Tailoring "Suits" with Creator Aaron Korsh

Summary

Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast
Episode: Tailoring "Suits" with Creator Aaron Korsh
Release Date: October 8, 2024

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Introduction

In this special episode of Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast, hosts Patrick J. Adams and Sarah Rafferty delve deep into the creation and early days of the hit TV show Suits by engaging in an insightful conversation with the show's creator and showrunner, Aaron Korsh. This episode offers listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the inception of Suits, the casting process, character development, and the dynamics between the cast and creator.

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Hosts' Backstories Before "Suits"

Sarah Rafferty [02:24]: Sarah shares her journey leading up to Suits, highlighting her persistence in the acting industry despite numerous pilot rejections. She recounts how a pivotal moment during a movie premiere led to her auditioning for the role of Donna Paulson, emphasizing the importance of seizing unexpected opportunities.

Quote:
"Whenever things don't go your way, just get grateful because there's meaning there." — Sarah Rafferty [03:48]

Patrick J. Adams [09:58]: Patrick reflects on his early career struggles, including failed auditions and personal setbacks. He describes the vulnerability and self-doubt that often accompany the acting profession, setting the stage for his eventual breakthrough with Suits.

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Meeting Aaron Korsh

The conversation takes a personal turn when Sarah and Patrick discuss their longstanding friendship with Aaron Korsh, tracing back to their meeting in 1993 at the Williamstown Theater Festival. They reminisce about early collaborations and the foundation of their enduring professional relationships.

Quote:
"When you need to get off, it's also fine. He's like, yeah, yeah, go. Oh, I know. We'll do this together." — Sarah Rafferty on Aaron Korsh [16:27]

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Audition Stories and Casting Challenges

Sarah Rafferty [03:25]: Sarah describes the complicated audition process for Suits, including the initial reluctance to audition and the logistical challenges that prevented her from being seen in Los Angeles. Gabriel Macht's encouragement led her to create a self-taped audition, a novel approach at the time.

Quote:
"I was just like, meh, you know, whatever. I didn't take it that seriously." — Sarah Rafferty [05:26]

Patrick J. Adams [14:33]: Patrick shares his own audition experience, detailing his initial discomfort with comedy and the transformative impact that the character Mike Ross had on him. He highlights the authenticity and relatability he brought to the role, which resonated deeply with both the cast and audience.

Quote:
"Nobody's gonna work harder than me." — Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross [14:33]

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Behind the Pilot: Creative Decisions and Script Development

Patrick J. Adams [31:43]: Patrick discusses the transformation of the show's premise from Wall Street-focused to a legal procedural, detailing how network demands influenced the creative direction. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining character-driven narratives over case-heavy plots.

Quote:
"It's not about the cases. It's about the character drama." — Patrick J. Adams [32:50]

Aaron Korsh [34:42]: Aaron provides insights into script alterations, including title changes and scene modifications. He explains how external feedback and creative collaboration shaped the pilot, ensuring it aligned with the envisioned tone and character dynamics.

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Character Development and On-Set Dynamics

Patrick J. Adams [38:38]: The hosts delve into specific scenes from the pilot, analyzing the introduction of key characters like Jessica Pearson. They discuss the visual storytelling techniques employed by director Kevin Bray, such as silhouette shots that convey power dynamics and character relationships.

Quote:
"There's nobody who can play Harvey Specter like Gabriel does." — Sarah Rafferty [53:46]

Sarah Rafferty [43:04]: Sarah highlights the casting of Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson, noting the intentional choice to portray a powerful female character. She shares anecdotes about initial on-set interactions and the seamless embodiment of Jessica's authoritative presence.

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Challenges and Adaptations During Production

Patrick J. Adams [55:21]: Patrick recounts the editorial changes made to the pilot, including scene reordering and the addition of new lines. He expresses his contentment with the final product, despite minor discrepancies between different cuts of the episode.

Quote:
"I didn't have any thought of that stuff. I was like, I like the way they perform these five scenes. If it makes my heart sing, I'm drawn to it." — Patrick J. Adams [45:19]

Aaron Korsh [58:07]: Aaron addresses the aging aspects of the pilot, discussing how certain elements might resonate differently with contemporary audiences. He reflects on the show's ability to maintain relevance through character depth and ethical complexities.

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Support and Future Collaborations

Towards the end of the episode, Aaron Korsh expresses his ongoing support for the podcast, hinting at future conversations and deeper explorations of Suits. Patrick and Sarah reciprocate the gratitude, acknowledging how the podcast serves as a valuable touchstone for both the cast and fans.

Quote:
"This show is straight from his heart and his life and his experience. It creates a friendship that you rarely see or experience anywhere else." — Aaron Korsh [17:05]

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Conclusion

This episode of Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast serves as a comprehensive exploration of the origins and early development of Suits, enriched by personal anecdotes and expert insights from Aaron Korsh. Listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the creative processes, casting intricacies, and the enduring relationships that fueled the show's success.

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Notable Quotes

1. Sarah Rafferty [03:48]:
   "Whenever things don't go your way, just get grateful because there's meaning there."

2. Patrick J. Adams [14:33]:
   "Nobody's gonna work harder than me."

3. Sarah Rafferty [16:27]:
   "It's like there's just a long, lifelong conversation, and sometimes you're on the phone together and then you're off the phone, and then when you're back on the phone again, it's just five or six hours."

4. Patrick J. Adams [32:50]:
   "It's not about the cases. It's about the character drama."

5. Sarah Rafferty [53:46]:
   "There's nobody who can play Harvey Specter like Gabriel does."

6. Patrick J. Adams [45:19]:
   "If it makes my heart sing, I'm drawn to it."

7. Aaron Korsh [58:07]:
   "We have such a friendship that you rarely see or experience anywhere else."

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Key Insights

• Persistence Pays Off: Both hosts emphasize the importance of perseverance in the entertainment industry, sharing their own journeys of overcoming numerous rejections to land iconic roles.

• Authentic Character Portrayal: Patrick's genuine portrayal of Mike Ross underscores the value of authenticity in acting, which contributed significantly to the show's relatability and success.

• Collaborative Creativity: The episode highlights the collaborative efforts between Aaron Korsh, the directors, and actors in shaping Suits, showcasing how creative decisions are made to balance character development with engaging storytelling.

• Behind-the-Scenes Challenges: Listeners gain an appreciation for the logistical and creative challenges faced during the pilot's production, including script alterations, casting dilemmas, and scene executions.

• Enduring Relationships: The strong bond between the cast and Aaron Korsh is evident, reflecting how personal and professional relationships can enhance the creative process and the overall quality of a television series.

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the essence of the Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast episode, providing a detailed overview for both longtime fans and newcomers interested in the inner workings of Suits.

Transcript

[Sarah Rafferty]

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[Patrick J. Adams]

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[Aaron Korsh]

Hi, I'm Patrick Adams. You may know me as Mike Ross on the TV series Suits.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Hi, I'm Sarah Rafferty and you may know me as Donna Paulson on Suits.

[Aaron Korsh]

And this is Sidebar A Suits Rewatch Podcast Suits Watch Podcast because Sarah and I have never actually watched the show.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So each week we're gonna talk through an episode of the TV show, tell.

