Megan Hilty Is Totally Sorry for The Good Wife Series Finale
The Tony nominee and #GG2D actress opens up about her buzzy turn on the CBS drama.
These days, Megan Hilty definitely has reason to celebrate. The Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce actress is nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the play Noises Off and also caused quite the stir when she stopped by The Good Wife as the show bid a final farewell earlier this month. [Warning: spoilers ahead!]
Megan's brief turn on the CBS drama caused the kind of ripple effect that almost no one could have seen coming as Holly Westfall, a ballistics expert and the former protege of Diane Lockhart’s (Christine Baranski) husband, Kurt McVeigh (Gary Cole). In the series finale, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) leveraged Kurt's testimony to save her husband, Peter (Chris Noth), who was on trial for misconduct, and in the process forever destroyed her friendship with Diane. While on the stand, Kurt revealed to the room — and Diane (!) — that he had an affair with Holly. It's that admission that later caused Diane to slap her longtime pal and colleague, Alicia. And Megan had no idea that she'd play such an important role on the series.
"Oh my God, I didn't know that was going to happen when I signed on for that," she told The Daily Dish. "I thought it was one episode. I thought it was just this little, tiny thing and it turned into three episodes, and then oh my gosh you ruined Diane's life. But she got a spinoff; she's fine," she added with a laugh. Still, Megan's truly sorry for impacting Christine's character's life so heavily. "I was shocked. Honestly I had no idea. I knew i was there to annoy, her but I didn't know I was there to ruin her life," she said. "So, yes, I apologize."
With The Good Wife behind her, Megan can now focus on the Tony Awards, which take place in New York on June 12. She's up for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play, in a stacked category that includes Pascale Armand and Saycon Sengbloh for Eclipsed, Jayne Houdyshell for The Humans, and her Noises Off co-star Andrea Martin). And now we know exactly what she was doing when she found out about the nod. "My husband was watching [the nominations] online. My daughter wouldn't let me watch them," Megan ecalled. "She was dragging me across the apartment and screaming at me. It was very glamorous."
That day may not have been glam, but what Megan has in store for the big night certainly will be. "I don't have any time to do anything beforehand, so I'm wearing something that I own. I wore it for my album photo shoot, which we just released and it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever worn. I can't wear to wear it in front of people," she gushed about the design. "It's a Matthew Christopher gown and I feel gorgeous in it. I actually have to change; there will be a costume change before the party because it's not functional, like people can't stand around me."
With so much on her plate, the former Smash star is still willing to make room in her schedule to stop by Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce again to reprise her role as Frumpkis' new wife Charlene. "I just heard that they got a three-season pickup order, that's so fantastic. I don't know [if I'll be back]. I'm waiting by the phone," she said. "If they want to call me, I'd love to go back to Vancouver and hang out with all those crazy people. I like causing drama. When I'm on TV, I play characters that just like to mess with people — but if you didn't have those characters than there's no drama."
Watch Megan dish on how Smash was similar to her real-life Broadway experience during her appearance on Watch What Happens Live back in 2012.
