Three-time Emmy winner Julianna Margulies is more selective about her roles than ever. After her seven-year run on The Good Wife, she’s now on The Morning Show as Laura Peterson, an anchor who has reemerged as one of the country’s top journalists after being outed in the ’90s. With Deadline, Margulies discusses what drew her to this role.
A third thing that drew her to the role was the opportunity to work with those around her. Mimi Ledger, the executive producer and director, came up with her on ER. And the director of Laura’s first episode was Lesli Linka Glatter, who directed Margulies on both ER and The Good Wife. According to the actress, it felt like a safe environment to explore the character in the middle of a pandemic.
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According to Margulies, one of the reasons she loves acting is being able to put on someone else shoes. You can unapologetically be a character, unlike in real life, where you have to tread lightly. When Margulies plays a character, all the self-doubt a person experiences goes out the window, and she can dive into who the character is on-page to create her physically.
Portraying a gay character in the modern age
In terms of public acceptance of people being who they are, Margulies thing that we haven’t come far enough, but that we’ve at least come far enough that people won’t lose their jobs over it. One of her favorite scenes was Laura outlining to Alex (Jennifer Aniston) what her reaction to Laura being gay did to her, which Margulies thinks brings awareness to what idle gossip can do to someone’s life.
During The Morning Show’s second season, Laura enters into a relationship with Bradley (Reese Witherspoon). At the same time, Laura also ends up taking on this sort of mentorship role. According to Marguiles, no one knew where their relationship would go during the characters’ first scene together.
When asked about what Bradley and Laura have in store for them in Season 3, Margulies said that she honestly didn’t know. She hadn’t gotten a script, and she’s sure that if she did, she wouldn’t be allowed to say anything anyway. However, earlier in the interview, she did mention how she’s like to see more of Laura’s personal life.
