Dietland: Julianna Margulies says her character is ‘like Trump’

Julianna Margulies is making her return to television on AMC’s Dietland — and is dishing all the news about her ‘Trump-like’ character.

Margulies is most famously known for, well, many roles, but she was most recently seen in The Good Wife, playing the fierce and conflicted lawyer, Alicia Florrick. After seven years of playing this character, she didn’t quite imagine coming back to television, that is until she read Marti Noxon’s scripts for Dietland.

She’s never quite played a character like Kitty Montgomery before, and this role is a stark difference than the role of Alicia Florrick and ER’s Carol Hathaway.

"“The role of Kitty Montgomery, she’s such a bitch, and she has no moral center. I consider her a little bit like Trump, in that she just wants to win, whether it’s right or wrong. She likes to believe her own hype.”"

Her character, Kitty, is an editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine (definitely total opposite than doctor and lawyer, right?). Kitty hires Plum Kettle (played by Joy Nash) to ghost-write letters on her behalf. Margulies had a critical role in the writing of her character and worked closely with Noxon to bring her to life.

Nash will be making her debut as a lead in a major television series and Margulies was there to help guide her through the process.

"“I was so happy to be on the train with her, to just guide her through moments of exhaustion.” (She gave her the following advice: “The 20-minute nap rule. “No more than 20 minutes or it’s too much. No less than 20 minutes is not enough. I learned all this through pain and suffering.”"

Dietland is a female-heavy set and Margulies expressed the joy and comfort she felt working on a set like it. She recalled a day where she fell ill, and whereas other shows would have her taking medication to get well faster, the cast and crew of Dietland insisted she stay home.

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The plot of Dietland is tied in with the recent #MeToo and #TimesUp movements and focuses on a female-led movement who are over men abusing their power.

Due to the relevance of the series’ message, AMC actually moved up the release date. Margulies commented on the series’ relevance to current headlines:

"“It was timely when I read it, in that Trump was president, just the misogyny that’s coming out of the White House, and the racism, and the ineptitude is mind-boggling — it definitely was timely in and of itself. But then when the Me Too movement started, we all realized we had it in the bag, and we needed to let it out sooner than later.”"

And while there are no plans for Margulies to make a cameo on The Good Fight or return for an ER reunion, we can rest assured knowing she will be back on television, in a role, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

Dietland premieres on Monday, June 4 on AMC at 9 p.m. EST!