April 8 (UPI) — Julianna Margulies says she turned down an appearance on The Good Fight due to a pay dispute with CBS.
The 52-year-old actress said in an interview Sunday with Deadline the network refused to pay her asking price to reprise The Good Wife character Alicia Florrick on the CBS All Access spinoff.
“[I] really wanted to do it [but] the deal didn’t happen,” she told the publication. “CBS wouldn’t pay me.”
Margulies said she didn’t request more than her regular fee. Sources said the star’s asking price was in line with what she made on The Good Wife, while CBS offered a Good Fight guest star rate.
“I’m not a guest star; I started the whole thing with The Good Wife,” Margulies said. “I wanted to be paid my worth and stand up for equal pay. If Jon Hamm came back for a Mad Men spinoff or Kiefer Sutherland wanted to do a 24 spinoff, they would be paid.”
Margulies shared similar sentiments in an interview with France 24 last week.
“Pay equality is something I will fight for for the rest of my life,” the star said. “I just recently had an interesting experience where they really wanted me for something. I said, ‘I’d love to. Pay me what I’m worth.’ It’s a shame. They’re like, ‘Take it or leave it.’ I said, ‘Well, bye.’”
“I can pretty much guarantee you what I was asking for was not much, for what my worth was to the project,” she added. “It’s still happening. It’s just that I’m lucky enough that I get to say, ‘Well, I’ll see you later,’ because I can afford to. But most people can’t.”
The Good Wife had a seven-season run on CBS from 2009 to 2016. The Good Fight, a spinoff centered on Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), premiered on CBS All Access in February 2017.
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