Fans of The Good Fight and The Good Wife...look away. There was a chance for Julianna Margulies to reprise her role as Alicia Florrick on the spinoff of the popular law drama, but because the network wouldn't pay, Margulies was out.
The Emmy-winning actress has spoken highly of her time on The Good Wife, and even thinks about how her character would react in certain situations.
"I think about her all the time," she said. "I think about how she would answer a question. I could be in the middle of a conversation and I wonder, "˜How would Alicia answer this?' She's just so much smarter than me. I do think about her. I miss her and I love her."
When The Good Wife was cancelled, fans were disappointed that their favorite law firm would essentially be getting disbarred. Then, The Good Fight became its own series, centered around Christina Baranski's character, and we had a little bit of hope that Alicia Florrick might be coming back to our screens.
Anyone who watches the show, however, will note that Margulies hasn't come back. Some thought that maybe she didn't want to return, as she had moved on from the series, but in an interview with Deadline, the former ER star admitted that it was actually about money.
"The showrunners had found a nice away to reintroduce my character, a story that was to span three episodes," Margulies said in the interview. "I was really excited about the idea, but CBS refused to pay my [ask]."
Margulies allegedly asked for her regular starring rate for the three episodes she'd be on, but instead the network said they would pay her the guest-star rate for those on The Good Fight.
"I'm not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife," she pointed out. "I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay. [If] Jon Hamm came back for a Mad Men spinoff or Kiefer Sutherland wanted to do a 24 spinoff, they would be paid."
Considering how much Margulies meant to the series - I mean, she was the series - she was hurt to hear that the network would try to low ball her like that when it came to pay.
"To be perfectly honest, I was shocked," she admitted. "I was more surprised than hurt. I thought, what are you worth? If you are worthless, if you are not valued for your work, then what's the point?"
Despite not being on the show, Margulies had nothing but nice things to say about The Good Fight. She's happy that "her buds" are doing well with their new program, and she wants nothing but success for them.
I can definitely appreciate Margulies standing up for herself in this situation. I understand that she would have been a guest star on this new show, but like she said, there is no Good Wife universe without her. Considering what she means to the franchise and all the work she put in, you would think that CBS could pay up for those three episodes.