[Aaron Korsh]

Stories from set, compare notes and memories, answer listener questions, talk about the music.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Talk about the clothes, talk about dazzling performances.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yes, yes, that is actually what we are gonna be doing most weeks. But this week is going to be a little different.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yes, this week is gonna be special.

[Aaron Korsh]

In our last two episodes we talked about the pilot of Suits. So this week we thought that we should talk to the creator, showrunner, and the mind behind Suits, Aaron Korsh. But I thought that before we dive into that, it might be a fun thing to just talk a bit about where we were at. Before we showed up on that set for the first time. September 2010, up to that point. What's Sarah Rafferty up to?

[Sarah Rafferty]

Okay, so. Well, I had been knocking around for a bit. I mean, at that point, I was well into my 30s, but at this point, I had knocked around as, like, a guest on all kinds of shows. I recurred occasionally. It was. I mean, it was good. It was good. I was working. I think that's huge for an actor to work.

[Aaron Korsh]

But you knew early age you're gonna be an actor. How old were you?

[Sarah Rafferty]

It wasn't early. I don't think it was early. I mean, sixth grade when I played really, Rosie, I should have known.

[Aaron Korsh]

I'll tell you. That's when the world knew.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I should say that I left out that I had done a lot of pilots. So pilots are the first episode of something.

[Aaron Korsh]

How many pilots do you think you had?

[Sarah Rafferty]

I think there were, like, seven, eight, nine. Yeah, pilots. There were some pilots. And every year, you know, we. We were based in New York, and then I would come out to LA for pilot season, which used to be a thing, but talk about putting pressure on yourself. Like, I got three months to get the job that's going to potentially change my life.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right.

[Sarah Rafferty]

And they wouldn't get picked up when suits came along. I had just done a pilot, a comedy pilot here in Los Angeles. It was going to be a dream job, and we were waiting to hear. And I got a phone call that it wasn't going to be picked up. But a very wise woman had told me, you know, whenever things don't go your way, just get grateful because there's meaning there.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right? Right.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So I hung up the phone, I took a deep breath, got grateful that I should live in the mystery of that. But I also had to hurry up and finish putting on my mascara because I was going to Jacinda and Gabriel's premiere of a movie at the ArcLight.

[Aaron Korsh]

No way. And maybe give us a quick history. Sorry to interrupt, but you and Gabriel are friends. How. Where did you meet?

[Sarah Rafferty]

Oh, okay, okay.

[Aaron Korsh]

Sorry. I just feel like that's a helpful piece of information.

[Sarah Rafferty]

We met in 1993 at the Williamstown Theater Festival. We were in the Act 1 company, which was the Young Company, and I was. I had just graduated college, and he just finished his junior year in college, and I was getting ready to go to drama school, and we met that summer doing plays and became great friends.

[Aaron Korsh]

And do you have a foundational young Gabriel memory that I can hang above his head and make fun of him for anything.

[Sarah Rafferty]

You can give me nothing. I can.

[Aaron Korsh]

Or it can be kind.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I can't offer anything.

[Aaron Korsh]

I just like any ammunition. But it can be sweet too.

[Sarah Rafferty]

No, I think, look, I'm always gonna choose the go sweet. No, I can get. I can turn on that person who mocks. But no. I remember. So when we were at Williamstown that year, I remember we were in the theater and there was a big first meeting. And I do remember, like getting tapped on my shoulder or something and turning around and Gabriel just had this grin where I swear to God, you could superimpose like the Cheshire cat on him.

[Aaron Korsh]

Did he have the long blonde socks at this point?

[Sarah Rafferty]

No, he had just shaved his head.

[Aaron Korsh]

For anyone listening, you want to go Google Gabriel? Mockt 90210. You're going to watch that video. You're at the premiere.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Okay. So Jacinda and Gabriel did the red carpet and did their press. I was waiting at the far end with Steven and Suzanne, Gabriel's parents. And I greeted them when they were finished. And I was so excited to see the film. And Gabriel just said, how are you doing? And I said, great. Answered. And he proceeded to ask me several times until he got the news out of me that the pilot had not been picked up. And he said, great. When I get home tonight, I'm sending you a script. You have to audition for this role. It seems really small in the script, but it's gonna become something. I know it's gonna become something, so promise me a little audition for it. And I kind of was like, meh, you know, whatever. I didn't take it that seriously. But he did follow up the next day. He did email it that night and. And he said, get. Get yourself an audition. And I couldn't get an audition.

[Aaron Korsh]

They wouldn't even let you audition there, wasn't there.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I couldn't be seen in Los Angeles because it was a guest. And they wanted that role to be cast out of New York.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh. Because it wasn't gonna be that. The role of Donna was not originally intended to be a series regular role necessarily in the pilot.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It was a guest. Yes, absolutely. It was a guest. And I couldn't get the audition here. And so Gabriel suggested just make your own movie of your audition, which I had never done before and didn't.

[Aaron Korsh]

Cause self tapes weren't like a thing at that point.

[Sarah Rafferty]

No. And I had to go to a place on La Brea and record it and send it in.

[Aaron Korsh]

Do you still have this tape? Please, God, tell me this tape. Exists.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I think it would. It would have been on vhs.

[Aaron Korsh]

Bonnie Zane. Bonnie Zane. Bonnie Zane, our casting director, who was our casting director from minute one. Right. Yes, of course. Yeah. Oh, she'll have this tape.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So it went to New York and then. Yeah. I mean, we can let Erin tell the story, but they were. There was sort of a rule in place that friends weren't gonna be cast.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Right.

[Aaron Korsh]

Which is a sort of normal rule. People say that until it's broken, but people like to sort of set that boundary.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yes, yes. And then I remember when I got the offer for the job. I remember my manager at the time. My manager. I had two managers at the time. One of them just was like, why, are you gonna go do this? No, it's in New York. Like, it's gonna. You're gonna be gone for two weeks. And I had the opportunity to say, listen, it's, you know, it's. It's not working the standard way, right? Like this. Do a pilot every year, wait for something to get picked up. It's, you know, it's kind of the definition of insanity. I'm doing the same thing over and over. Something's gotta change. Like, how's that working for you? It's actually not totally working.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I said that, but I said the more real truth, which was, it's a couple of weeks, my friend is starring in this thing. I just wanna go there and support him and show up. I believe in just showing up. And he said, oh, okay. You wanna support your friend, go for it.

[Aaron Korsh]

Can I ask you something? Was there something about the role? Anything specific? Even though it was quite small on the page and the pilot, was there something to the role that appealed, that you saw something in Donna that was like, this would be fun to do.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I was intrigued by the world, and I was intrigued by Donna. I thought there was a little bit of mystery there. I was like, who is she? Is she a Girl Friday? Is she, like, Rosalind Russell, the gal behind the guy who's going to not always be the gal behind the guy kind of Stitch. But I think there was a deeper thing of, like, keeping myself small, like she was going to be small. And that made me not as nervous as we've talked about.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, I can just have fun with this.

[Sarah Rafferty]

No one's looking at me. I'm just, like, serving a function. Donna is made to soften the edges of this guy, is made to, you know, give us information about this guy. Donna is a functional character, like the way you analyze a play script. You understand what your function is not.

