Category The Good Fight

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN – To many she’s renowned as Kit Harrington’s other half.

But Rose Leslie’s gripping turn in The Good Fight, a sassy and slightly edgier spin-off of the Emmy award- winning series The Good Wife, will see the Scottish- born, London-based actress well and truly step out of her famous boyfriend’s shadow.

The 30-year-old portrays Maia Rindell, the daughter of a well-known billionaire couple who also happens to be Diane Lockhart’s (Christine Baranski) goddaughter.

The 10-part series picks up a year on from where The Good Wife finished, with Diane eyeing a cushy retirement — until she becomes entwined in a financial scandal involving the Rindells.

With her retirement dreams up in flames, Diane’s reputation, as well as her financial status, is in ruins.

Fresh-faced law graduate Maia, who had been offered an internship at Diane’s firm, is thrust into the public spotlight and struggles to come to grips with her predicament as a result of her family’s tarnished name.

Growing up at Lickleyhead Castle in Aberdeenshire, Leslie also hails from a well-to-do family — her mother is a descendant of King Charles II while her father is the chieftain of Clan Leslie — but, much like her character, she remains incredibly grounded.

“That’s what piqued my interest,” explains Leslie, whose acting credits include Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey.

“Being aware of her background and being told that she is a daughter of billionaires prior to filming the pilot, I was surprised and also impressed by the idea that she wasn’t entitled and that she has this strong desire to prove her worth.

“She is determined . . . to make sure that she carves her own path in this world, and then of course before any of that can happen, her father is caught in this horrendous scandal.

“I loved the idea of being staged as a stable woman and then for that to be turned on its head and have the relationship with her parents begin to crumble . . . and also to test her financially, professionally and mentally. That was also something I enjoyed grappling with.”

Continue reading Leslie Up For The Fight

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Much like how viewers met Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) at her lowest point in the series premiere of The Good Wife, viewers were first introduced to Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie) just as her world was falling apart.

A bright law student who had just passed the bar and received a job offer at a large Chicago firm, Maia seemed to have the world at her fingertips, that is, until it came to light that her father (Paul Guilfoyle) had orchestrated an elaborate Ponzi scheme that robbed hundreds of thousands — including her godmother and mentor Diane (Christine Baranski) — of their life savings. Not exactly the best way to enter the working world.

However, Maia followed Diane to her new firm and slowly but surely built a solid reputation as a young but smart lawyer, even as she juggled the many stresses of her family’s scandal. At the end of the first season, Maia’s world appeared to come crashing down again when she was arrested for helping cover up the Ponzi scheme on the heels of her father skipping town.

After a turbulent first season for her alter-ego, THR jumped on the phone with Leslie to discuss how she channeled her own nerves for Maia’s big breakdown, how those flashbacks in the penultimate episode informed her portrayal and the « more resilient » Maia to come in season two.

Going back to the very beginning, how did you hear first hear about the role? How was the character of Maia first described to you?

It was a relatively quick turnaround from learning about a character and hopping onto a plane to New York a week later for the next five months. On the phone to [creators and showrunners Robert and Michelle King] and also Brooke Kennedy and some other producers, they were describing the role to me — obviously being a fan of The Good Wife — and very much assured me that we are within the same universe and now it’s with different characters and their own situations. As a result, they determined that Maia was somebody who was tarnished due to her father’s behavior with the revelation of her father’s scam. As a result, she would be forced to mentally and professionally struggle to stay afloat, as well as financially.

Learning more about Maia, and knowing what brilliant writers the Kings are, they fully delivered in terms of creating a rounded character with vulnerability in all the right ways. Often when playing a woman in a law firm, there is a temptation to be incredibly strong-willed and domineering and I thought that it was rather interesting to approach this new character as rather wounded and a real representation of someone… Because in my mind, with the character, what would you humanly do if this were to happen to you? You would put up all your barriers in every single aspect of your life and I feel there’s a lot of self-preservation with Maia and I felt that was true in their writing of her. She doesn’t scare easily, but the wind is knocked out of her after the current events with her father.
Continue reading ‘The Good Fight’ Star Talks Relinquishing Control and a « Tougher » Maia in Season 2