-I am a big fan of yours.
I was wondering, you're doing this "Good Wife" spinoff.
-I am. -Were you a fan of
"The Good Wife" before you took this on?
-Very much so. Very much so.
I loved "The Good Wife," and -- and I was --
I was ecstatic to hear that there was going
to be an extension to the series.
So I kind of like jumped at the chance of being able
to be a part of "The Good Fight."
-Yes. It's very nice.
-Yeah. -You're a good fit.
You play a lawyer this year whose father
is sort of a Bernie Madoff type character.
A ponzi schemer, to say the least.
And I was wondering were you familiar with Bernie Madoff?
Certainly those of us here in New York were very familiar.
-Yeah, I'm sure you guys were. Yeah.
-Yeah. It was a big deal.
Some of us -- some of us did not come out that well.
Yeah.
-I suddenly remember reading about Bernie Madoff
and reading about ponzi schemes and realizing
just how they ruined and devastate lives.
And I remember being intrigued kind of like while I was
reading the article thinking how extraordinary it would be
to be in the kind of inner circle of the Madoff family
and how -- and what the like repercussions would be
to be -- to being involved.
And as a result,
kind of like reading the script for "The Good Fight."
That -- I kind of leapt at the chance of playing
Maia, who very much felt betrayed
by her father just being a crook.
-Yeah. -And a really, really kind
of like, yeah, horrible man.
-You -- your family not a single real life
ponzi schemer in the bunch, right?
-No, thank God. No. [ Laughter ]
-And also not a single -- -No, we're wholesome like that.
-Wholesome. -Very wholesome.
-You were the only actor in the lot.
-I am. -Was your family --
a big family, right? Four siblings?
-Five. -Five siblings.
-Oh, sorry, sorry, you're right.
Five kids, so four siblings. -Gotcha.
No worries. I tricked you. I tricked you.
-You did. You did. Who uses the word siblings?
-Exactly. It was my fault.
But did they -- were they excited
when you went into acting? -They were.
Did they -- when did they start to care?
-When did they start to care?
So I think my sisters very much
were kind of like backing me from the get-go.
-Yeah. -My parents, obviously,
always been incredibly supportive.
And then my brothers only really began
to give a [bleep] when I got "Game of Thrones."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Only then -That's a real...
-Only then. I was terrible. [ Cheers and applause ]
And then --
and they're kind of like beginning to call up
and they'll be like, "Oh, okay.
So what are the new scripts coming through?
And what are you, like, up for?"
and prior to that, they didn't --
they did not care.
-I think -- I was probably -- I think I probably saw you
first in "Downton Abbey." -Right.
-And then next in "Game of Thrones."
And a massive difference between
the two characters you played as well.
-Absolutely. -As far as the amount of range
I saw from the first two times I saw you,
just massively well done.
-Oh. [ Laughs ]
-Just the first one wanted to be a secretary.
The next one, very good with a bow and arrow.
-Very good, yeah. She was blood thirsty.
-Blood thirsty. -She was blood thirst,
but it was great, because I didn't have to wear
a corset in "Game of Thrones." -Yeah.
-I Mean I was relived. -Yeah, just like a heavy fur.
-Just a heavy fur. Yeah.
Just tons of rabbits, like, falling off your shoulder.
-So you -- for those who don't know,
you met Kit Harington on that show.
You guys are engaged. -We are, we are.
-Congratulations. -Thank you very much. Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It is. It's lovely.
-You are -- now you're in a situation where he's on
"Game of Thrones" and he is getting --
do you try to get information from him?
-[ Gasps ] No. -Okay.
-I mean, talk about being an avid fan.
I obviously am of "The Good Wife,"
but with "Game of Thrones," I'm like rest of the world.
I'm like waited -- I'm waiting for the new --
-Yeah. -The new and final season.
-I know, heartbreaking.
-Obviously, kind of heartbreaking.
-I don't know what I'm going to do.
-Oh, God, what are we gonna to do?
-I don't know. Move on to another thing I guess.
-Yeah. "The Good Fight?"
-Yeah, exactly. "The good Fight."
Yeah, there we go. Thank you.
-But no, so I remember kind of like, over in the summer.
Summer just gone, obviously, the new episodes
for the final season were coming through
onto his iPad and I -- I mean,
I can read his facial expressions.
-Yeah. -I didn't want to know anything
that's going on, like within his eyes
or anything like that. So, I sent him packing.
I kind of like boot him out so that he can go
to the coffee shop. -Oh, so you won't let him even
read it in front of you. -Absolutely not.
No, because I'll know, I'll be able to gage.
-Gotcha. -Like, if he stiffens
then I know that -- someone's dead.
-[ Laughs ] -And then I'm like,
"No, I don't," and then my mind goes off.
-By the way, I don't want to ruin it for you,
someone's going to be dead. -You think?
-Yeah -You think?
-I mean, it would be great if it was, like,
the last season of "Game of Thrones,"
nobody dies. -Yeah, yeah.
That's one hell of a twist. -That would be a great twist.
-Yeah, that would be a twist.
-I want to ask -- speaking of a twist,
this seems like a very cruel prank that --
this was April Fools. -This is April Fools.
This is last year. -Last year's April Fools.
-Yeah. -So your lovely fiance,
Kit, did this to you.
You opened up -- this is your refrigerator.
-This is our refrigerator back at home in London,
and bearing in mind I had just wrapped
from season one of "The Good Fight."
So I had been in New York for about six months.
We hadn't spent not a lot of time together,
and then I go home and then the bastard puts this in the fridge.
[ Laughter ]
Oh, boy.
And look, you went to town.
-Yeah. -He went to town. He...
-It's amazing. -Decorated it with blue wings.
-Oh.
I mean, that is just -- did you fully scream?
-I fully screamed. -Yeah.
-Oh, I fully screamed, so basically there's this
whole big thing with the Brita filter.
So I basically had ordered a Brita filter the day before,
and I was very excited about its arrival.
And I'd been on the Internet kind of like looking at
the different models and couldn't wait
for filtered water.
And so kind of like went downstairs to the fridge,
and I was getting ready to kind of like
have my glass of water for the first one of the day.
and I was chatting to him over there,
and I don't remember him kind of holding up the phone
because he took video of the whole thing.
And I thought that he was kind of, like,
texting but still, you know, speaking to me.
And then as I then turn my attention back to the fridge,
I see this terrifying head staring back at me,
and I don't necessarily recognize that it's him.
But I just know that somebody's just bloodied in my --
like in my fridge, hairy and -- Oh, God. Horror.
-I mean, I thought it was bad enough,
but the fact that you also wanted filtered water.
-Yeah, no. Big time. That's why I was there.
Yeah, exactly.
-Well, I hope you have plans on how to get him back.
You're running out of time. -I'm running out of time.
I know, the anniversary is coming up.
-Yeah. -First of April.
-Yeah. -But that's the thing,
like as a family --
certainly my family, we don't really do
pranks in that way.
Like, first of April, it comes and goes.
I don't really know many people who do like big, scary,
terrifying pranks -And that's a -- that's a --
by the way, this is a huge waste of time and money.
You don't have to worry about that.
-Yeah, I know. exactly. Yeah.
-Thank you so much for being here. Such a pleasure.