Courting all new dramas

Picking up a year after The Good Wife ends, this spin-off has compelling stars – including Game of Thrones actress Rose Leslie, writes Seanna Cronin

WHILE her real-life partner battles White Walkers on Game of Thrones, Rose Leslie is taking up the good fight in the courtroom.

The Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones star, famous for her line ‘You know nothing Jon Snow’, joins the returning cast of The Good Wife in the new spin-off The Good Fight.

Picking up one year after the events of the final episode of The Good Wife, a financial scam has destroyed the reputation of young lawyer Maia Rindell (Rose), while simultaneously wiping out her mentor and godmother Diane Lockhart’s (Christine Baranski) savings.

Forced out of Lockhart & Lee, they join Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) at one of Chicago’s leading law firms specialising in representing police brutality cases.

“I was aware, certainly, of The Good Wife,” Rose tells The Guide. “It had been on for seven years. I came quite late to the party, but girlfriends of mine had been speaking about it for a while. I was really excited (about The Good Fight), mainly because it meant I could work with Christine, and because it’s a very familiar universe where we get to create new characters.”

In the show’s first episode, Maia is navigating her first day as a lawyer at Christine’s law firm when her father is arrested.

As the news of his investment fund’s crash and alleged fraud hits the news, it turns Maia’s world upside down.

“When we first meet her she’s fighting to stay sane,” Rose says.

“The name Rindell used to bring with it so much respect and clout; it’s all she’s ever known. Then to have this enormous turnaround and for it to be tarnished and disgraced is such a mortifying experience.

“That jarring reality of suddenly you wake up and your world is no longer what you’ve known for 26 years was one thing that piqued my interest when I read the pilot. It’s a fantastic premise.”

Both she and Diane must forge new futures for themselves if they are going to weather the storm.

“Maia has to dig deeper than she ever has within herself, and the passion she has for the law is possibly the last resort she has to hold her head up high,” she says.

“There’s a strong desire to carve her own way in the world… and a determination in this young woman that I was very much drawn to.

“There’s a resilience within her that builds up by the end of the first season.

“I had always wanted to work with the Kings (writers Robert and Michelle King). They are incredible at writing court dramas and they write so vividly. They make sure their characters are flawed and imperfect.”