Now, if I may, you're Sunshine Girl,
I love the cheerfulness of that.
I march in the army of optimism
and I am looking for recruits.
That being said, I have tried my whole life
to figure out what true strength is.
And when I look at your life,
I have some questions for you
because I have a deep admiration
from bold decisions that you've made in your life.
So all practical jokes and sunshine and optimism aside.
How in the heck did you find your strength
to make decisions like,
I have this incredible paycheck that's coming to me,
it's for two years of work,
but I'm not happy inside, so I'm gonna walk away.
What advice do you have for people
to not live their authentic life
and fight for their truth at whatever cost, pun intended.
Yeah, so I mean, it wasn't an easy decision for me,
obviously, I was set to do my six year contract on "ER."
It had all been planned out
even with George's character coming back
to get me on my last episode,
we had planned all that out with the producers in secret
and then all of a sudden, money came into it.
Suddenly they said, well, if you stay for two years,
we'll give you $27 million.
And I am very aware that most people think I'm crazy
and that's okay, I understand why, I get it.
But for me,
I felt I was 32,
I owned my house outright, no mortgage.
I was able to pay both my mother and my father's mortgages.
I had not a lot,
but a substantial amount of money in the bank, enough.
I didn't have children, I wasn't married.
Wasn't this what I worked six years on a phenomenal show,
had an incredible experience.
And everyone's argument to staying was,
you'll never have to work again,
which I found to be a very strange argument
because I love working, it's who I am.
I always say, go with your heart, never your bank account,
because your bank account can't make you happy,
only in here can make you happy.
There is a story, if I may,
that happened with Steven Seagal,
and you had an incident where he had asked you
to come to his hotel room for casting.
And you thought the casting director would be there.
The reason I wanted to ask you this story
was because this is a part of the strength
I admire in you so much.
I think you have these incredible instincts for life.
Yeah, so it was actually the casting director
that asked me to go to his hotel room.
I had a fourth and final call back the next day,
and she called me to say,
"He'd like to run the scene with you,
he saw your tape, he thinks you're great.
Come to the hotel room."
And I didn't wanna go because I lived in Brooklyn,
I couldn't afford a cab, I was waitressing, I was broke.
And she said, "Don't worry, we'll pay for the car,
get a car service, and I'll be here,
we're gonna run the scene."
So I did that.
And when I got to his hotel room,
the casting director was not there.
And it was a frightening moment because he asked me
to sit on a couch and underneath this cushion,
I jumped up, there was something hard
and he pulled out a gun and said,
"Oh, I must've left my gun there."
I'm 23, and I realized I'm in an action star's hotel room
with a gun, I'd never seen a gun before.
And he's six foot four.
And no one knows where I am.
There's no cell phones.
The boyfriend I was living with at the time,
he was at work, I hadn't called him
to let him know where I was going.
And so, anyway, the way I diffused the situation
was I started thinking fast on my feet
and I was a tough New Yorker, but what did it for me,
he asked me to come into the bedroom 'cause he was tired
and he asked to read my palm.
And I was like, okay.
And he put the gun down,
so I was calming down a little bit.
And he read my palm and told me that he was a healer.
And that I had weak kidneys.
And I thought, is this the shtick that works on women?
This is ridiculous.
And I thought, oh my God, he thinks this is going to
make me think he's some sort of almighty healer and stay.
Anyway, he read the next palm and got in there, whatever,
got in there and started giving me more advice
about my body and how I could fix it through his healing.
The tough New Yorker in me just inwardly was laughing
because it was so awful and hilarious
that I just sort of stood up and I went well, that was fun,
thanks about the kidneys, got to go.
And I just ran for the door and, you know, waving,
see you tomorrow, can't wait.
And I got out of there.
So I got to the elevator and realized
he hadn't reimbursed me for the money
and I was really broke and it was midnight now.
And there was no way I could take a subway home
from Midtown.
And I went back and knocked on the door,
but I made sure to stay on the other side of the door.
And I spoke really loudly,
and he sort of had his Cheshire Cat grin.
And I said, "I was told I'd be reimbursed for the car fare,
so you need to reimburse me for the car fare."
And he reached into his pocket and handed me money,
I didn't look, I ran to the elevator, got in the elevator,
looked at my palm.
He had given me a $100 bill.
I had never seen a $100 bill.
And I figured if I just survived in a hotel room
with an action star and a gun without getting hurt,
I could take a subway ride home and pay off my credit card.
So that's what I did.
I took the subway home and paid off my credit card.
And that is storytelling.
And we have reached out to Steven Seagal
and his reps came back saying
that he denies this ever happened, so.
I appreciated that story so much
as someone who has been put in those situations too
and just been like, you're absolutely kidding me,
I'm walking out of here.
And I just appreciated that story.
Thank you.
I appreciate so many things about you.
The choices you have made,
the way you've lived your life on your own terms,
the life that you've had, the person you've become,
the way you've navigated your family, your career.
And I can't thank you enough
for this wonderful conversation,
all the time you've given.
Thank you, Julianna Margulies.
Thank you for having me, Drew, it was so nice,
and congratulations on your show.
I'm so happy for you.
"Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life" is out now.
(bright music)