Ten years after leaving “ER,” Julianna Margulies finds herself back on television with another hit, the legal drama “The Good Wife,” which earned the actress a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award after only a few episodes had aired. On the series, Margulies stars as Alicia Florrick, who returns to practicing law after her politician husband (Chris Noth) is embroiled in a sex scandal. Margulies spoke to us about infidelity, power and why women are better at dealing with both.
How do you relate to what your character is going through?
The great thing about playing this role [is] we don’t know what is going to happen. She does not know what is going [to] happen. Everything she is doing right now is because she has children, and I think she is trying to piece together a family somehow and make sure that her children are safe, but we don’t know what is going to happen. The thing I love is the premise of this show — is there such a thing as forgiveness?
Is there?
I don’t know. I think it’s tricky. I’ve had friends whose husbands have absolutely had midlife crises and ended up with the nanny and woke up a year later and said, “I am an idiot. Take me back,” and they have and it’s worked out. I have friends who say, “Screw you, see you later,” and now they are off remarried with a great guy. I can’t imagine it happening to me, but I’m a newlywed.
Why are we so fascinated by these kinds of sex scandals?
I guess it’s a fantasy world to everyone else. There is something hot about it, I guess. A politician is different than anything else. There’s a power you have that’s different.
Do you think women deal with that kind of power differently?
Absolutely! We are programmed differently. Even if you have never been married with children, we still know how to multitask. Someone asked me, “Why is it that women are not having the affairs?” And my answer is, “We don’t have the time.”
