Actress Juliana Marguiles embodied her 'Good Wife' character Alicia Florrick after learning the show's producers planned to kill off Josh Charles. Will was shot and killed by his client on Sunday's show, leaving fans in a frenzy over the loss of one of television's most beloved charatcers.

Julianna MarguilesJulianna Marguiles Persuaded Josh Charles To Stay On 'The Good WIfe', Briefly

"I just want to clarify because I think it's an important distinction," Charles said during a panel discussion this week. "I didn't ask to be let out of anything. My contract was up, and it was time to be thinking about the people close to me. I did a lot of soul searching. I think it's a very long season doing a network television show, and somewhere in year four, I just felt burnt out. I was ready for something different. That's no reflection for how I feel about the show, it's just more of what I want to do with my life."

Marguiles said her "head started spinning" after hearing the shocking news, "'Well wait, did you see if he would do less episodes, did you offer him directing credits?'" she recalled asking The Good Wife bosses, "I became the Alicia-lawyer kind of thing, how can I negotiate this contract?"

Josh CharlesJosh Charles Has Left 'The Good Wife'

Marguiles ended up begging her long-time friend to stay on the show for at least 15 more episodes into season 5.

"I gave him terrible Jew-guilt," she added, "I knew he was about to get married, and I'm good friends with his wife, and I said, 'Josh, how about this. 15 -- wait, think about it -- money in the bank for 15 episodes. Do you know how expensive it is to have a kid in New York City?' I went right to the kid thing, and it was disgusting! We were looking at schools for our kid at the time, and I said, 'Do you know much private school is?!' And I went through this whole thing about kids and family, then he said, 'Well 15, let me think about that!' And I said, 'And 2 directing spots!'"

Charles was persuaded to stay to give his character a proper send-off.

"He's been such an integral part of the show, and such an integral part of my character," the Golden Globe winner said. "So I said if this is going to happen, lets do it right."

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