Last month, in an effort to be transparent about the salaries women make on television, Julianna Margulies revealed CBS “refused” to pay the fee she was requesting to appear in a three-episode guest role on The Good Fight, the spinoff series of her original show, The Good Wife. At the time, Margulies said she was “really excited” to reunite for a few episodes with her pals Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo, but on principle, she had to ultimately pass because of CBS’s dismissal of her fee. Now, however, Margulies is revealing the network tried to put the blame on her for not appearing on the show. “Why am I protecting CBS? I said yes, they said no,” she told SiriusXM in a new interview. “I started talking about it and said I wanted to do it. They were twisting it that I didn’t want to be on the show and that I didn’t think I was good enough. I watch the show; I love the show! But I’m not a guest star.”
Margulies goes on to clarify that she never requested an exorbitant amount of money from CBS to appear in the three episodes, but rather, she asked for “what I got paid on The Good Wife.” (It’s estimated that in her later Good Wife seasons, Margulies was taking home $4 million a year. So, around $181,000 per episode.) “You have to value your worth. For the people who get angry when they hear me say, They weren’t paying me what I’m worth, think a little harder because this really isn’t about me at all. This is about every other actress who doesn’t have the voice or power to be able to say that,” she explained. “A spinoff of my show, to play a character that created that show, was asking what she should get paid.” But if CBS were to ask her to return, fee guaranteed? “In a heartbeat, of course. I always would have.”
