These days it's considered a feat for a show to make it past a second season, but The Good Wife did it—and then some. The CBS drama is wrapping up its seventh and final season and for the stars that have been there since the beginning—like Julianna Margulies and Christine Baranski—it's time to say goodbye to characters they've played for nearly a decade.
"I haven't thought about it because it's so bittersweet. There's an excitement about the next chapter, but saying goodbye to a character you've played for seven years, 22 episodes a year, I've sort of been…living Alicia," Margulies told E! News when we were on set for the show's penultimate episode. "Even on our 2-month hiatus, I was thinking about her. I'm going to have to somehow figure out how to stop thinking about how Alicia would react to something. I think it's very bittersweet. The up side is that all good things must come to an end and I think that CBS and the Kings were absolutely right, we should go out on top and leave them wanting more and treat these characters with tremendous dignity. And at the same time, it's just painful. [Laughs.]"
Baranski told us she hadn't yet processed how she'd say goodbye to the fierce and fabulous Diane Lockhart.
"The day I found out the show wasn't going to come back I remember being kind of sanguine about it…And then I woke up the next morning as though someone had died. It was a very, very heavy feeling in my heart," Baranski said. "And that's not just because of the character…it's the people with whom I worked, the actors, the crew, the writers, just everybody…"
But Cush Jumbo, a new addition to the show for the last season, has started to say goodbye to Lucca Quinn a little at a time so it wouldn't be hard in the end. "Every day I say goodbye to a little bit of her," she said. "I try to imagine that they are ending their job for the last day…You kind of imagine they're packing up their bags for the last day and they're leaving the law firm…and they're walking down the road, outside, for real, with their little bag and they're getting in a cab to an airport or an island, wherever."
Click play on the video up top for more from the cast.
The Good Wife airs its penultimate episode on Sunday, May 1 at 9 p.m. on CBS. The series final airs on Sunday, May 8.