Julianna Margulies enjoys newfound freedom in the final season of The Good Wife
|||EVERY great TV series has to end at some point, much to the heartache of fans. The Emmy award-winning series, The Good Wife, will soon be placed in Hollywood’s archives alongside other pioneering shows like Brothers & Sisters and The West Wing.
Penned by Robert and Michelle King, it made waves at a time when not many female actresses were helming TV shows. And they couldn’t have asked for a better mascot than Julianna Margulies to helm the series, which centred on the wife of a disgraced politician bouncing back from a ruinous scandal.
Always graceful and impeccably dressed, Alicia is an exceptional lawyer, incredible mother and tolerant daughter-in-law. In resurrecting her legal career, her confidence grew. However, her moral compass never allowed her to give in to her desires. And when she did – with Will – there were ramifications to her indiscretions. However, when he was killed, something in Alicia snapped.
This season she has bounced back – despite starting over again. Of course, the arrival of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Jason Crouse, with that devilishly charming beard and smile, made things interesting.
On Alicia pursuing her own happiness for a change, Margulies says: “This season, being able to be carefree with Jason, and sort of leave her cares outside the door for a minute, has shown her a way to move forward. And her relationship with Lucca Quinn has allowed her to understand what true friendship is and what it means to have a loyal friend, who is after nothing, except truly liking you as a person. And I think that will definitely help her find happiness.”
The 49-year-old says she prefers to be kept in the dark regarding her character’s storyline. She prefers go through the motions along with her character to lend authenticity to the performance.
Reflecting on The Good Wife paving the way for the birth of other powerful female characters, she says: “When I started the show, there were no female leads – sole leads – on network television. And by 2014, after having been on air for five years, the women that I was in the same category with (for the Emmys) were all stars of their own show.”
Revealing her favourite moments from this final season, she says: “She’s drinking more than she has before. And all she wants is another one. And you finally feel her break. That was really important for the character. One of my favourite scenes, I don’t remember what the episode was called, she called it ‘her lost weekend with Jason’. You see her joking around, having sex and enjoying herself, which is rare for Alicia. She is always planning ahead and thinking of the repercussions. I loved, loved, loved that moment. And the last scene is hitting me right now. But there is no way I will be able to tell you about it. It’s a very intimate scene and integral to her final decision.”
Interestingly, Margulies also turned producer in season three.
Her storylines over the seasons have taken on an interesting roller-coaster of emotions.
She agrees: “It was incredibly exhilarating and challenging because the fear an actor has when you sign on to do seven years is, ‘oh my God, I’m going to play the same character for seven years’. There wasn’t a day that wasn’t interesting to play her because she was constantly growing and transforming and evolving into this woman; a different person than you saw when the show started. As an actress, I got to dive pretty deep and go to places I don’t know many actors get to do on network television. That was really satisfying as an actor. And it made my job easy because I loved playing her.”
Aside from looking forward to a break now that the final season has wrapped – but hasn’t aired yet – Margulies says: “I’m producing a mini-series about the female journalists in Vietnam, based on a true story from a book called War Torn. It’s an incredible journey with these women who were on the front lines of Vietnam. And their stories haven’t been told yet. And I’m reading scripts. I’m looking for a series that’s maybe on cable that only does six to 10 episodes. I can tell you this, it won’t have legal or medical dialogue.”
Of course, The Good Wife is going to have an ending that will evoke strong emotions.
Margulies hints: “We had to shoot the last scene of the very last episode first. And I looked at Christine Baranski and said: ‘Well, people are either going to love it or hate it. But there definitely won’t be any grey matter in between.’”
The Good Wife airs on M-Net (DStv channel 101) on Saturdays at 8pm. Seasons 1 to 5 are available on ShowMax. For info, log on to www. showmax.com.
