Why did Sherry Stringfield leave ER mid-season?

Why do you keep on making different versions of my old threads? Just handing me more and more proof.

PS this could have been a question on the ER thread, where this is discussed, where you’re on…

[quote]Why do you keep on making different versions of my old threads? Just handing me more and more proof.

?

Movies.

Craft Services wouldn't pick out the brown M&Ms

Anthony Edwards touched her no-no parts.

Lol r5!!

Sherry was hired on Guiding Light before she even graduated from SUNY Purchase

She went from Guiding Light to NYPD Blue to ER - she had worked non-stop since 1989 - almost 8 years straight, she just wanted a break

Here she explains in more detail why she left

Here she explains why she came back to ER five years later

LOS ANGELES — It has been five years since Sherry Stringfield left "ER" to "get a life." The actress, who played Dr. Susan Lewis for the first three seasons of the medical drama, says that having a baby almost seven months ago gave her a new appreciation for the consistency of series television.

"Series television is either a nightmare or the best thing in the whole world. It really depends on, I think, where you are in your life," Stringfield says. "It's a lot easier for me this time having a family, because with a kid, you're not going anywhere. So I was really starting to crave a schedule and I'm actually really enjoying that now."

Once she made the decision that she wanted to return, everything else fell into place.

"I met with John Wells and I was like, `I'd love to come back.' And he said, `OK, we'd love to have you back.' That was it. Then I moved, read the first script and showed up for work. It was really that easy." Stringfield returned to "ER" Thursday night.

For his part, executive producer Wells says he's glad to have her back.

"Sherry was an integral member of the `ER' cast for the first three seasons," Wells says. "We are delighted to welcome her back as a series regular and can't wait to work with her again."

Since leaving "ER," Stringfield starred in the NBC movie "Borderline" (produced by former castmate Anthony Edwards), appeared in the films "Autumn in New York" and "54," taught acting at her alma mater of the State University of New York (Purchase) and directed two one-act plays.

"I loved it because it kind of brought me back to why I got in this business in the first place," she says of her time teaching. "And what it really is all about for me at the end of the day, and that's always about the work and the love of literature and writing and storytelling."

Stringfield, who also left "NYPD Blue" after being on the show for one season, was often approached by fans wanting to know why she left "ER." Sometimes as many as a hundred a week.

"It's amazing how everyone has an opinion on how you should live your life. They said I was crazy," she says of the fans' reactions. "I didn't exactly see, being an actress, what the big deal is. I understand that it can appear to be a very coveted position. I think people thought, `Gosh, was there something really bad about it?' I came to understand that they didn't have a full understanding, perhaps, of an actor's life, and that you have a million jobs and we're actually pretty used to it. It's very rare to have a job that lasts more than a year or two."

And when people stopped asking is when she started wanting to return. Coming back to the "ER" set after five years, Stringfield is surprised by how little the show had changed.

"It looked the exact same. I found myself standing in a doorway that maybe I had stood in a thousand times before and I went, `Did I leave?'"

Stringfield, who is contracted to star on "ER" for the next three years, returned to work at the end of August. On the series, Dr. Lewis, who left Chicago to be closer to her sister Chloe, returns home when her sister's husband is transferred to San Francisco. For Stringfield, stepping back into Dr. Lewis' shoes was a smooth transition.

"If it had been another show, I probably would have (been rusty). But I did it almost for three years, it's like riding a bicycle," she says. "It felt like I had left midconversation almost and then I just walked back on and started up again."

One thing that has changed on the show, however, is a number of actors. Other actors to leave "ER" include George Clooney, Gloria Reuben and Julianna Margulies. Also leaving after this year are original cast members Anthony Edwards and Eriq La Salle.

"I'm so bummed. I'm like, `Wait a minute, you can't leave,"' she says of Edwards' and La Salle's decision to leave the series. "My executive producer is like, `I don't think you can tell them that.' I'm like, `I'm going to try, I'm going to beg them to stay.'

"I'm really bummed, but I understand."

Thank you r7/r8!

Wow, poor thing, having to work eight years in a row. Can you imagine?

r10 = Noah Wyle

[quote] Wow, poor thing, having to work eight years in a row. Can you imagine?

You do realize that after the pandemic, thousands of workers decided NOT to return to their jobs, and now there is a staffing shortage

So maybe Sherry was ahead of her time, putting her life ahead of her work. If she had the money in the bank to take time off, why not?

Most people would do the same thing,

Sherry was a quiet quitter.

We all value different things. Many need/want a bigger home, a nicer car, a second home, a new kitchen, a design overhaul, etc. There is always another luxury.

Some of us are like, I think I’ve got enough for now. Let me live a little.

Shooting ER was supposed to be brutal. They did all those highly choreographed moves through different areas of the set…the tracking shots. That stuff takes forever for just a couple pages. Between takes, actors were laid out of gurneys, just wiped from 18 hours of shooting. (When I turn on Chicago Med, almost every scene is self-contained on a small set. They don’t have the ambition or money.)

She didn't seem overly concerned with fame, and she seemed always able to get work when she wanted. So, it probably wasn't a big deal for her to leave a high-profile role.

[quote] it probably wasn't a big deal for her to leave a high-profile role.

The only thing she missed out is the big payday

Of the original cast, Noah Wyle, Anthony Edwards & Eriq LaSalle were paid millions to extend their contract, So all three are set for life, and don't have to work for the sake of making money

Only George Clooney & Julianna Margulies opted not to extend their contract, forgoing any huge windfall. Margulies in particular turned down a 27 million offer to extend for 3 years

Since Sherry left early, she didn't cash in on the big bucks she could have gotten. But then again money was never a motivator for Sherry

Cock was her motivator

[quote]Margulies in particular turned down a 27 million offer to extend for 3 years

Juliana Margulies was lucky she even had a role in that show. Her character Carol Hathaway was originally supposed to die after her suicide attempt in the pilot episode.

I always heard she was dissatisfied with the craft table.

WHET?

Why did they let her live r18?

[quote] Why did they let her live

Irony is that after she won the Emmy, she became the biggest Diva on the ER set

Was she fired from the 54 movie she was cast in?

[quote] Was she fired from the 54 movie she was cast in?

Harvey Weinstein did not like the Director's cut, He orders reshoots and hired another director to re-edit the entire movie

As a result, much of Sherry work is on the cutting room floor. She is in the film, but her role was reduced to a walk-on as Weinstein changed the entire film.

[quote]Margulies in particular turned down a 27 million offer to extend for 3 years

Was she retarded? Where else was she going to make $27 million in 3 years? So what did she do for the 3 years after she quit and did she make more than $27 million in those 3 years?

Maybe she felt she'd made enough money, r25

Obviously not since she had to return to the grind of series television with The Good Wife. If she had taken that $27 million, she wouldn’t have to work another day in her life.

Please $27 million before taxes, say 40%, then take 10% for the agent, 10% for the manager and those are off the original 27 mill, not after taxes, after all the fees, it's practically minimum wage.

I thought it was well known Sherry left to be closer to her then boyfriend.

She was my favorite character in those first two seasons. She seemed like the person you’d most want to hang out with. I was so excited when she came back in Season 8 - and she was great at first - but she wasn’t written well and eventually she just faded into the background. I understand when she left the second time it was a surprise to the producers who expected her to sign.

Her IMDB page shows her last credit in 2017. Retired?

I liked her character too, r29. I was so upset when her sister resurfaced and gained custody of her daughter.