New “Blindspot” recruit Archie Panjabi left “The Good Wife” mysteriously in 2015, with her character — glamorous and devious special investigator Kalinda Sharma — turning on the heels of her very high leather boots and disappearing down the street.
It was a great run for Panjabi, 44, the first “Good Wife” actor to win an Emmy (in 2010, for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series). But rumors of on-set hostility between Panjabi and the show’s star, Julianna Margulies, persisted to the end — when it appeared they filmed their final scene together separately.
“How did I know you would go there,” Panjabi says when asked about her last days on the CBS drama. But the topic is still so controversial that all she will add is: “Whatever happened there, stays there.”
Panjabi moved on, working in London — where she grew up and attended Brunel University — on the moody Netflix drama “The Fall” and the big-screen disaster flick “San Andreas.” After a 2016 pilot, “The Jury,” was not picked up, she became a free agent and there was someone who wanted to sign her up immediately: “Blindspot” creator Martin Gero.
“We had always wanted Archie for this role,” he says. “She is such a dynamic performer. She can do so many things at once, which really keeps the audience on their toes. We just assumed she was going to be unavailable, but when ‘The Jury’ looked like it wasn’t going to happen this season, I pounced — and begged her agent to get me on the phone with her.”
Panjabi makes her debut Wednesday in the season premiere as enigmatic NSA supervisor Nas Kamal, who has been watching the Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) case for a year, and now needs the help of the body-tattooed woman who can’t remember much about her past. And, as in the case of Kalinda, Panjabi operates in the background. “She’s been watching everything from afar,” she says of Nas. “There’s been a breakdown of trust on the team and I heal the wounds.
“I may also cause wounds.”
Will she be wielding a baseball bat, as Kalinda did so memorably, smashing the car windows of a male associate who crossed her? “I’ll be doing a damn sight more than that,” says Panjabi, who signed on to do “Blindspot” specifically because it was an action series. “It’s a completely different skill,” she says. “You have to stay within the character. In addition, you have to be aware of the safety. You’ve got special effects. It’s a lot more demanding and I’m enjoying it.”
Co-star Sullivan Stapleton, who plays FBI agent Kurt Weller on the show, and did his own stunts on the Cinemax series “Strike Back,” has been her “mentor” in this regard. “He knows everything about how to hold a weapon,” she says.
Panjabi is married to Rajesh Nihilani, a tailor, since 1998 and they live in London, New York and LA. With all the traveling for jobs here and there, she says it has been difficult to keep in touch with her “Good Wife” castmates. She ruled out the possibility of making a return on the show’s spinoff, launching next year on CBS All Access with Christine Baranski reprising her role as attorney Diane Lockhart.
“When I took [Kalinda’s] leather boots off, I thought, ‘This is a great experience,’” Panjabi says. “To put those boots back on? I don’t know.”
But what if Baranski asked her to come on the show? Panjabi gives a mischievous laugh and says, “Christine is so adorable and she is a good friend. And you can’t say no to her…”
“Blindspot” Season premiere 10 p.m. Wednesday on NBC