[Aaron Korsh]

To skip or spoiler alert to the end of this whole process. But I just think it's so crazy that that's the beginning of your story, given that this show basically ends with the story of you and Harvey. You know what I mean? Like, I just think it's, like, the coolest trajectory, that it begins from that place where you were enjoying being able to keep it small and save.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So. But to you. To you, in terms of where you were before, and then you were the guy out front. Because as I've said many times, like, it's a big deal to be you and Gabriel carrying the show. It was safe for me to hang out behind the scenes over to the side, but you guys were carrying it. So catch us up to where you were in your life. You were young.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I was.

[Aaron Korsh]

Look, I mean, look, we've. I've watched the pilot now, and I am stunned that that little nervous ball of terrified young meat managed to pull this off. I don't know where I got it from. It was the same thing I was kicking around. I had gone to school down here, usc. I'd studied theater. Come out and done a play at the Taper was my first job out of school. Thought that, you know, it was all happening. Here we go. Here's my career. And then all of a sudden, it stalled for years like it does. And I learned the art of easy come, easy go. Started doing a lot of guest star stuff. Managed to do a few pilots. I don't know how many I did. I think I put a lot of them out of my mind. But that process of getting your hopes up and thinking, oh, this might be the thing, and then it really not being the thing and it being disastrous. And then in the. I'd have to look at the timeline exactly. But I would say, like, six months before I received this script for what at the time was called a legal mind, I had been fired from a pilot. Friends with Benefits. I had been cast, gone through the whole process. I did not want to be on this show. I was not. At that time. I was very uncomfortable with funny, with comedy, especially, like, network comedy. It was not my strong suit. I did not want to do it, but people kept telling me that I should go do it. And then I went in for this audition, and the director, for whatever reason, thought I was the right guy. And I kept being like, I'm not the right guy. I really am not the right guy for this. But I kept going and going and going. They got the part, long story short, went to the Table, you know, which in this town, you know, they have. You read this script in front of all the network executives, and there's a room full of people that are all sitting there and watching you and judging you. And it couldn't have gone worse. And at the time, that felt very personal. It turns out in the end, everyone ended up being fired off this pilot, including the writers. So it was not very funny. But to a young, insecure, nervous actor, it was me. And so that was like a real bottom of the barrel moment. Obviously, you know already, young, insecure, fearful. Not sure. In the same way that you described, like, is this what I'm supposed to be doing? Is this meant to be? Then you get fired, and it's very public humiliation. You know, it's on deadline, it's written about. And so you feel like all those things you fear most about yourself, that you're not ready and that you're not good enough to do this is like, writ large. And there it was. And so fairly convinced I was done, you know, not necessarily, like, packing my bags yet, but definitely trying to figure out what else could be the thing. Loved photography at the time. I was taking headshots for people. I was like, maybe that's it. Maybe I'm just a photographer. Maybe I'll do that full time. And then a couple months later, I got the script and there was something that happened in the reading of the script and the same thing you described in the world. And this character who was so. Felt so lost, as he says in the pilot, there's a line about it. I feel like I had been knocked off track. Yeah, Knocked into it. Never will. And I've just been fighting to get back. There was something that. It was so relatable that all of a sudden I didn't have to, like, act anymore. I was just like, oh, well, I get that. Like, I don't have to pretend. I don't have to put anything on top of it, like that level of desperation. I also believed in myself. I was like, I've worked really hard at this. And I've had all these other experiences in theater school and in my work that have been, like, profoundly rewarding. And I've had a lot people tell me, like, I'm meant to do this and that, you know, you gotta keep fighting. Keep fighting. So I had that voice in my head too. So going into this process and meeting Aaron and going into the audition, I just felt, like, calm in a way that I had not felt in normal auditions. And for people that aren't Familiar with the business. To get a show, you know, you do the first audition, then you go back and you do a work session with the directors and the producers. And then you go back in and you do another work session. And then you go in for the studio, and then you go in for. For the network. You have to do it over and over and over again. And each time it gets increasingly more demanding and scary, and there's more people in the room that are not being particularly friendly or on their phones or ignoring you. And usually you get worse and worse in nerves. And every time I was like, cool, I get to tell more. There's the scene from the pilot where. The interview scene with Harvey and Mike in it where he goes, you give me this, and I'll work harder than anyone's ever worked before. Basically, like, you give me this and I'll show you that I will. Nobody is gonna work harder than I'm gonna work. And every stage of this audition process, I was like, oh, cool. There's just more people that I can tell that to.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Oh, that's so beautiful.

[Aaron Korsh]

You know what I mean? Like, I was just like, oh, now I can tell it to the execs. There's nobody who's gonna work harder. I won't be the best actor. I'm not necessarily the best. I have a lot to learn. Which is what I loved about Mike. Right. Fish out of water. Like, he's not. He doesn't know all the things. He just knows that he's gonna work harder than anybody. And there was something about that that I was like, well, I can be honest about that. And so I just flew through that process. It was like the easiest meant to be audition process. I was just not even sure that I was gonna get it. Just sure that, like, there was no doubt that I could be honest when I said that nobody will work harder. You wanna give it to somebody else, go ahead. But I'm telling you, nobody's gonna work harder than me. And so it ended up working out, and I couldn't believe it. And, you know, and then I was like, the dog who caught the squirrel or whatever. I was like, oh, wait, I have to do this now. But again, what a gift. The whole pilot, you know, is this character's just like, how do I do this? How do I do this? How do I do this? You know, he's just this, like, little puppy, in a way, running around this world trying to figure out how to do it so I could use that nervousness. Yeah, the whole time.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But you were Very. Your performance is so free. It is so free and, like, innovative from moment to moment. I can. The way you listen throughout the pilot. I promise we're not gonna do this for every episode, but, like, blow sunshine.

[Aaron Korsh]

No, no, no, it's fine. We can do this for every episode. Don't worry, don't worry. No, no, no, no, no. It's good.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Hey, Patrick, can I share a fun fact about Aaron Korsh?

[Aaron Korsh]

I wish you would.

[Sarah Rafferty]

He is the. I think he's my only friend that I can talk to on the phone for, like, five to six hours at a time. We did that, like, three months ago.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's so great when you have someone like that on the phone, because when you need to get off, it's also fine. He's like, yeah, yeah, go. Oh, I know. We'll do this together. Like, it's like. It's like there's just a long, lifelong conversation, and sometimes you're on the phone together and then you're off the phone, and then when you're back on the phone again, it's just five or six hours. Like, he'll talk as long as you can. Go.

[Sarah Rafferty]

You know what I loved about this interview is that you and I were here to talk about something else, and then, ta da. Aaron just appeared out of thin air. It was one of our first days.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yes. Our amazing producers have sort of crafted this interview together because he had said he might show up, he might be able to make it. And then we started talking about, I think, another episode. And then in he arrived and we just pivoted into, you know, another great conversation with the man who changed all of our lives.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yes, exactly. And it really is a great example of how once you just get started chatting with Aaron, it just takes on a life of its own. I'm really excited for the listeners to hear, get to know Aaron a little better.

[Aaron Korsh]

And hopefully it's just the beginning. I mean, as you'll see, there's so much more that we could be talking about in this conversation. Aaron has been such a big supporter of us and our idea to do this from the very beginning. So I think we're hoping that this is just the first of many conversations with Aaron along the way.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yeah, we talked with Aaron about having a segment. Right, Patrick? We had a segment where we could just call it, you know, Aaron picks a fight. Pick a fight with Aaron Korsh.

