Confirming that she had been asked to reprise her role as Alicia Florrick on the spin-off series, the former 'ER' star admits to being left shocked by how she was valued in comparison to other male leads.
- April 9, 2019
AceShowbiz - Actress Julianna Margulies ditched plans to reprise her "The Good Wife" role for the third season of its spin-off series after TV executives reportedly refused to pay her fee.
The 52-year-old won two Emmys for her role as attorney Alicia Florrick on the original hit drama, which ran for seven seasons until 2016, and producers subsequently launched a follow-up show, called "The Good Fight", focusing on Christine Baranski's legal eagle Diane Lockhart.
"The Good Fight" is currently in its third season on streaming platform CBS All Access, and Margulies reveals she was asked to return as Florrick for a three-episode arc, but she walked away from negotiations after network bosses allegedly wanted her to take a pay cut and receive the guest character rate.
The star explains she "really wanted to do it," but "the deal didn't happen".
"To be perfectly honest, I was shocked," she confessed to Deadline.com. "I was more surprised than hurt. I thought, 'What are you worth?'."
"I'm not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife," Margulies continued, insisting no male lead would ever be treated in the same way.
"I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay. If Jon Hamm came back for a 'Mad Men' spin-off or Kiefer Sutherland wanted to do a '24' spin-off, they would be paid."
As a result of the snub, Margulies has no interest in ever stepping back into Florrick's shoes: "If you are worthless, if you are not valued for your work, than what's the point?" she asked.
Representatives for CBS have yet to respond to the actress' comments.
