HUDSON — Hudson Home was just that Sunday when its owners hosted award-winning actor Julianna Margulies as she was on hand to greet fans and sign copies of her 2021 memoir “The Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life.”
Margulies, 55, who bought a home in Columbia County in 2008, has starred on television, Broadway and in film, is best known for her role as Alicia Florrick on the long-running TV series “The Good Wife,” Carol Hathaway on “ER” and most recently as Laura Peterson on the Apple TV+ show “The Morning Show.” She has been nominated for and won numerous Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards throughout her career.
She has known and worked with Hudson Home owners Richard Bodin and his husband Greg Feller for more than 10 years.
“I was looking for someone to help me furnish the house because I had been doing “The Good Wife” and I had no time,” she said about her first meeting with the 366 Warren St. business owners. “I ran into their little store — they used to have a smaller store on Warren Street — and said, ‘I need a rug, and they said ‘We’ll come and we’ll measure.’”
In the end, Bodin and Feller not only designed her Columbia County home, they also worked on her apartment in New York City.
Bodin and Feller came up with the idea to hold a book-signing at their business location when “The Sunshine Girl” was published last year.
“Julianna has been a friend of ours and a good client for about 10 years and a year ago the book came out in hardcover,” Bodin said. “We wanted to do a book-signing event and because of the COVID restrictions, the timing just wasn’t right, so when the book came out in softcover, it seemed like a good opportunity to do what we hadn’t been able to do a year ago.”
Sunday’s event coincided with the paperback release of her book earlier this month.
“Unfortunately, it [the book] was released during COVID, so I couldn’t meet people personally,” Margulies said. “But now, with the paperback publication, I’ve been able to do some events and it’s been really gratifying how people respond to it.”
Her book has resonated with people of all ages, she said, which was evident during the Sunday book-signing.
“I was just talking to a girl who went to college abroad and she said, ‘Oh my God, I can relate to everything you were talking about in the book,’” she added. “And to adults with problems with their parents who are trying to get rid of the toxicity and find forgiveness.”
Margulies, whose mother gave her the nickname “The Sunshine Girl” when she was young because she always seemed happy, looks back in the book at her life as a young child through adulthood. Although her life was far from easy many times, from growing up with her two sisters in Spring Valley with her parents, who divorced when she was a toddler, to multiple moves to France, England, Italy and back to the U.S., Margulies deftly navigates realizations and causes surrounding emotional upheavals throughout her earlier life with an understanding and graciousness.
Her mother, who plays a big part in the book, was a free-spirit during Margulies’ childhood, which, at times, created chaos in the author’s life.
Also prominently featured in her book is her father, who traveled the world for his work in advertising while she grew up and came up with the Alka-Seltzer ads featuring the “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is” jingle, as well as the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” catchphrase.
“The Sunshine Girl” is entertaining, as Margulies uses humor, thoughtfulness and candor throughout while emphasizing the extreme love she received from her family throughout her life, despite some hard times.
Margulies took four years to write the book and she started on it after “The Good Wife” series ended as she was recovering from adult chickenpox.
“Having adult chickenpox, I only wish it on my worst enemies, it’s brutal,’ she said.
After she recovered, she started working again, which limited her time to write.
“Once I got better, I kept getting acting jobs, so I couldn’t get the book done,” Margulies added. “So, when the pandemic hit, I buckled down and finished it.”
While writing the book, she said she went into a zone that she hasn’t felt since that time.
“I miss it,” she said. “I miss my morning ritual of getting my kid off to school, my husband goes to work and I sit in my office with a cup of coffee and just write, I loved it. It’s really good to reflect on your life a little bit and write it down because it feels like a huge weight has been lifted. It’s gone, it’s out in the universe. Also, to see how people relate to it on such different levels — it’s so interesting.”
The book’s real-life cast of characters has something for everyone in it.
“Some people relate to my dad more, my mom more, me more, it depends, but it’s been a great journey,” Margulies said.
Her event in Hudson followed on the heels of book-signings in Connecticut last week and in New Jersey the previous week. She will hold another event next week in Chicago to promote her book.