Did Kalinda & Alicia fake their final scene?
Conspiracy theories abound on whether Archie Panjabi & Julianna Margulies did not get along. Minor Spoilers.
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Minor Spoilers:
Tonight’s season final of The Good Wife and the exit of Kalinda includes what was touted as the first scene with Archie Panjabi and Julianna Margulies in the same scene in two years.
But now that has even been called into question, with some suggesting a scene with the two sharing a drink has been carefully manipulated -right down to the clinking of glasses- to avoid the actors sharing the same scene.
As Vanity Fair notes:
I don’t think they were even in the same room. This is the same suspicion many viewers had when the actresses “shared” a scene in a flashback last week.
For the most part in their final moments “together” Panjabi and Margulies were shot in close-up. When the two actresses shared the frame the effect was unsettling. If these are two award-winning actresses sharing a scene, why can they barely make eye contact?
In an interview this week with EW Panjabi was asked:
Why haven’t Kalinda and Alicia been in many scenes together in the last couple of years?
I think that’s a question you need to ask the producers. What is great is that relationship between the two women is one of the best relationships on TV, in terms of it being the most honest. Hopefully, you may see something of that before I leave.
Did you get emotional on your last day?
I didn’t. I’ve known for about two seasons that I was going at the end of season 6. So the past two seasons have kind of been like the slow goodbye. There weren’t tears on the day. It was just a mixture of feeling sad to leave, but that every bone in my body was like this just right feels right. So I guess I felt very calm.
What did you do after your last scene?
I just wanted to say something very nice to the crew because I didn’t have the time to go and say goodbye to each one of them individually. The only way I could do this was to get up and give a speech. Part of me was thinking that Kalinda would do the same thing. She would just get up, make that speech, and then walk out the door. So I did.
You can read more of that interview here.
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10 Responses
Their scenes together were always about two very different women who didn’t quite understand each other and were a bit awkward around each other, but liked to get away and have a drink at the end of the day together. That was their charm.
Alicia and Kalinda stopped having scenes together because because Alicia discovered Kalinda slept with Peter at the State Attorney’s office which damaged their relationship irreparably. That could have been to cover the actresses falling out.
This scene looked odd because they showed Alicia being happy, friendly and genuinely missing Kalinda, but then looking away and showing strangely no emotion while Kalinda finally said goodbye.
Most of Kalinda’s scenes this season were self contained with Bishop and his son. It’s possible they were shot weeks or months ago, and Margulies wasn’t available to do one final scene, so they spliced…
Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I didn’t get the impression that they weren’t in the same room. If they faked it in any way then kudos to the editor cause it didn’t appear that way but maybe that’s just me.
I don’t think they got along and the scene was strange but fitting.
Also what did canning say to alicia as she opened the door??
Canning said “Do you need a partner?”
Thanks, I thought that’s what he said, just was a bit hard to hear that part!
The episode was titled “Wanna partner?”, which made sense after the final scene.
Good point.
It’s pretty obvious when you watch it that they weren’t both there at the same time. It was well executed from an editing perspective, but you just wouldn’t shoot that scene the way it was shot unless you were doing it in two halves.
Actually, if you watch carefully (I went back and checked) there are three two-shots in the course of the scene. So they did shoot it together. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that these shots were faked using a split screen. But seriously… If you’re aware of the realities of shooting a one-hour weekly drama, it’s hard to imagine any producer actually going to the time, trouble and expense of a tricky split screen shoot, when you can just sit the actors down and persuade them to be professional, or, failing that, enforce their contracts. And since Julianna Margulies is one of the producers, you’d expect her to to act like one, not like a diva. So far as I’m aware, there have never been any suggestions that Margulies is such a diva. And it would be almost impossible to stop stories of a feud (and a split screen shoot) getting out, if that were the reality. And the…
I dont know if its true, but when 2 female actresses are involved there are people out there who think that females cannot actually be friends and there is always bitchiness on set.
I hope the 2 girls did get along and Im looking forward to watching the final ep tonight.