Julianna Margulies, best-known for her roles as nurse Carol Hathaway and love interest to George Clooney‘s character on ER and as Alicia Florrick on The Good Wife, says she can relate and admire her Good Wife character because of her ability to keep her emotions in check.

In an interview with Jane Pauley, the two-time Emmy winner dished on why she loves the character who returns to work as a lawyer after her disgraced philandering political husband goes to prison.

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“I admire the way she is silent more than she speaks,” she told Pauley. “And you can see the wheels turning in her head. And I realize it’s so much more powerful to actually think before you speak than to just go off the top of your head, which was so the way I used to react as an actress. I hold my emotions on my sleeve, and she holds them so deep down.”

In its seventh season, The Good Wife has been very good to the actress. Margulies said yes to playing Alicia Florrick a year after giving birth to her son Kieran with husband Keith Lieberthal.

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— Mirela Maria (@Mirelaimm) September 28, 2015

Julianna Margulies, 49, says she has much for which to be grateful.

“There’s a different appreciation you get for things when you’re at a different time in your life. And I obviously waited for the right time, and I got lucky, I got so lucky. I mean, I pretty much say it every night when I go to bed, how lucky I am, and with everything. I love my job.”

Julianna Margulies, star of @TheGoodWife_CBS talks about her advocacy for the ALS Project http://t.co/EmOcxzpr9O pic.twitter.com/A5gyWvFm8y

— CBS Sunday Morning (@CBSSunday) September 27, 2015

The Good Wife, starring Julianna Margulies, airs 9 p.m. Sundays on CBS.