Julianna Marguiles Reveals Why She Stepped Away From 'ER' After Six Seasons

Julianna Marguiles famously exited her ER role in the sixth season of the show and she’s now opening up about her reasons why.

In her upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey, the 54-year-old actress recalled that there was a massive payday attached if she chose to stay with the series, where she starred as nurse Carol Hathaway.

Click inside to see what Julianna shared about leaving “ER”…

“I was going back to New York to go and do this play and then all this money came up,” she recalled. “Everyone I asked said, ‘You’d be crazy [not to]. Take the money, take the money.’”

However, she had already made up her mind about leaving the show.

“I felt very alone because I had already planned what I was going to do before they had offered me that money. I had my life planned,” Julianna explained.

She revealed to Oprah that it was a book that inspired her to step away from the hit drama series.

“I went to the Bodhi [Tree] Bookstore [in Los Angeles] — I had heard a friend got some spiritual books and I had been studying some Buddhism, so I went,” she recalled.

One of the books she picked up was “Awakening the Buddha Within.”

“I brought it home…. I opened the book, I closed my eyes and I [pointed to a line in the book],” Julianna shared. “And I opened my eyes and the line was, ‘I knew I wanted to learn more, not earn more.’”

Following reading the book, Julianna stepped away from ER, and a few years later, was back on the small screen starring in The Good Wife.

Julianna will also be starring in season two of The Morning Show.

Just recently, she and George Clooney opened up about a possible reboot of the show.