[Aaron Korsh]

You had Pick a fight with Aaron Korsh. I have the Korsh call. I want to be able to make a phone call to Korsh at any moment now that he's busy running and creating another show, Suits la. Maybe he'll be less available on the phone, but I don't really mind bitmart bothering him while he's on set.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But I would love it if our listeners want to call in with questions for Aaron. We can shoot them over to Aaron and he can send us a voice memo.

[Aaron Korsh]

Absolutely. I love that idea. We love this man. I mean, look, he changed our lives. This show is straight from his heart and his life and his experience. And, you know, it's a weird thing when you're on a television show and someone's created it, you are basically, like, walking around inside their brain. You know, very few shows get to run as long as Suits did. So that means we spent. I spent seven years, you spent nine years just sort of perched up in his brain saying the words that were coming out of there and bringing these characters to life. So it creates the kind of friendship that you rarely see or experience anywhere else, at least in my opinion.

[Sarah Rafferty]

And what I love about this interview is that we get into Aaron's journey that led up to this moment in his life and how he had been on a different career path. What changed him, what moved him to become a writer, and we really dig into the pieces of this show that are autobiographical for him, and I found that all just so fascinating, and I'm so excited for everybody to hear.

[Aaron Korsh]

Before we get into the interview, why don't we take a quick break, and when we come back, we're gonna have suits writer, showrunner, creator, and friend, Aaron Korsh. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sarah, you know, we're going into the holidays, and there's no more important time to talk about gratitude.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Look, I was so grateful last week when I was struggling with being away. We were both away on set, and we had a nice phone call, and you helped me get reconnected with my gratitude.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah. I think it's so important in my life to practice gratitude as much as possible, because sometimes life can get pretty heavy, and it's the quickest way out of that slump. That's why we're so happy that the show is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know, this month is all about gratitude. And, you know, what I want to say to you, Sarah, is thank you. It's been such a pleasure getting to do this with you. And I know we've talked a lot about mental health, but it's really helpful with us both away, shooting away from our families to have someone to talk to through it. So I want to say thank you.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Oh, thank you, Patrick. I'm so grateful for you too, as you know.

[Aaron Korsh]

But there is one other person that we don't thank enough, and that is ourselves. Sometimes it's hard to remind ourselves that we're trying our best to make sense out of everything. And in this crazy world, well, that's just not that easy. So here's a reminder to all of you to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. And if you're thinking of starting therapy, please give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.comsidebarshow today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H E L P.com Sidebarshow.

[T Mobile]

Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first person single player adventure video game set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade. The year is 1937. Sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle. And only one person can stop them. Indiana Jones Adventure calls Indiana Jones and the Great Circle releases on December 9th on Xbox Series X&S Game Pass and PC Pre Order Indiana Jones and the Great circle now rated T14 copyright and trademark 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. T Mobile 5G Internet keeps getting better. Boost your connection to harder to reach places with Home Internet plus and get Internet right where you want it with.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Wi fi that reaches the attic. I finally have a home office get.

[T Mobile]

A free upgrade to T mobile home Internet plus while supplies last home Internet plus starts at 50 bucks a month with autopay and any voice line check availability@t mobile.com home Internet during congestion customers on this plan may notice speeds lower than other customers and further reduction fusing greater than 1.2 terabytes per month due to data prioritization after $20 bill credit plus $5 per month without auto pay debit bank account required regulatory fees included for qualifying accounts 35 connection charge applies.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh my God.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I cannot believe what I just saw. Can you?

[Aaron Korsh]

Do you know what we just saw.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Couldn'T be more beautifully timed.

[Aaron Korsh]

So we have a bit of a surprise.

[Sarah Rafferty]

What Aaron Korsh guys.

[Aaron Korsh]

Ladies and gentlemen, we're introducing to the studio none other than Aaron. What's your middle name? Taylor Thomas Thomas Koresh. I don't know if you can remember back, but we're talking about a show called Suits.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Not real familiar with that.

[Aaron Korsh]

Originally, it was called A Legal Mind. Maybe that might jog your memory, but maybe a quick introduction to who you are and what you're doing here. Who are you?

[Patrick J. Adams]

My name is Aaron Korsh. Aaron Thomas Korsh. I created.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It's a passport number.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. 039. I created and ran the show. Brief history of me is I grew up outside of Philadelphia. And if someone has the closest to my autobiographical history in the show, it would be Mike Ross. In that I was incredibly handsome, devastatingly charming. I mean, ridiculous, funny. So smart, athletic, all the things. No, I mean, the defining characteristic I would say that I gave Mike was I had an excellent memory growing up. It was not photographic, although I am told that my grandfather could recite words from a book he had read 10 years before and kind of read it from his mind. But I didn't have that. But I wanted to. So I sort of exaggerated that in Mike Ross. But it was one of the traits I had. I always did very well in school without really working very hard. But I also somehow always felt like a little bit of a fraud. So I did go to a good college. I wasn't a fraud. I did not go to college. But when I got this job out of. I went to Wharton, which is the undergraduate business school of University of Pennsylvania. So I went to Wall street and that I worked for a guy named Harvey I interviewed in a hotel.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, wait, his name was actually Harvey.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Harvey. Yeah.

[Aaron Korsh]

I didn't know that.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, Harvey Hannerfeld. We can probably put that out there.

[Sarah Rafferty]

There's a real Donna, too.

[Patrick J. Adams]

There was a woman named Donna. Yes. In office. The other thing about this company, we were investment bankers, not lawyers, which is a longer story. We can get into that later. But I felt like I did not belong in that world just because everybody was pretty earnest and serious. And there was a lot of rule following. And I just felt silly, and I never felt like I belonged. So I sort of, again, externalized my inner feelings of being a fraud and made Mike an actual fraud. Oh. The last thing I'll say is I did not get into Harvard. I wanted to go to Harvard, and I didn't get in. And it really pissed me off.

[Aaron Korsh]

You wanted to go? Go for business?

[Patrick J. Adams]

No, undergrad. I just wanted to go undergrad. Wharton was. I went undergrad and I didn't get in. And I was furious, and it's just a life lesson. I mean, look at, like. I don't think Harvard would have been as meaningful in my life had I gotten in as it was by having not got.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But Harvard missed out on the Korsh Field house.

[Patrick J. Adams]

You know, I was going to donate $400 million to Harvard this year, but I've decided not to do it.

[Aaron Korsh]

How did you decide that you wanted to leave that world and get into writing?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, I had a roommate in college for three years, several roommates, but one guy in particular I lived with for three of the four years, and he. When we were about 25 years old, he died. It was a terrible. He went swimming in the ocean by himself and was missing for, like, four or five days. And then he was dead. He drowned. And it was horrible. And it really. It just shook me. I was like. I was 25 years old, and it hit me that you can die. You're not guaranteed any time in life. I could die. And all of a sudden I was like, I do not like my life. I do not like what I do. So it took about a year for that to resonate through with me, and I ended up just quitting and sort of traveled the world for a couple of years. I had saved money, I landed in Los Angeles, and I had one friend in particular that was a very successful comedy writer at, like, 24 years old. He actually created the original Ellen show, the sitcom.

