Checking in with
ELIZABETH MITCHELL
To create Carla Limbrey, a toxic woman from old Charleston money in the currently streaming second season of the Netflix drama “Outer Banks,” Elizabeth Mitchell took a two pronged approach.
To manifest the character’s sickly physicality, the already slender actress ate very little for weeks, existing only on vegetables and a little fish, because “I wanted everything to kind of like look like it was hanging on her,” she says. “I didn’t want her to look vibrant.”
But to play her mental/emotional side, Mitchell (“Lost,” “Frequency”) went to a dark place to grapple with an ugly human trait with which most are familiar.
“What I delve into is entitlement,” she explains. “Where do we get to with ourselves when we feel righteous and entitled and indignant? Like we all feel it. We’re human, right? We come upon times where we are not our best selves, so what makes us feel that way? ... And I kind of went from there – what her values are, who she thinks matters in the world. And I think she really, truly believes that only her and her people are really important enough to take care of.”
But while her character may be unpleasant, her overall experience filming “Outer Banks” was not. She praises the cast of young actors for being hard workers, great to work with and fun, she enjoyed learning her lines at her rental cottage at the beach and when it came to say goodbye to Limbrey, she did so happily.
But, she adds, “It doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy playing her because I think when we confront the darkest parts of ourselves, when we confront those parts of ourselves that are dark, that are righteous, that are indignant, that are sure that we’re right, we kind of can get a little farther ahead, maybe, in our journey in life because we have to look closely at that darkness so we don’t become it. So in some ways, I really enjoyed her for that ”
Full name: Elizabeth Joanna Robertson
Birth date: March 27, 1970
Birthplace: Los Angeles (raised in Dallas)
Family: The eldest of three sisters born to Dallas lawyers, Mitchell is divorced with a teenage son.
TV credits: “Loving,” “The Sentinel,” “L.A. Firefighters,” “JAG,” “Significant Others,” “Time of Your Life,” “ER,” “The Beast,” “Spin City,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “The Lyon’s Den,” “Everwood,” “Boston Legal,” “House,” “V,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Revolution,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Crossing Lines,” “The Expanse,” “First Kill” (forthcoming)
Movie credits include: “Gia” (TV, 1998), “Frequency” (2000), “The Linda McCartney Story” (TV, 2000), “Nurse Betty” (2000), “Double Bang” (2001), “The Santa Clause 2” (2002), “Running Scared” (2006), “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” (2006), “Answers to Nothing” (2011), “The Purge: Election Year” (2016)
Favorite book: “I have so many that I love. It’s really hard to say. ‘The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue’ is my latest favorite. I am having the best time with that. But of course, anytime anyone asks me that I always go back in time to ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ and ‘Dune’ because those completely formed my view of the world and the way that I treat people and how I walk through the world. So those
are big ones, too (laughs).”