George Clooneyreally is a lifesaver.
I’m usually early, because I never want to keep anyone waiting."
As Margulies began to storm out, the casting director called her name.
Julianna Margulies as Carol Hathaway on ‘ER’.NBCU Photo Bank
“I rolled my eyes like, ‘Oh really,'” she recalled.
Could you come and read for that?’
So I went back in and I read for Hathaway with a lot of attitude.
George Clooney and Julianna Margulies on ‘ER’.Paul Drinkwater/NBC/Getty
And I got the role!"
The audience applauded the amazing turn of events, but that’s only half the story.
HostKelly Clarksonasked the natural follow-up question: “She was gonna die?
You were supposed to die?”
Three decades later,ERwithout Margulies' Carol Hathaway is unimaginable.
But, Margulies said, “the character dies in the pilot from a drug overdose.”
And not in an early draft of the pilot the actual pilot that aired on Sept. 19, 1994.
Because they loved George Clooney so much.
Who doesn’t?"
Another “confluence of events” worked in Margulies' favor.
So you don’t see it!
Doug and Carol parted ways at the end of season 5, but afterwards Carol discovered she was pregnant.
Margulies recentlyrecalled, “My mom… she was so shocked because everyone knew George was off the show.
My mother said she screamed, which I think was a lot of people’s reaction.”
And none of it would ever have happened if Margulies hadn’t been so ticked off during her audition.
