It was a great season for Elizabeth, whom you’ve described as hard core in a way you love. Why?

I relish this character because as a woman, I get to not be always the sensitive one in the scene, the one who fixes the family, the one who is pining in the relationship — although one might argue that in this season I did a little bit more of that. I don’t think people realize that still for women, those are a lot of the roles. Even in great movies there are, like, two good scenes for a girl, and you’re the doting wife or the understanding girlfriend. Elizabeth demands respect. She doesn’t care if it’s wrong or what the neighbors are thinking. She’s a little bit of my fantasy, absolutely.

You have two older children. Had you forgotten what it’s like working with a newborn?

There is something very unique about being a working mother, and the demands of having a baby blindside me every time I do it. You know what’s expected of you. And yet it’s like: “Oh right, it has to be me. I don’t get to leave the house. I have to be here every two hours.” You have this baby who you give everything to and you’re so excited for, but I feel like you come back to work wanting it more because you’ve missed it.

You’ve called this a show primarily about marriage. Since you live with your onscreen husband, does it ever bleed into your real life?

We come home wearing disguises? We spice things up? I think the truthful way to answer that is working with somebody you’re sharing a life with has its ups and downs, obviously. A divide is always good.

What’s your dream ending for the show?

Well, it probably changes year to year. But I kept hoping they would consider the idea of turning, like going to the F.B.I. and becoming double agents for the safety of their family. But when I brought that up one time, Joe looked at me like I had said the most blasphemous thing in the world. He was like [hisses], “Elizabeth would never…”

Are you guys drinking a lot of wine these days now that Matthew’s “The Wine Show” is on Hulu?

I think it’s safe to say we drank a lot of wine even pre-“Wine Show.” And I have a feeling that doing that show was a thinly masked reason for him to continue drinking with his very good friend Matthew Goode and get paid for it. The two of them are so ridiculous and fun and charming, and America will love it.