[Aaron Korsh]

All right.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Wow.

[Patrick J. Adams]

So he was going to a table read of a pilot right on these sitcoms at the time, and still now they would have a table read of the pilot, which is the first episode, and they would read the script, and then they would rewrite it afterwards. And I went to that. No one knew I wasn't a writer. So I sat at the table with him, and I got to watch them rewrite this thing. And I was like, holy, this is the greatest. This is what you do for a living. And I had always been a huge fan of movies and tv, so I was like, this is what I want to do.

[Aaron Korsh]

Had you ever written anything before in your life?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Not a word. I mean, I would go out of my way not to write things. Wharton, you had to take a freshman English. Other than that, I never wanted to write a paper. Never. Nothing.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Wow.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Nothing.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Had you read scripts?

[Patrick J. Adams]

No.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Did you always, growing up, have the encyclopedic memory for movies and TV lines? Movies?

[Patrick J. Adams]

I did.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Like the dialogue?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. I love the dialogue. I mean, I would watch, and I still do. Like, when I love something, I'll watch it 10 times, 15 times. Look. My mother, when I decided to do it, she said, look, it looks like all those years you spent watching TV were actually not a waste of time. I didn't know it at the time, but I was studying.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Lesson to all mothers.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, get off my back, Mom. But it took years of. I didn't know how to write. I had an instinctive way that I felt like I could, but I didn't understand how to tell a story in the sense of writing a show. And I eventually got a job. These guys, I had another friend also, they gave me advice to get a job as a writer's assistant. And by watching people do this for a number of years, you can learn. And I got lucky. I got a job on Everybody Loves Raymond. But not as a writer's assistant, as a pa. And I had gone from making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to basically minimum wage getting people coffee. And it was another hit to the self esteem. But I was there for a purpose, to learn how to write. And it ended up taking eight years until I got my.

[Aaron Korsh]

Did you ever question the decision?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Oh, yeah.

[Aaron Korsh]

Did you actually consider going back at any point or once you were gone, did you know that was over?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, in those eight years, I had gotten married before the eight years happened, but I got divorced and I was like, here I am. I'm like, I'm not married anymore. I'm making no money. I don't know that I considered going back, but I considered giving up. I don't know what it would have been. And, you know, I think to make it in our business, it takes incredible perseverance. And I like to tell people, like, perseverance doesn't mean that you never have doubt and you never think about giving up. Like, in my mind, I gave up. I think we put it. Harvey says it to you, I gave up about every four weeks in my mind, I was like, I give up. But then I would just pick myself back up and do it again.

[Sarah Rafferty]

That scene where Mike Ross decides to come to work in the pilot, I like to call it the first totally positively masculine scene.

[Aaron Korsh]

There's the scene when Mike's got his briefcase and Harvey catches him with it. And he's giving him the monologue in the lobby saying, like, you know, you gotta decide you wanna be here. And then he shows up the next day.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the first time that we see that side of Harvey that can be very mentor like and very positively masculine.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, see, when I think the scene the night before Was that negatively masculine?

[Sarah Rafferty]

No, no, no, no. I'm just. I'm kind of kidding. But here we are with the Aaron Picks a Fight segment.

[Patrick J. Adams]

You. I'm sorry, we're not allowed to say that.

[Aaron Korsh]

No.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, here's the thing. The reason I say that is the scene the night before when he's like, you need to decide whether you want to be here or not. I worked for Harvey for a little bit in New York, but after that, I worked for another firm and I had another boss. The guy I worked with, his name was John Herbert. And basically, after my roommate had died, I sort of started hating my job because I hated what I did. And John Herbert took me aside and said to me, you need to decide if you want to be here or not, because basically, you're acting like a hole these days, and you need to either quit or change your attitude, or we're going to fire you. And he didn't say it. He probably didn't quite say it as harshly as Harvey does to Mike, but I view it as one of the best things anyone ever said to me, because I respected John, and he was right. So unlike Mike, I went home and I was like, you know what? I don't want to be here. Why am I. But not in a mad way. Like, why am I angry at these guys? It's not their fault. I hate this job. I don't like this job. It requires different things of me, and it made me move on. So I actually think I read that. Yeah. I ran into John, and he was like, oh, man. Do you hate me for saying that to you? I was like, of course not. What are you.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It worked out.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, it worked out great.

[Aaron Korsh]

Like, look, you drove me here.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, exactly.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

The helicopter wouldn't have landed on the roof today.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But the reason I went on that segue, and thank you for indulging me in that, is just that I appreciate learning about the pieces of this. That is autobiographical. When you wrote a pilot about Wall street, you were told that you needed to turn it into a law show. So was that a change and was that hard?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, they actually said you need to make it a procedural.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Okay.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Which is a case of the week show. And I thought, well, the only way to do that is to make it a law show because the lawyers would be close enough to Wall Street. Well, it was a little bit of a process because when I first wrote the script, my agent at the time, Dennis Kim, who is now my manager, he sent it to a bunch of production companies, and they all wanted to Have a meeting with me. And I think there were like 14 of them, and 11 of them were like, we love this. We can't do anything with it. What else do you have? Right? This is how it works here in the business. And I was like, oh, you love it, but you don't want to touch it, do it. So I didn't have anything else. And then two of them said, if you make them lawyers, we can sell this. And then the third one said, which was Gene and Dave, we want to do it as a Wall street show. So I picked the people that wanted to do what I wanted to do.

[Aaron Korsh]

And they're like, actually, we wanted to be lawyers.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, USA was like, it needs to be a procedural. And so at that point, I was sort of prepared. Lawyers is what it has to be. Although I think you guys know this. The night before we were supposed to pitch this thing, Dave says, you know, they could be in advertising or they could be doctors. And I was like, what the hell are you talking about?

[Aaron Korsh]

Like, literally the night before, the night.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Before, I'm like, we've been working on this thing for two months. I'm not changing.

[Aaron Korsh]

Here's what I was wondering as I was watching the pilot and knowing that it was originally a Wall street was like, it's not an easy thing if you're not super familiar with the law.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Same exact question.

[Aaron Korsh]

Because I've always known this story and been like, oh, yeah, it makes sense. Lawyers have more. And in so many ways, I think you've talked to me about this, that a lot of the cases that these guys deal with a lot of times overlap with something you would have dealt with in investment banking and in the business world. But still, it's not an easy thing for somebody who didn't go to law school or know someone who doesn't know a ton about the law to write a show that takes place in the law world. So how did you. Was that just an easy pivot? And you're like, I'll just figure it out and we'll just talk to lawyers.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, there's a few answers to that question. I mean, part of which is, I'm really, really smart.

[Aaron Korsh]

I'm really smart, obviously.

[Patrick J. Adams]

The other thing is I'm Jewish. So that's sort of. You're half a lawyer if you're born Jewish, because you're just arguing your whole life with everybody.

[T Mobile]

No.

[Patrick J. Adams]

And in particular, the first season. A lot of what they do is investment banking. And when you are an investment banker. I take an illegal studies class. You are Involved with contracts. You do know a lot in particular about corporate law. And then I had always loved. I mean, LA Law was one of the shows. I read that pilot over and over again. When I wrote this show as a Wall street show, I read it. So I was steeped in what I call television law. And then my goal is to make it seem real. It doesn't have to be real. So actually, when we would have real lawyers, sometimes on the staff, they would want it to be real. Look, to me, the other thing about the law was it's about the ethical questions that are posed to lawyers. That doesn't seem like you have to be a lawyer to do that. We just would create situations where, you know, I know what suborning perjury is. Right. It means allowing someone to get up on standing.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So do I. So do I. So do I. Got that.

