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Despite their on-screen chemistry, Julianna Margulies is grateful she never dated _ER _costar George Clooney. The actress, 54, played nurse Carol Hathaway opposite Clooney's Dr. Doug
Ross on the NBC medical drama from 1994 until her departure in 2000. During a recent appearance on Dax Shepard's podcast, _Armchair Expert_, the host joked that Clooney, 60, would have
been "great at loving" Margulies "from afar." Though Margulies said a romance between the two "would have worked," she said she eventually "would have
wanted him to show up." "He and I always joke that thank god nothing ever happened, because now we can remain friends for the rest of our lives," she said. _NEVER MISS A STORY
— SIGN UP FOR__ _PEOPLE_'S FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER__ TO STAY UP-TO-DATE ON THE BEST OF WHAT PEOPLE HAS TO OFFER, FROM JUICY CELEBRITY NEWS TO COMPELLING HUMAN INTEREST STORIES._ Pointing
to other famous costars who got together and then ultimately split while still having to act alongside each other, Margulies said, "Then they hate each other and you're stuck on a
show for seven years together. That's agony. Life's too short." The _Good Wife _star said that maintaining the "crush" she and Clooney had on each other — but never
acting on it — worked for them. "You just want to have the crush keep going and going. And that's what worked," she said. "And also, he's just a super awesome human
being, and I love him." Last month, Margulies opened up about her decision to leave _ER_, even after a $27 million offer was put on the table to have her continue on for two more
seasons. "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," she told Oprah Winfrey during an
interview on her discovery+ series, _Super Soul_. "I was going back to New York to go and do this play and then all this money came up. Everyone I asked said, 'You'd be crazy
[not to]. Take the money, take the money.'" Margulies said she found the sign to stick with her gut and move on following a visit 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 [to the bookstore]," she recalled. "And I ran my finger down a shelf and I
picked out a book, Awakening the Buddha Within." "I brought it home and I said nothing. I walked into my bedroom, I opened the book, I closed my eyes and I [pointed to a line in
the book]. And I opened my eyes and the line was, 'I knew I wanted to learn more, not earn more,'" she continued.