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she magazine, june 1999 |
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BYE GEORGE by Kathryn Harris
Dr. Ross is quitting the ER, so where does that leave Nurse Hathaway? Julianna Margulies
talks exclusively to SHE about being pregnant, making George Clooney cry and why she wants
to be in Friends.
After spending five years working next to George Clooney, Julianna Margulies
doesn't need any time to consider how he reached icon status. "He's sexy, talented
and gorgeous - that's what did it," she says candidly. That also did it for her
character, Nurse Hathaway, fuelling her affair with Dr. Heart-throb, Doug Ross.
It's hard to believe the chemistry between them didn't spill over into real
life. "We never ruined the relationship by confusing our work and personal
lives," she says, not exactly denying attraction. (She once said, "It's
almost scary how natural kissing is for us.") "It's rare to find someone you get
on with so well. He was my best friend on the show for five years. George could finish my
sentences for me." But TV's hottest romance is bound for turbulent times. Both
Margulies and Clooney are set to exit ER - not together, though. The remainder of the
fifth series on Channel 4 sees Dr. Ross leave Chicago without Nurse Hathaway. She then
finds out she's pregnant and ER bosses are keen to get George back for a special episode
in which he discovers his impending fatherhood.
The departure of Clooney was an emotional one. "We were shooting
our last scene together and I was supposed to cry. The camera wasn't even on him, but when
I looked up I saw tears in his eyes. I lost it. We all cried. As George said, 'We'll never
have this again.'"
Indeed, it was Clooney who changed Margulies' ER destiny, albeit indirectly.
She was originally cast only for a one-off guest role in the show's pilot. When the pilot
was shown to test audiences, they raved about her, and her character's suicide had
to be re-worked into a failed attempt. "The way the director shot me through
George's eyes made my character live and from that moment, my character was heightened.
That's something that happens once, or hopefully two or three times in a lifetime,"
she sighs. The two remain close friends: Clooney's office is just around the corner from
the ER set. Margulies' real-life love interest is actor Ron Eldard, who played paramedic
Shep in ER and plays Kevin (corresponding to Martin Clunes' Gary) in the US version of Men
Behaving Badly. The couple live together at Margulies' Spanish villa in California.
They're tight-lipped about their relationship, although it's fair to assume that
Eldard fulfils Margulies' brief: "He has to be willing to open doors and take me out
to dinner, but also secure enough to let me take him out."
Despite demanding careers, they insist their relationship isn't threatened by
the pressures of Hollywood. "We've been together seven years," she says.
"It's about making the other person feel special. That takes energy." She and
Eldard have a pact to make each other laugh. "We have to bring home one joke from the
set each day," she smiles. "I love a good joke. To me it's better than anything,
like a good hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning. I like smart, dry humour, not
ass-kissing humour. That's something that George was good at." Clooney's on-set
antics are legendary, and Margulies was always happy to join in. Once she surgically lubed
George's pants and shoes. "The best thing for me was to make a joke and have George
or Noah (Wyle) steal it. I felt honoured."
Margulies probably inherited her sense of humour from her father. "My
father can tell a joke so well they become stories, they become evenings," she says.
He used to be an advertising executive (best known for Alka-Seltzer's "plink, plink,
fizz" campaign). Her mother was a ballerina. They divorced when Julianna was a
year old and she had a bohemian upbringing, living in Paris, London, Sussex and New
York, depending on her mother's work. The youngest of three, she remains close to her
sisters - Alexandra, a ballet dancer, and Rachel, a singer. Both parents now teach.
"Wherever we were living, I attended Rudolph Steiner schools (where the emphasis is
on artistic and individual development) and that provided some stability," she
recalls.
Margulies finished her studies at the prestigious arts school Sarah Lawrence
College in New York, where she took a degree in art history. Having trained for a career
in theatre and film, she still seems surprised to have made her name as a TV nurse.
"But it's been an amazing blessing."
Margulies is finding her exit line, through pregnancy, a challenge.
"I've been asked to gain weight, but I don't feel good if I eat a lot of food. I've
never been pregnant. I'm researching it by asking my sisters how they felt."
Margulies says she isn't ready for pregnancy. "Ask me again when I'm 35.
Everyone I know is having kids, but I like it when they go home after a visit."
Although she is toying with a tiny tuna salad as we speak, she insists she is
naturally slim. "I have a very healthy outlook on food and I don't own a pair of
scales. My girlfriend brought me a box of Maltesers from London. I ate the whole box and I
feel fine about it."
Margulies' departure from ER makes this a crucial time in her career. She's
concentrating on proving her versatility as an actress. She has more than overcome casting
directors' initial scepticism about her stunning East European looks, which they deemed
"too exotic". (In fact, she nearly missed out on the role of Nurse Hathaway
because she wasn't considered beautiful enough.) It was a matter of some pride for
Margulies that when she auditioned for the 1997 film Wings Of The Dove (she lost the part
to Helena Bonham Carter) she was able to prove that she has an authentic English accent.
In a dramatic contrast to her ER role, she has just played an Hasidic housewife in Boaz
Yakin's A Price Above Rubies. She was offered the lead, but gave it up to Renee Zelwegger
(Jerry Maguire) when the demands of ER proved too great. She has also landed a role
alongside John Travolta in Gus Van Sant's next movie, Standing Room Only. "It's based
on the true story of Jimmy Roselli, the poor man's Frank Sinatra. I play his wife. She's
hilarious. She went nuts using uppers and downers."
In the future, Margulies hopes she can also spend time building up her
production company (called Toast Productions because of her love for toast). She's
also keen for the ER door to remain open for guest appearances, in the same way it will
for Clooney. Margulies would also like to try her hand at comedy. "Courteney Cox and
I are always saying we would like each other's careers. But because of ER, people just
can't see me doing comedy. Get me in a room with the Friends set, and it could be a
different story." Further A-list girlfriends include Jennifer Ehle and BAFTA-winning
Cate Blanchett, with whom she starred in Paradise Road, in which they played prisoners of
war.
Margulies is protective of her private life and tries to maintain as normal
an existence as possible - she won't hire bodyguards or assistants. "I don't like
entourages. I do my own shopping." She says that having a famous face can be
daunting. "I used to be able to take a walk in Central Park and have a good old cry.
But if I do that now, 20 people ask, 'What's wrong with Carol Hathaway?'"
Her favourite pastime is curling up in front of the fire in sweat pants and a
"yummy sweater". What she doesn't spend on bodyguards, she blows on clothes
("I'm a cashmere whore") and furniture to match her 1920s-style villa.
She doesn't pretend to know what it's like to be a nurse. "I get lots of
fan mail from nurses thanking me for portraying them in such a realistic way. But none of
us (the cast) knows anything about the medical profession and none of us earns zero
bucks." (In fact, a visit to a hospital to prepare for the role culminated in her
having to go home traumatised.) "Once I was at the gym and a girl fainted and
everyone looked at me. I said, 'I don't know what the f**k to do!'"
However, she says that a recent hospital stay - to have ovarian cysts removed
- has made her really appreciate the medical profession. It also finally gave her the
chance to experience first-hand the drug Demerol IV - one she's always calling for as
Nurse Hathaway. "I said, 'What a great drug. Now I get it.'"
A self confessed perfectionist, she's working hard to curb her controlling
streak. "It puts up a barrier between you and others. I was in a mess the other day,
crying, with snot flying everywhere. My girlfriend, who was visiting from England, said,
'This is great. Let me comfort you'. So I'm learning to lean on other people." Just
not in Central Park.
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