[Patrick J. Adams]

It means getting. Allowing your client to get up on.

[Sarah Rafferty]

The stand and not lie. Yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

That's an ethical question as much as it is a legal question. So we were just constantly creating ethical questions within the confines of the fake rules of law that we would create.

[Aaron Korsh]

It was called Illegal Mind. When did you have to switch the title?

[Patrick J. Adams]

I don't remember. When I wrote it, it was called Untitled Korsh Project. So I actually did not come up with any of the titles. I did not come up with Illegal Mind. That was Jackie De Krinis at us. And I liked it. So we made that the title and then they decided they didn't like it. And then I believe it was Alex Sepiol that came up with the title of Suits.

[Aaron Korsh]

When we were on set of the pilot, I remember us all talking about it because we knew that the title was going to change. I don't know how we knew that, but somebody had already said.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Because they told us.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah, they knew that this wasn't going to be the final title. So we were all, like, trying to come up with.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I remember that. What was your Ross Examine.

[Aaron Korsh]

Ross Examine.

[Sarah Rafferty]

He loves a pun.

[Aaron Korsh]

I mean, it's good.

[Sarah Rafferty]

He loves a pun.

[Patrick J. Adams]

It's funny because I've never been. I just try to make the show good. I'm not great with titles, so I didn't care.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's so funny. It was your show.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I loved Seuss.

[Aaron Korsh]

You didn't love Seuss.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I did not love it at the time, but I love it now.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So, Aaron, can you tell us about how we talked about that shot where Mike goes into work with the bike, he's carrying the bike, and where he's standing when he Comes up the stairs.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Can you talk about that particular location and what it meant to you?

[Patrick J. Adams]

So what Sarah's talking about is the building that we shot in the City Court Building. When we were shooting in it, you know, we go. It was a real empty law offices that was beautiful, obviously, and became the basis for the set in the offices. We were looking across the street at this building called the Lipstick Building, that you could see out the windows of our offices. And that was the building that I worked in for three and a half years, my last three and a half years in New York. And you could see the floor that I used to work in sort of 20 years earlier. And we took a picture of me on the windowsill with that building in the background. And I was like, if you'd told me 20 years ago that in 20 years you're going to be shooting a TV show in this building across the street, that's crazy. I didn't even. I would have bet my life that you were wrong. Was super cool.

[Aaron Korsh]

That shot was remarkable. Coming up from the under Kevin must. It just did such a beautiful job. Kevin and Jim Deneux, who was our DP on that first episode. But to transition from under a guy with a bike to up at the building. Such a beautiful shot.

[Patrick J. Adams]

What's interesting was, I mean, he needed a crane for it, and we had this big argument. What kind of a crane? How could it be?

[Aaron Korsh]

First of many. Yes. In you and Kevin.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, and it was more with Kevin and Dave Bardis, the producer, because the bigger the, you know, the more expensive it is. This is the constant. Like, directors think they need the most expensive, biggest grains. But we were doing the shot, and Kevin never actually got it the way he wanted it. I don't remember how many times we did it, but I think the shot is amazing. But Kevin's a. You know, he's rightfully so. A perfectionist. But it's beautiful.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's beautiful. I'm curious what he would have wanted out of that shot.

[Sarah Rafferty]

You said something amazing yesterday about Kevin, that his directing is so incredibly graceful and that there's always a Kevin special.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. I don't like to give Kevin compliments on places that he makes.

[Aaron Korsh]

We'll cut all this out. Don't worry.

[Sarah Rafferty]

He's not here to hear it, so it's fine.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Let me say, he did text me. He was on a plane to London. He has an HBO deal now. And he texted me a screenshot of the suits pilot. And he's like, we killed it last night. He did it.

[Aaron Korsh]

No Way. Really?

[Sarah Rafferty]

Oh, wow, that's perfect.

[Patrick J. Adams]

But, yeah, look, Kevin has certain shots. I didn't know it at the time, but after watching him direct so often that you will find it in many of the things he directs. And I call them Kevin Spence, but one of them is sort of like. Oftentimes he likes to sort of rise up on the back of a couch and see someone's silhouette or two people's silhouettes off the back of a couch. It's always beautiful. And the one shot I think you're mentioning is the reveal of Jessica in the pilot.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Favorite shot.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. You sort of see her profile where.

[Aaron Korsh]

Lewis walks into the office and you just have her silhouetted up large and far. Yes.

[Patrick J. Adams]

And you're like, who is this mysterious woman? She's so beautiful. And that shot tells a lot about, like, she's sitting in the power position. He's coming in subservient. And it was, you know, Kevin, he is like a maestro. A lot of his shots, you know, sometimes I feel like directors, they want to do cool things just for the sort of sake of doing cool things. Kevin's shots are. They are. They are graceful. And he's like a conductor, and they're. It amazes me.

[Sarah Rafferty]

And I think what's interesting is that I went back and I looked at the script that you still had of a legal mind. And when you talk about that scene where we're introduced to Jessica and Lewis comes in, it was. There were more lines, there was less in what we ultimately had, but it was all communicated. And I think, for me, one of the things I was most excited about, we opened with you were panning down the building into that room. And what I thought was amazing about it is that we started panning down. We go inside, then we see Rick. And I got very excited to see my friend Rick. And then we cut. We're coming up like an elevator on this beautiful woman. Gina Torres, who plays Jessica, not familiar with her anymore, the goddess. But that shot tells us how to feel about Jessica's character. I feel like we have to rise. We need to rise up to be with her.

[Aaron Korsh]

And I'm looking at the scene right now. Fun fact, her name was Catherine in the pilot, which I had forgotten because.

[Patrick J. Adams]

They had two shows where their leads were named. One was Catherine, one was Kate. And they made me. They wanted to change the name. And I was like, who is going to tell my wife Katherine that we're changing the name? So that's how that happened.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So you changed Kate's name to Jessica?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. And I also had Kate change her name to Jessica.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes, yes, exactly.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Now we all call Kate Corey Jessica.

[Aaron Korsh]

But to our point about the words like, and I. And I think this speaks to my. Just my bigger impression of the first 30. And it's been a long time since I've watched it. And I've always heard people talk about what a great and special pilot it is and always been like, thank you, and yes, but I didn't understand the first 30 minutes of this. You know these people so well. And for things like that, like that interaction between Lewis and Jessica, I like, see a whole story take place. I see how long they've been working together. It's the same thing with Donna and Harvey. I'm like, oh, these people are best friends. It's the same thing with Mike and Trevor and Jenny. We found ways, and I think it had a lot to do, obviously, with the quality of the script, but also Kevin bringing that and just great actors who was like, how can we create as much familiarity as possible? And by the time we hit that 28 minute mark, more than any pilot I've ever watched, I'm like, I know these people. I'm in. I know these people and I'm in because I know, because I totally, like, relate to them. I know what an old friend is like. I know what a friend that you don't trust as much. I know what it is to maybe be attracted to the person.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's all stuff you can relate. The power dynamics are so, so clear. And you haven't had to spend so much time like you would in a normal pilot, having to do all the plot. Right. Like, you get a little bit of it. You get the Gerald Tate stuff and you get that Jessica's looking to figure out who her successor is and all that's there. But we haven't had to get into any of the case stuff yet.

