Doing it for a good ‘Claws’

Carrie Preston couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into “Claws.”

The actress has a knack for choosing projects that put women and diversity at the forefront without shying away from the hard truths, and that’s what drew her to the TNT show, which airs its third-season finale on Sunday.

“We just knew it was going to be something that people were going to be interested in and we were kind of at the forefront of this new female empowerment movement,” Preston told the Daily News about the “Claws” cast’s first table read.

The dramedy — or “Florida crime noir,” to borrow Preston’s phrase — sees Niecy Nash’s Desna shepherding a pack of five Florida manicurists through money laundering for a local crime family while using her own salon as a front.

Preston, 52, a native of Macon, Ga., who now lives in Manhattan, cites the show’s diversity as part of what attracted her to it.

“It’s not just that it’s diverse ethnically,” she says. “It’s diverse in the way we look, in the age range, and also, it’s an African-American female at the center. A lot of the diverse shows that … were before us ultimately still have white women at the center. This is not the case.”

In addition to Preston (photo) and Nash, the leading ladies — whose ages range from early 30s to early 50s — include Judy Reyes, Karrueche Tran and Jenn Lyon.

Preston’s progressive projects can be traced back at least to 2005, when she played the sister of Felicity Huffman’s transgender character in “Transamerica,” for which Huffman got an Oscar nomination.

“I’m really proud of what we did and the impact that that film had,” Preston says, though she believes an actual trans actor would likely have gotten the role today, rather than Huffman.