'He was a predator': Julianna Margulies on her troubling encounter with Steven Seagal

Warning: This story contains discussion about sexual misconduct.

Before Julianna Margulies had any film or TV credits to her name, the up-and-coming actress was excited to get a callback for 1991's Out for Justice, which she hoped would launch her career and make her eligible for a Screen Actors Guild card. The night before the audition, she found herself alone with action star Steven Seagal in his Manhattan hotel room.

"The casting director called me and asked me to come to Steven's hotel room in midtown Manhattan — I lived in Brooklyn — to run the scene with him because he didn't have time and he loved my audition tape," recounted Margulies in an interview with host Tom Power on CBC Radio's Q. 

"I said, 'Oh, it's late. It's 10 o'clock. I don't take subways this late.' And [the casting director] said, 'No, don't worry. Take a car. We'll pay for the car. And I really think you're going to get this role.'"

WATCH | Julianna Margulies's full interview with Q's Tom Power:

In her new memoir, Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life, the Emmy Award-winning actress, 54, writes about what happened next. In her conversation with Power, she alleged Seagal was "a predator" who exploited young actresses looking for their big break.

"I was one of the lucky few who got out of there unscathed," she said.

Seagal was accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women, including Jenny McCarthy, who said he harassed her at an audition in 1995, and Portia de Rossi, who said he unzipped his pants during an audition with her. He denied the allegations and was never charged with any crimes. Seagal has not yet responded to Margulies's allegations.

'I realized I was in a very dangerous situation'

When Margulies arrived at Seagal's hotel suite, the casting director was nowhere in sight. She said Seagal asked her to sit down and pointed to a spot on the couch.

"I sat down and jumped right back up because there was something very hard underneath the cushion," said Margulies. "And he said, 'Oh oh, that's my — sorry, I must have left my gun there.' And he took out from under the cushion this big black pistol."

It's now 11 o'clock at night, and I'm with a six-foot-four action star, and he has a gun.- Julianna Margulies

The actress said she felt stupid and that she had been "duped."

"I just came into a man's room — hotel room. No one knows where I am. It's now 11 o'clock at night, and I'm with a six-foot-four action star, and he has a gun," she recalled, adding she had never seen a gun before.

"My wheels started turning, and I realized I was in a very dangerous situation," she said. "And then he asked me to go into the bedroom because he was tired."

Margulies followed Seagal to the bedroom, considering whether she should run or fight. He put his gun down on the nightstand and asked if he could read her palm, saying he was a "healer."

"A lot of the letters I've been getting, they all say, 'Oh my God, he used the same line on me!" she told Power.

Recognizing the ridiculousness of his healer "shtick" — and feeling less threatened by the gun on the nightstand — Margulies ran out of the room, saying she had to go. Remembering she had no money and that the casting director had promised her a car home, she knocked on the door and asked the actor for cab fare in a voice loud enough to be heard in the neighbouring rooms. Seagal laughed and handed her a $100 bill.

"I still went to the audition the next day and I got the part," said Margulies. "And I had some shame about that. You know, I had shame about the fact that I had gone to his hotel room. I felt so stupid, even though nothing had happened to me. I didn't tell anyone about it for a long, long time because I didn't want anyone to think I got the part because I went to his hotel room."

Margulies first shared the story in November 2017 amid the #MeToo movement, feeling encouraged by other women who came forward with their experiences.

"I told the story because I wanted to validate a lot of the stories I [had] been hearing," she said. "We all need someone to relate to, I think, just in terms of being able to say, 'Oh my God, I'm so glad that happened to her too because I thought I was crazy.' Yeah, so I think with the Steven Seagal story, I think it really gave a lot of women just that sort of feeling of relief that their story was heard and that it is true."

Hear the full interview with Julianna Margulies near the top of this page.

Written by Vivian Rashotte. Interview produced by Ty Callender.