BURBANK, Calif. -- For more than a year, Julianna Margulies has been insisting that this would be her final season on "ER." That, after six years as nurse Carol Hathaway, she was ready to move on and do other things.
It was a story, but it wasn't that big a story.Then the amount of money that Margulies was being offered to stay with the show was leaked -- $27 million for three years. And the story changed overnight.
"Literally, people got angry," Margulies said in an interview with TV critics on the "ER" set on the Warner Bros. lot. "They were saying, 'Who the hell does she think she is?'
"And, by the way, I said a year ago that I was leaving the show. And the money was there a year ago. It's just that somehow someone happened to find out how much."
The actress has a point. After receiving little if any criticism for her decision to leave -- she is, after all, honoring the six-year contract she signed before the show began -- Margulies suddenly became the subject of a great deal of criticism.
"Last year, everyone's reaction to me was, 'Good for you! I understand -- you want to move on.' The second money comes into play, it's, 'Oh, well, who do you think you are? Some big movie star?' " Margulies said. "I never said I was leaving to do big movies. I said I was just moving on. And if money wasn't an issue, no one would care."
(She did appear in the relatively low-budget independent film "What's Cooking?" that debuted at Sundance but is still in search of a distributor.)
So why leave "ER"?
"It's just a gut feeling," she said. "It's time. I'm an actor. I want to try different things. That's part of what being an actor is all about."
To Margulies, the amount of money offered was beside the point. And somewhat surreal.
"The whole thing is surreal. Six years and we're still the No. 1 show and people are still interested?" she said incredulously. "On top of which, that kind of money, that's not real money."
"Oh, it's real," interjected co-star Eriq LaSalle with a gleam in his eye. (LaSalle and Noah Wyle both signed new deals to stay with the show for salaries that are reportedly the same as what Margulies turned down.
"I have really rich friends now," she said. The entire issue quite obviously makes Margulies somewhat uncomfortable.
"We didn't discuss money in my family. I still don't know what my father made," she said. "And what saddened me was that it was about the money, not about the work. And not about the human beings. It was about the money."
She's upset not just for herself, but for fellow "ER" cast members.
"I think it's sad for Eriq, too. It devalues us as human beings and actors," Margulies said. "Noah deserves as much money as anyone could possibly give him. It doesn't matter. He's a great actor for the show and that's why he's paid that much. And that's what's right for him and his life.
"So that makes me sad for the industry. I think it's gross. I don't want to know what people make."
And, while she's ready to go, Margulies admits it won't be easy.
"I know what I'll miss the most. This is my family," she said. "Actually, I think I know (them) more than my own at this point. I remember to call my father once a week . . . And these are the people I see every single day nine months out of the year. The cast and the crew are family to me. I'll miss the people.
"And, certainly, I'll miss being employed and having a paycheck."
CHANGE OF HEART: Tonight's episode of "ER" (9 p.m., Ch. 5) was supposed to feature the TV series debut of French film actress Jeanne Moreau. NBC, of course, had announced with no small degree of fanfare that Moreau was coming aboard for a series of guest shots playing the mother of Dr. Corday (Alex Kingston).
And Moreau made it as far as the "ER" set a few weeks ago -- before she quickly turned around and left, never to be seen again.
Margulies summed the situation up succinctly, affecting a French accent: "She came. She looked. She left."
Questions about what happened with Moreau are met by laughter and not much in the way of information. "We're not really going to comment on that," said executive producer Lydia Woodward. "I will say that Miss Moreau was lovely. We're sorry it didn't work out. But we are incredibly delighted to have Judy Parfit here playing the role."
How did the situation ever get as far as it did?
"It didn't get very far," joked Laura Innes, who plays Dr. Weaver.
Reportedly, the 72-year-old Moreau was overwhelmed by the fast pace of television production and decided (rather quickly) that it wasn't for her. And various "ER" cast members seemed to confirm that scenario.
"It's unlike any other movie or television set you've been on," said Anthony Edwards, who plays Dr. Mark Green. "It's an incredible pace and energy that's going on here. It can be overwhelming. It's very different than doing one shot a day on a feature film, if that's what you're used to.
"From my experience, that could very well send a 70-year-old woman into a panic and say, 'Well, I don't know if I want to do this.' "
Apparently not.