[Patrick J. Adams]

You are still doing plot because there's obviously plot. You're seeing Mike with his grandmother and all those things and the LSATs and all that stuff.

[Aaron Korsh]

He's got to make some money.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But you're not doing exposition.

[Patrick J. Adams]

But it's not exposition and it isn't a case. And that's, you know, look, the first season we had to be much more case heavy because that was what they did at the time. I resist that stuff because I'm more interested in the, you could call it character drama. It's also the soap of a thing, the stuff of life that isn't, you know, we're not. Even if you're a lawyer, when you wake up in the morning, you're usually thinking about your life. You're not thinking about the case that you happen to be working on at that time. So, yeah, I love those. 28.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Speaking of Jessica, before we move on from that, was Jessica ever a man?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes, at one point, Jessica was a man. And they suggested changing Jessica to a woman. And I was inexperienced, so at first I was like, oh, change. Don't like change. And then I was like, it's better. And then we were having trouble casting her because I foolishly in my brain, the real way it would have worked at the time, someone at the head of this law firm would have been 60 years old. So I kept looking for a 60 year old woman. For whatever reason, they just weren't popping. But I thought of Gina early because she was the one cast member that I really was very familiar with. I was a big fan of Firefly, and I loved Gina, but I just thought she was too young in real life to be the head of this firm. And finally I was like, this is insane. The essence of this character is power. There is no woman or man more powerful in the world than Gina Torres. And I gave up.

[Aaron Korsh]

She was there when I came in to do the read throughs. At one point when we were doing, like, chemistry reads with Rachel's, I think you were doing Jessica read throughs the same day. And I remember I walked into the, like, lobby where all the actors are hanging out with their paperwork, and I saw Gina Torres and the way that Mike feels about her and the pilot, which is. He just dodges her like he's so scared of her, is how I felt about Gina Torres in that waiting room. I just walked in and I was like, immediately, like, just be quiet. Don't bother her. Don't say anything. Stay away. Give her a wide berth. She couldn't have been more friendly. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, no, she just has it.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I love her and I'm still afraid of her. My lizard brain is afraid of Gina.

[Aaron Korsh]

Tory.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Then I remember, I love her.

[Aaron Korsh]

She's the. She's the greatest, the nicest woman in the world.

[T Mobile]

Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first person single player adventure video game set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade. The year is 1937. Sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle. And only one person can stop them. Indiana Jones Adventure calls Indiana Jones and the Great Circle releases on December 9th on Xbox Series X&S Game Pass and PC Pre Order Indiana Jones and the Great circle now rated T14. Copyright and trademark 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. T Mobile 5G Internet keeps getting better. Boost your connection to harder to reach places with Home Internet plus and get Internet right where you want it.

[Patrick J. Adams]

With wi fi that reaches the attic. I finally have a home office.

[T Mobile]

Get a free upgrade to T Mobile Home Internet plus while supplies last. Home Internet plus starts at 50 bucks a month with autopay and any voice line check availability@t mobile.com home Internet during congestion. Customers on this plan may notice speeds lower than other customers and further reduction fusing greater than 1.2 terabytes per month due to data prioritization after 20 bill credit plus $5 per month without autopay debit bank account required. Regulatory fees included for qualifying accounts 35 connection charge applies.

[Aaron Korsh]

You had never made a tele. How did you know going into casting you had Bonnie by your side, Right.

[Patrick J. Adams]

And Gabe and Dave and Kevin.

[Aaron Korsh]

But what were you checking into that you can accredit? Like your understanding what was a certain actor was going to bring versus others? Because I'm imagining you saw pretty much everybody in town for this pilot.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. I didn't know how to evaluate is this person going to long term be blah, blah, blah. I didn't have any thought of that stuff. I was like, I like the way they perform these five scenes. And these five scenes show some shows, humor, intelligence, power, charisma, whatever the combo was. So to me, and this is the way I write, this is the way I produce. It's like, if it makes my sort of heart sing, I'm drawn to it. Those are the people I want to go with. So it's just a very, like, instinct. I'm a fan. Like the actors that I love to watch over the years or the actors I love to watch over the years, I can't necessarily put into words why I will say this with Gina. Like, if I see someone in something and it's 20 years later and I can remember the first thing I ever saw them in, that's an actor that I want to work with.

[Aaron Korsh]

Sure.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Also, you remember them from their auditions and you're like, they weren't right for that part. But later, five years later, there was another part that they were right for, which I think is also an important thing for the young people that are hopefully listening.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Know that everything counts in a Way, many, many times. I'll go through a file in my mind and be like, remember that person that did this? We should have them for that. You know what? Yeah.

[Sarah Rafferty]

You also always would say, I don't know, I need to see it.

[Aaron Korsh]

That was the gift of the pilot. And we were just talking about it. For me, my biggest takeaway of shooting this pilot was just the feeling of, like, even though we were on something that was big and there's a lot of money, and there's always a lot of pressure to get it right. Cause it's the first episode, I felt like we were all in it together. And, like, the best idea always won. And if we could make you laugh, then we changed the line and it was like.

[Sarah Rafferty]

You have a distinctive laugh. I don't know if you know that.

[Aaron Korsh]

If anyone's picked up on that yet.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I've been told. I was thinking about the pilot last night. Cause I knew I was gonna come in here today. You know, it's an iconic thing in the pilot when you do the fake gun thing and you shoot at Harvey and then he gets out of the way. That was written differently. Right. It was you singing some silly song, and you were like, how about I do this instead? I'm like, let's see it. And I was like, oh, my God, this is the greatest thing ever. It's a completely iconic moment from the pilot that if you. I'm sure if you look at that script, right, it's not that it was. Not that. It was something different and it was better.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I did do that. I did go look. Because I love that moment so much. It's worthy of the meme that it is in the world. But knowing what you know now is, would you go back and change anything in your pilot?

[Patrick J. Adams]

No.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Okay. Amazing.

[Aaron Korsh]

I wanna talk specifically, if we can, about this episode. My favorite scene from this section, and I think it's sort of an undeniable first place, is the Mike and Harvey interview. I've heard that a big part of the reason the show took off again second time round is because it ended up on TikTok. Have you heard this theory?

[Patrick J. Adams]

I have.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right. That people started doing where they took slices of shows and they put it on TikTok and they did scenes, and that was the scene they put on TikTok that caused a lot of young people to go, what is this show? And I guess there's some, like, clear pattern from the day that got put on TikTok to the day that people started watching it on Netflix. Like, it happened almost Right away. And we have such a younger audience this time around than I think we even did the first time around. Yes, yes. Like there are young people coming to the show and potentially as a result of that. And I think maybe a lot to do with that scene specifically. And for me, it has a special place in my heart. It was the audition scene, you know, so we did it, you know, hundreds of times in front of people and it was. I don't know. That was the most special rewatch for me in this first 30 pages for sure.

