The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies on the TV death you won’t see coming

THE Good Wife’s Juliana Margulies tells of real life tears as key character is killed off in a shocking plot twist.

The Good Wife Julianna Margulies As Alicia Florrick Picture: Supplied

IT’S the closely-guarded twist that shocked the cast of The Good Wife, and drew howls of protest from viewers in the USA in March this year.

Fans set up online support groups to vent and grieve in the episode’s wake, and The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies spoke to Facebook users about the dramatic turn.

The show’s co-creators did interviews explaining their decision.

The episode, Dramatics Your Honour, airs in Australia this week, and in terms of TV deaths you didn’t see coming — provided you’ve managed to steer clear of internet spoilers — it’s a doozy.

Julianna Margulies, here as Alicia Florrick, says killing a cast member was a “brilliant idea”.

When Margulies first learned of the plan to kill off a cast member in the early stages of the storyline’s development, she thought it was a “brilliant idea”.

But it didn’t stop her crying over the departure of a cast-mate she has known “for a long, long time”, she told US press.

Other cast said it was “like the loss of a family member”, with one reluctant to read the fateful script.

The actress at this year’s Golden Globe Awards.

Julianna Margulies attends the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

“I had trouble getting through it,” the cast member told eonline.

“I kept trying to read it, and then I’d stop, knowing that this was the episode where it was gonna happen.

“I was almost in denial. And then there was one morning where … I said, ‘I’m just gonna do this’.

“Suddenly … our stage directions indicated what was going on. And I just even couldn’t see the page, I was just awash in tears. Then I put the script down.”

Julianna Margulies says the shock death makes her character “rethink everything”.

Margulies’ character Alicia Florrick has alienated many in season five by starting a breakaway law firm with Cary (Matt Czuchry) and taking former clients of Lockhart/Gardner — now called LG — with her, much to the disgust of Will (Josh Charles) and Diana (Christine Baranski).

The fallout proved good ratings fodder in the US, even ahead of the shock episode.

But the death makes Alicia “rethink everything”.

“I think she is going to look a little bit inside herself rather than just be in survival mode,” Margulies says.

“(Alicia starts to question) ‘Why am I doing this? Why am I representing these a—holes?’ Suddenly it’s black and white. There’s no grey area.”

Julianna Margulies, Titus Welliver and Michael Ealy in an episode of <i>The Good Wife</i>.

Series creators Robert and Michelle King said the event creates “a new dramatic hub … violently spinning everybody in new directions”.

“We’ve all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives. It’s terrifying how a perfectly normal and sunny day can suddenly explode with tragedy,” said Michelle King.

“Television, doesn’t deal with this enough: the irredeemability of death.

“Your last time with the loved one will always remain your last time.”

■ The Good Wife, Wednesday, 9.30pm, Channel 10

Originally published as The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies on the TV death you won’t see coming