An exclusive interview with Julianna Margulies...
Julianna Margulies burst on to our screens in ER almost 20 years ago – and the fact she’s still there is testament to her enduring popularity. She talks to Gabrielle Donnelley about love, lawyers and how life often imitates art...
She is one of those actresses who sneaks up on you when you’re not looking. She’s warm and friendly, with a glint in her eye, a husky been-there-done-that voice and a knowing edge to
her laugh that makes you think this would be one good woman to share a bottle of wine with on a Saturday night. She’s also stunningly beautiful, the possessor of a shelf groaning with acting awards and a resume that includes about as many gaps between jobs as the Great Wall of China. She’s Julianna Margulies, and while none of us were looking she strolled into Hollywood and, quietly but efficiently, took control.
“I’ve been around for a while,” she agrees cheerfully when we meet in Beverly Hills, where she has travelled from her New York home to talk about her new series, the critically raved-about legal drama The Good Wife. At 45, she’s looking fabulous in a fringed black flapper-style dress that flatters her figure and shows off her striking dark colouring – she’s at a good place in her life now and she knows it. “This is the second TV series I’ve been a regular on, and this time round I know what to expect.
“I know that when you’re on a television show you’re there for much longer than you’re on a film set. The crew is your family and it’s important to remember that the atmosphere on the set comes from the number one person on the call sheet…” (that means the show’s star, but she’s too coy to say so), “and that happens to be me, so when I took the job I made it my mission to make sure every person who came on to the show – every person, every guest star, every crew member, every visitor – felt they belonged there. The result is that we do have a lovely, cool, welcoming environment where people feel at ease, which is a beautiful thing to watch. I learnt how to do that from George, who taught me a lot about set etiquette.”
The George in question would be one George Clooney, who back in the 1990s played Dr Doug Ross on ER, the man for love of whom Julianna’s character, Nurse Carol Hathaway, took a nearly fatal drug overdose in the pilot episode – and then, as any ER fan worth their salt will recall, recovered and went on to spar with him and many others on the hospital staff over the next six years before marrying the doughty Doctor, bearing his twin daughters and moving away with him to the wilds of Seattle. What is less well known – and another thing that Julianna is too modest to mention – is that, as the original pilot episode was written, Carol Hathaway had been scripted to die of the overdose, but when Julianna arrived on set the producers liked her so much they signed her up as a regular instead.
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