Julianna Margulies Says She ‘Flunked’ First ‘ER’ Audition — and George Clooney Changed Carol’s Fate

If it hadn’t been for George Clooney, Julianna Margulies might not have stayed on ER past the first episode. And if it hadn’t been for Margulies’ attitude, she might not have appeared on the NBC medical drama at all.

Margulies detailed her ER hiring in an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Friday, November 8. During the sit-down, the Emmy winner told host Kelly Clarkson she traveled from New York City to Los Angeles and got to her ER audition early but was frustrated to learn the casting directors were running late.

“I had two other auditions afterwards, and there [were] probably 50 people in the waiting room, and they were running two hours behind, and I was pissed,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna be late for my next auditions, this is not OK, forget it.’ And I actually, like, an hour or two [later], I stood up, and I was walking out. And the casting director called my name. … I rolled my eyes, like, ‘Oh, really?’”

Margulies said that she was auditioning for a recurring character on the show. “But I was so pissed off that I did it really rudely, [with] a little New York anger,” she said. “I knew I’d flunked, and I walked out of the audition, and the casting director said, ‘Hold on a minute, you’re not right for that part.’ And I was like, ‘You think?’ And he said, ‘You might be right for this head nurse, Carol Hathaway, but she dies in the pilot. But could you come and read for that?’ So I went back in, and I read for Hathaway with a lot of attitude. And I got the role!”

Clarkson was astounded to hear that Carol Hathaway was meant to die in that first episode. And as Margulies explained, it was the audiences’ good will toward Clooney, the actor behind Dr. Doug Ross, that kept Carol alive.

“The character dies in the pilot from a drug overdose,” Margulies said. “But the way the director shot it — he was great, Rod Holcomb, who passed away last year — he did it through George Clooney’s eyes, because … he was an old flame of hers.”

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And for test audiences rooting for Clooney, it became “really important” that Carol not die, Margulies explained “The whole audience went, ‘No!’” she recalled. “Because they loved George Clooney so much — who doesn’t?”

Sherry Stringfield, who played Dr. Susan Lewis on the show, also helped keep Carol alive. “When I get brought in on the gurney, she for some reason [put] her clipboard to her mouth when she said, ‘She’s braindead.’ So you don’t see it!” Margulies said with a laugh. “They just looped different lines in saying ‘She’s gonna be OK’ or whatever, and they brought me back to life.”