The scene in her new movie Ghost Ship, in which she abseils into an abandoned vessel, is a long way from her former role as a nurse in the award-winning TV series ER. But actress Julianna Margulies is all for variety when it comes to choosing her next part.
"You've got to go and do these big movies that everyone wants to see and make some money so you can do little artistic plays," says the 35-year-old star, who sees the action thriller as balancing her two previous films, the low-key Pierce Brosnan vehicle Evelyn and The Man From Elysian Fields, starring Andy Garcia and Mick Jagger.
"They're three such completely different movies. The beauty of the job is getting to do all these different things," explains the actress, who left ER despite a $27-million offer to stay.
In Ghost Ship, which she described as "a haunted house movie on a boat… The Shining meets Dead Calm", Julianna stars opposite Gabriel Byrne as the tough leader of a salvage team which stumbles across an Italian cruise ship missing for 40 years.
Although not a fan of the horror genre the actress says: "After doing it and seeing it, I thought it was fun…a fun thing to watch while eating a bowl of popcorn."
Her venture into a new genre is unlikely to affect her true love of theatre, however. And the raven-haired-star, who picked up a coveted Lucille Lortel award for her six-month run in Ten Unknowns, says she and Ghost Ship co-star Gabriel are already looking for a play in which they can appear together. "We're looking at a couple of things – a new play and a revival. Theatre is ultimately the most important thing because it makes you exercise those muscles."
Ghost Ship is currently playing in the US and goes on general release in the UK on January 10.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
