BANG Showbiz English
Julianna Margulies “can understand” the criticism she's received for playing a gay character in ‘The Morning Show'.
The 55-year-old actress plays Laura, a gay reporter, in the hit TV series – and she understands why her casting has annoyed some people, when she herself is not gay.
Julianna – who has a 13-year-old son called Kieran with her husband Keith Lieberthal – explained: “I understand 100 percent that I can't play a different race, but I am an actress and I am supposed to embody another character. Whatever their sexuality is doesn't matter to me, the same way watching a gay person play a straight person [wouldn't].
“Are you telling me that because I'm a mother, I can never play a woman who has never had a child? Or if you've never been married that you can never play a married woman?”
Julianna acknowledged that it's a difficult issue to resolve to everyone's satisfaction.
She told ‘CBS Mornings': “You have to be careful on where you're drawing the line there. We're actors. We're supposed to embody a character, regardless of their sexuality.
“When it comes to race and gender, that's a whole different story and I 100 percent agree with that. That's my stance on it.”
The actress also revealed that she can relate to her on-screen character in certain ways.
She said: “It could be my age now, maybe, but you get to a place in your life, and I think the same thing happened with Laura, where you go, ‘This is who I am. Take it or leave it. I am not interested in pretending. I have no skeletons in my closet. I'm not hiding. I'm telling the truth, and if you don't like it, then you're not in my orbit.'”
