Julianna Margulies dishes on playing a lesbian on ‘The Morning Show’
Be still our beating hearts! She’s always pinged our gaydar and now the actress reveals why.
In an interview with showbiz bible Variety, Julianna Margulies revealed that playing a lesbian on the second season of Apple TV’s “The Morning Show” might just come fairly naturally to her.
During an appearance on the “Just for Variety” podcast, Margulies was asked if she had any reservations about playing the lesbian character Laura on “The Morning Show.” “Who’s to say I haven’t had my own gay experiences?” Margulies responded. “We’re making assumptions.”
Margulies, 55, has a child with lawyer husband Keith Lieberthal. But she’s not claiming exclusive heterosexuality. In “The Morning Show,” Margulies plays an out television news reporter who ends up dating Reese Witherspoon’s character Bradley. She sees the story arc that features her character as being about giving strong women strong roles onscreen.
“You’ve got Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon playing these two very strong characters, and in the second season instead of bringing a man in to upset that balance they brought in a woman. Hats off to that, because the truth is women are more afraid of women,” Margulies told the podcast. “We don’t dress for men. We dress for each other. We want to impress each other much more. … It made so much sense, and I thought, ‘Ah, a show that gets women. This is great.’”
Showrunner Kerry Ehrin and scriptwriters give Laura a compelling and resonant backstory involving a career-ending outing. And not the good kind. “It’s rare to get such a rich 20-year history of who this character was before you get to play her,” Margulies told the podcast. “That’s usually the homework I do on my own.”
Laura now has a powerful career in broadcast news and power dresses, too, with a wardrobe inspired by thespian Katharine Hepburn.
“She is probably the only character on that show that has no hidden skeletons in her closet,” notes Margulies. “I view her in the midst of all this chaos that’s going around and all these secrets people are trying to keep it’s like all she has to do is stand still just to make a difference.
Touching on the current debate where the LGBTQ community insists LGBTQ roles should be played by actors who identify as such, Margulies said she is ready to address backlash if there is any.
“I know there was some trepidation of ‘will lesbian actresses be angry?’ and I can tell you I would never, ever be angry if a lesbian played a straight woman,” Margulies says.
And neither would we.
