Julianna Margulies made her movie debut in Steven Seagal’s 1991 actioner “Out for Justice,” which in keeping with the Washington Publish, was merely “pointless.” Fortunately, Margulies would not be slumming it in middling motion thrillers for lengthy. Three years after that lackluster outing, she was solid in “ER.” NBC’s seminal medical drama (which continues to be one of many community’s greatest 10 p.m. reveals ever) proved to be precisely what her profession wanted, with the actress staying on the present for six seasons (returning as a visitor within the fifteenth season) and successful a Primetime Emmy and 6 Display screen Actors Guild Awards (two particular person awards and 4 ensemble) for her portrayal of head emergency care nurse Carol Hathaway. With that in thoughts, it is a good factor the actress did not skip out on her “ER” audition, although she got here very near doing simply that.
As a part of the Tv Academy‘s oral historical past of the present, Margulies recounted the story of her casting, revealing that she nearly ducked out of the ready room earlier than her audition as a result of the method was taking too lengthy. In keeping with the actress, she was nonetheless very a lot an up-and-comer within the early ’90s however had carried out in some stage productions in New York. Consequently, she was identified by casting administrators. Nonetheless, when Margulies travelled to Los Angeles for her “ER” tryout, she was stunned to seek out that she wasn’t handled the identical as in her native New York. “I had three auditions the day I auditioned,” she explains. “I went into the ready room, and it was jam-packed. I used to be ready for 2 hours, and I used to be getting p***ed as a result of I used to be there on-time. And nobody had come out to verify in or apologize, and I simply thought, ‘Effectively, that feels somewhat impolite.'”
The “ER” try-outs had been held in Burbank, the place Margulies had one other audition booked. As time went on and her nervousness set in, she determined to go away. “I used to be feeling frightened that I used to be going to be late,” she says. “And I do not like being late. I believed, ‘LA is just not for me. I am out of right here.'” However as she received as much as go away, casting director John Levey known as her identify. After all, the audition ended up going higher than she might have imagined.
Julianna Margulies flunked her ER audition, however aced her second likelihood
When Julianna Margulies attended her “ER” audition, she was truly making an attempt out for an element that wasn’t Carol Hathaway however merely a “love curiosity” of Doug Ross, the physician performed by George Clooney. (By the way, the actors honor their iconic characters to at the present time.) Margulies recalled auditioning for pilot director Rod Holcomb and government producer John Wells (who extra just lately government produced the vastly widespread HBO Max sequence “The Pitt,” for which former “ER” star Noah Wyle received the primary Emmy of his profession). “As a substitute of studying this love curiosity of Doug’s sweetly, I learn her like a p***ed New Yorker,” she advised the Tv Academy. “I simply wished to get out of there … However John Levey got here operating out after me, and he stated, ‘You are not proper for that half.’ And I stated, sarcastically, ‘You assume?’ I used to be so sassy! I am unable to imagine I used to be like that.”
In keeping with Margulies, this was the purpose at which Levey requested her to learn for Carol Hathaway, who was speculated to die within the pilot. Amazingly, Margulies turned down the supply, telling Levey “I do not do chilly readings. I put together for auditions.” To her shock, he responded by handing her the script and telling her to take a seat in his workplace till she was able to learn for Carol.
After she spent a while studying the brand new traces, Margulies returned to the audition room and skim Carol “with an actual edge.” She then attended the opposite auditions she had booked that day, satisfied she would by no means seem on “ER.” To her amazement, she quickly received a name from her agent, who knowledgeable her she had been solid as Hathaway. “I used to be completely gobsmacked,” Margulies says, “I used to be like, ‘Are you kidding me?”‘ However that would not be the tip of the unlikely developments for Margulies and her “ER” expertise, as she was quickly upgraded from a single episode visitor look to a sequence common and, finally, a part of the primary solid.
