part of the show, and Carrie and everyone on the show were so welcoming to me,” she recalled. “I hope I get to go back, because it was a very sweet experience and they really respected me. … I felt like they believed that I could do something where my character is so different from anything I’ve ever done. They were so encouraging, and that’s hard to find.”
Condor continued: “That crew and that team is amazing. Everyone on Elsbeth, they’re good and kind people. To be honest, I think that’s very hard to find in this industry. When I was offered the role, my team called me and they were like, ‘Hey, all of our clients who’ve been a part of the show have loved it.’ If you tell me there’s good people, I’m there.”
In addition to trying something new, Condor got to share the screen with her husband, Anthony De La Torre.
“My husband got to do the show as well. He’s in it,” she gushed to Us. “That was a major part [of what made this experience even better].”
Elsbeth airs on CBS Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.
