The Good Wife is a drama based around Alicia Florrick (Juliana Margulies), whose husband Peter (Chris Noth) recently resigned as Attorney General of Cook County because of a prostitution scandal. It definitely has a ripped from the headlines feel in that if you follow New York politics at all, it sounds a lot like the Eliot Spitzer scandal. In any case, Alicia goes back to work for a competitive law firm and each episode centers around a different case. I enjoy procedurals, but sometimes I find them rather mundane. However, The Good Wife is incredibly interesting, and very different from other law shows out there. The characters are quite unique and I definitely want to see how all of the relationships play out. Matt Czuchry (you may know him as Logan Huntzberger from Gilmore Girls) plays Cary Agos, a junior associate who is competing with Alicia for the one spot in the law firm. I recently got to chat with him about his character, what makes The Good Wife so unique, and what’s coming up this season.
So tell us a little more about your character Cary. He’s super competitive.
Yeah. He’s very ambitious. He’s willing to do what it takes to get to the top.
What originally drew you to this character?
You know a lot of different elements first drew me to the project. The script was great. I loved the script as a whole. I loved the people associated with the project: the producers Ridley and Tony Scott, David Zucker. The director was Charles MacDougal, liked him a lot. And the cast that they were putting together. So there’s a lot of elements. And specifically with this character, when I sat down and talked to them about it, they said we kind of want this guy, when he comes on screen, the audience is not sure who he is, what his motivations are. Are they good or self-serving? And I thought that would be an interesting thing to play.
Are you anything at all like Cary or are you totally the opposite?
I would say this character is very goal-driven and I’m very goal driven. I’m very much a type A personality, where I plan things out. I think where the character and I are different is–Cary will at least where he is right now in his life, is willing to use any means necessary to achieve what he wants and I’m not that way. I care about other people’s emotions and feelings over my own personal goals.
Well that’s a good thing (laughs)
(laughs)
Your character is sort of the thorn in Alicia’s side. Does this rivalry continue as the season goes on?
It has so far. The episode that we’ve been doing–it’s kind of a back and forth on that, where they have to work together. Actually, the next episode that we’ll see on Tuesday night, they’re actually working together for the same goals. So, we’re going to see a little bit of that. And we’re also going to see the competition as well. So it’s kind of both sides of that.
On Gilmore Girls, you play Logan who is sort of a privileged, no cares type of guy. And now you play Cary. Was it hard to get into this role to play such a different character from Logan or any of your other characters?
Well, you know that show finished 2 years ago, so most of my work and emotions and thought I put into that particular character, having finished it two years ago, are kind of in the past. But you know, any time you’re taking on a new character, it’s at first, in the first couple of episodes if it’s TV, or in the beginning when you’re working on it in rehearsals in a movie, you’re trying to find your way. You’re still trying to find your way, to who this character is. So in the beginning, those first couple episodes, just trying to find the degrees as far as how genuine is he here, how much is he hiding here, how much is he completely just screwing somebody over here…(laughs)…so finding those degrees in the beginning are tricky because you haven’t had much time with this character but with each episode, you get in the groove and you understand who this person is based on having more time living inside his skin.
There are a ton of law dramas on TV right now. I love the Good Wife, but what do you think makes this show so unique?
Well I think that people right now are watching the show because they’re invested in the storylines and the characters. You look at Alicia’s storyline and you can kind of say, if you were in her shoes, what would you do? And even though you may not have had personal experiences that she’s had, you can understand those difficult choices that she has to make, so storywise that’s very relatable. And what Juliana is doing with that character, what Chris Noth is doing with his character, are very believable and interesting. And there’s a lot of different characters, and each of the characters bring something different to the show. I think that Alicia brings something that’s different than what Cary brings, and Kalinda (played by Archie) brings something different than what I bring, Josh Charles’s character Will is very different from Christine Baranksi’s character although they’re both partners. So I think that you have very specific characters who bring different things to the show. And I think that the storylines that go along with that is why people are enjoying it so far. Don’t you think?
Yes, I think so. And what has been your favorite part of filming the show?
This is the first time that I’ve ever been associated with a new show. So, kind of, going to Vancouver and doing the pilot, and then finding out that we got picked up. I had to move to New York for the show, and it comes out, and wondering how it’s going to do, and now it’s going well. All these moments are new to me, and you really do become invested in the show, and you become invested in your fellow castmates in a way it’s like they’re your family. So that’s been the most enjoyable, because it’s been very much like a family.
What would you like to see for your character moving forward?
I just want to keep the audience guessing and keep that going and building on that. I’d like for him to do some shady stuff here and there, even more so, but in some ways, it’s for the greater good. I think just continuing–right now the show is so new, and these storylines are just kind of beginning. There’s still so much room to go with Cary as far as keeping the audience guessing. So that kind of idea, I just kind of want to build on that and take it even further.
And, I know you can’t spoil too much but can you give us a little teaser of what’s coming up this season, specifically for your character?
Right now, each of the storylines that keep getting dropped are really just kind of being further and further played out. I can tell you the last couple scripts have been really good. The last one we got was really good. This next episode coming up on Tuesday night, I’m excited to see myself. Directed by a great director, Rod Holcomb who actually won the Emmy for directing the last episode of ER. And he won they Emmy on Sunday night, and we went to work with him on Monday. So that was pretty cool. He’s a fantastic, fantastic director. So I’m excited to see how this episode comes out. And this episode is the one I told you about where Alicia and Cary are kind of on the same page. So, I’m excited to see how that all turns out.
The show itself and Alicia’s storyline is sort of a ripped-from-the-headlines kind of thing especially relating to New York politics. Are there going to be any more of those familiar cases on the show?
I think that they want to make it, most importantly current in the sense of especially the things that you’re seeing for example with the kids, the family life, about how now — whether it be the internet, how that impacts people socially. One example there, one of the future episodes, there’s a little mention of cloning. A little spoiler there. So I think what the writers really want to do is they really want to make it current. And so I think that they’re going to continue to do that with the law firm itself and with the storyline involving when we have court cases. Just really current.
And is there anything you would tell viewers as to why they should tune into The Good Wife? I mean, I watch it but…
Thank you, thank you for watching it. Well you tell me, what would you say? Why do you like it? Why would you tell someone to watch the show, and I’ll build off that.
I think I would say that it’s definitely more unique than many of the law, procedural shows on TV and all the characters are interesting. And I want to tune in to see where Alicia goes, where Cary goes, where things go with the law firm, and how the relationships play out.
Yeah, I would say that if you like procedural shows where there’s cases that have a beginning, middle and end, and those are shows that you gravitate towards, then this is going to be something that you connect with. And on top of that, I think that once you connect to that, you’re kind of going to be like “oh, this is exactly the kind of the show that I like, but there’s also added elements of these different characters in the family drama aspect and the ripped from the headlines aspect of what would you do if you were in a public situation that you wanted to keep private.” So I think that if you like procedurals, you’ll connect to it and then at the same time be like “oh man, I definitely have to put this on my DVR because it’s awesome and at the same time, something new that I haven’t seen before.”
Be sure to tune in tonight for an all new episode of The Good Wife at 10 pm on CBS.
The TV Chick 