Actress Julianna Margulies knew she was claustrophobic. But she didn't realize just how much until she had to wear a sealed, full-body biosafety suit while filming the upcoming limited series "The Hot Zone."
Margulies had to spend hours in the suit while filming the six-part show about how the deadly Ebola virus appeared on U.S. soil in 1989.
"I hated it," Margulies said in a recent interview. "You immediately start to sweat. You are ensconced in rubber. There's two fans keeping the air ventilating so you can't hear yourself think and you can't hear anyone else, so you're sort of looking at everyone but you're isolated. It's a very lonely, strange experience."
It was so intense, she said, that she cried on camera three times, "not when I was supposed to."
"I'm very claustrophobic," she said. "Didn't realize how much until they zipped that thing up."
But Margulies said the story she was helping tell was worth the stress. She plays Nancy Jaax, a veterinary pathologist with the U.S. Army faced with containing the highly contagious Ebola virus when monkeys shipped from the Philippines began testing positive at a facility in Reston, Virginia.
"What drew me to this story was the fact that Ebola hit U.S. soil in 1989 and I didn't know anything about it," she said. "To me it was always this thing way off in Africa — didn't affect me. When I read the book and the first four scripts they sent me, I realized this is a global problem."
Margulies, 52, said she hopes the show helps shine a light on the problem, and the fact that "we need to stand behind our scientists and start supporting the research.
"Without it, it could be the way we all go," she said. "It wipes out villages in minutes."
Margulies consulted with Jaax about the hazmat suit, asking her how she handled it and what she would think about when putting one on to handle the world's deadliest viruses at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland.
"I said, 'Were you thinking of your life? Life and death? How were you rationalizing that in your head?'" Margulies said.
Jaax's answer surprised her.
"She said, 'Normally I would think about what I needed to buy in the grocery store. Like, what I needed to do after work and what I hadn't gotten,'" Margulies said. "So in a certain way it was also a godsend because it allowed her not to think about her own mortality."
In fact, Jaax told Margulies the suit was her "happy place."
"She could get in the suit, no one was bothering her. She could just do her work and be at peace, and I understand that as someone who loves my work," she said. "A million things can be going on in my life. The second the cameras are rolling or I get to go on stage, I feel the same way."
Margulies, the only regular on "ER" to win an Emmy, scoffed when asked whether she'll get competitive come Emmy time with her former co-star George Clooney, who also has his own limited series coming out this month.
"How could I ever compete with George Clooney?" Margulies laughed. "I would never consider it."
She said she's just looking forward to watching Clooney's Hulu series, "Catch-22," an adaption of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel set during World War II.
"The Hot Zone" premieres on National Geographic on May 27.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to U.S. officials familiar with the talks.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from President Joe Biden and other western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The Biden administration has said there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard civilians.
“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday at the Sedona Forum, an event in Arizona hosted by the McCain Institute.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians have sheltered in the southern Gaza city as the territory has been ravaged by the war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
The United Nations humanitarian aid agency on Friday said that hundreds of thousands of people would be “at imminent risk of death” if Israel moves forward with the Rafah assault. The border city is a critical entry point for humanitarian aid and is filled with displaced Palestinians, many in densely packed tent camps.
The officials added that the evacuation plan that the Israelis briefed was not finalized and both sides agreed to keep discussing the matter.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday that no “comprehensive” plan for a potential Rafah operation has been revealed by the Israelis to the White House. The operation, however, has been discussed during recent calls between Biden and Netanyahu as well as during recent virtual talks with top Israeli and U.S. national security officials.
“We want to make sure that those conversations continue because it is important to protect those Palestinian lives — those innocent lives,” Jean-Pierre said.
The revelation of Israel's continued push to carry out a Rafah operation came as CIA director William Burns arrived Friday in Egypt, where negotiators are trying to seal a cease-fire accord between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is considering the latest proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release put forward by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators, who are looking to avert the Rafah operation.
They have publicly pressed Hamas to accept the terms of the deal that would lead to an extended cease-fire and an exchange of Israeli hostages taken captive on Oct. 7 and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hamas has said it will send a delegation to Cairo in the coming days for further discussions on the offer, though it has not specified when.
Israel, and its allies, have sought to increase pressure on Hamas on the hostage negotiation. Signaling that Israel continues to move forward with its planning for a Rafah operation could be a tactic to nudge the militants to finalize the deal.
Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israeli forces would enter Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’ last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck. His comments appeared to be meant to appease his nationalist governing partners, and it was not clear whether they would have any bearing on any emerging deal with Hamas.
Blinken visited the region, including Israel, this week and called the latest proposal “extraordinarily generous” and said “the time to act is now.”
In Arizona on Friday, Blinken repeated remarks he made earlier this week that "the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas.”
The Chahine family prepares to bury two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 after an overnight Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024. An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed several people, including children, hospital officials said Friday. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
FILE - Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. A top U.N. official said Friday, May 3, 2024, that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File)
Palestinians rescue a woman survived after the Israeli bombardment on a residential building of Abu Alenan family in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House as he talks with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington, after returning from a trip to North Carolina. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