[Sarah Rafferty]

And it had some of my favorite lines in it, which is the one about getting knocked into another life, which.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Also was a great cut. You know, we cut to like an off angle shot of you in the middle of that line, which I remember. That's Kevin and Robert.

[Aaron Korsh]

The blocking too brilliant. I love how we switched seats. I couldn't figure out. I haven't gone through the script specifically on this one if that was written, but the blocking of changing into his chair and so it becomes this like the job interview that switches and it's like we're suddenly equal in a weird way. You know, There was something that Kevin did there that was pretty brilliant.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But there was something that Patrick J. Adams did that was really brilliant too. That moment when you revealed that you're playing hearts and you love.

[Patrick J. Adams]

That's my favorite part of that.

[Aaron Korsh]

I love that.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But I feel like I was really aware of the places where you were making choices that were so specific to. Only you would make that choice. In that every line can be delivered a million ways. But the sort of kindness and gentleness and like non cockiness of like, if you're gonna try to beat me at something, you're gonna have to pick something else.

[Aaron Korsh]

Sorry, I'm just really good at this.

[Sarah Rafferty]

This is horrible.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I'm Canadian.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's my Canadian ness. I'm so sorry. Character's really good.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I have empathy for you. Like, this is going to be hard and I'm just putting down the line.

[Aaron Korsh]

Which makes it even cockier in a weird way.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Well, I didn't. I didn't experience it as that, but it was so winning.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Sarah Rafferty]

That I. I've always said that Gabriel is incredibly transformed as Harvey. We're all very, very transformed.

[Aaron Korsh]

I think Mike is very much a version, especially of who I was at that time. Like, there's differences, but Gabriel was playing a different person. That is not. I mean, again, there's always similarities, but for me, I would say it was not a huge transformation. I would say I was pretty similar.

[Sarah Rafferty]

To who this kid was. I mean, Gabriel, Rick and I have really big differences.

[Aaron Korsh]

Very, very different from our character.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Very different.

[Patrick J. Adams]

You do in a lot of ways, but in terms of just your sort of day to day affect swagger, Gabriel is the one that is nothing like his character. Everybody else has. If there's a Venn diagram of who you are in your way versus your character, Gabriel's is the one that has the least overlap.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I became a little bit more like Donna as I aged into her. I think she taught me a few things, but we'll get into that later. But yes. So Gabriel was the most transformed person.

[Aaron Korsh]

Because he's a Grateful Dead hippie.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, he's goofy. I say he's goofy.

[Aaron Korsh]

He's a goofy hippie who wants to go watch Grateful Dead shows and have a blast. And then he's suddenly Harvey Spector. And he looks. And you're like, yes, that's Harvey Spector.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes, yes.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Well, I told you my first day on set, what I remember was walking down the street to go to our trailers, and somebody was shouting at me, and it was New York, and I was a New Yorker. And so I just, like, tucked my chin and buckled down and walked a little faster. Like, I didn't look right. And then that person was relentless. And I sort of looked peripherally very quickly and moved on. And then the last. The third shout, I turn and it's Gabriel. And I didn't recognize him. And I had known him as we spoke about since 1993. So I was like, what is this?

[Aaron Korsh]

Who is this guy?

[Sarah Rafferty]

Who are you? And that was a moment where I was like, oh, I was right to fight with my manager, like, this special. I knew when I read the script. And now that I'm walking down the street in New York City and I'm looking at my old friend, there's some fairy dust sprinkles.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's a testament to how good he is too, though, because if you put certain actors in a version that is not themselves, it doesn't work that well that quickly, too. It could take a long time before you figure out how to embody that. And with him, he could just do it day one.

[Sarah Rafferty]

He has the gifts of some of the great character actors, but in the body of him with his type. So very early on, as we enter, I talked about the first visually what Kevin was creating and how we get introduced to Rick, how we meet Jessica, and then we go right into kind of the, Sorry, you're gonna pick a fight with me. But hyper masculine world.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Okay.

[Sarah Rafferty]

We go into the poker game. We start to learn what we're into. We do that, and then Harvey has to leave and come back. Jessica texts him he's gotta come back to deal with Gerald. And at the 3 minutes and 40 seconds, somebody talks about balls. So I appreciated that. The right way. They go right into balls.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Right in the balls.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But there's at the end the joke about the fire drill. Right?

[Patrick J. Adams]

That was Kramer. I think that was Kramer. No, I put the fire drill in. He added another joke on top of that. I will say that. Yeah.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It's a very serious scene. And then in true suits fashion, Aaron Korsh fashion, we get that nice button of the joke about the blue team captain. And you start to immediately understand Jessica and Harvey's relationship. But also, Gabriel smiles exactly that way that I met him. That, like, Cheshire cat charmy thing.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Sarah Rafferty]

And I was like, ah, mischievous.

[Aaron Korsh]

Mischievous.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Nobody else can play Harvey Spector. Yeah, right there.

[Aaron Korsh]

Why does a guy who doesn't ever carry paperwork with him anywhere, why is he holding onto the fire drill memo in his suit? Not a single scene in suits history. Does this man have a piece of paper.

[Patrick J. Adams]

No, you're wrong. You're wrong. Every scene we ever shot, he's got.

[Aaron Korsh]

The fire drill memos inside of his pocket.

[Patrick J. Adams]

If he needs.

[Aaron Korsh]

He uses it for every anytime he needs a memo.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Exactly. If he needs to bluff someone, it's.

[Aaron Korsh]

Actually a memo from, like, 12 years ago. 12 years ago.

[Patrick J. Adams]

12 years ago, Blue team captain.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, my God. I got a weirdest scene. You got the weirdest scene. The scene with Lisa in bed the next morning. Okay, that transition that you transition from. Do you want to eat breakfast? Off my stomach? To Grammy. Same scene.

[Patrick J. Adams]

We went from one exact same scene.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Transition, actually, not from her stomach, from a different part of her body to Grammy's face.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, yeah. You linger on that scene too. You.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I linger. Okay.

[Sarah Rafferty]

What were you gonna say?

[Aaron Korsh]

I don't wanna jump ahead to the next part, but the scraping scene where the guy's scraping the stuff off the.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Window in the writing of it, I loved that. His audition, I loved.

[Aaron Korsh]

I haven't had a good time since 2004. I'm like, what?

[Patrick J. Adams]

He was local New York, and he was so good.

[Sarah Rafferty]

What's interesting is that when you look at the script, we started in Mike's world, but when we look at the pilot, we started in Harvey's world or in the world of Pierce and Hardman, and you were saying that that was sort of an organic choice that you've always been kind of open to where scenes are gonna go in many ways.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah. So I don't remember. I believe that that change was made before I saw the cut. Like we were saying, like when you shoot this pilot, the editor edits and they usually edit it, put together an assembly which is in the order that the script is. But then after that assembly, they might change some things to present to the director and then the director gets their cut and the director will delete some scenes, move some scenes around. They'll do whatever they're going to do. So I don't think I made that change. I think that change was just in it when I watched it. But the question would be, do you show the guy that's the fish out of water that's gonna get thrown into it, or do you show the water he's going into, the fish is gonna come into? And I don't know that I consciously thought that at the time, but they must have made that determination that it's better this way. And I just remember watching it going, this is working.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I just thought it was so interesting that, you know, you're not actually white knuckling what the first shot is. You're gonna shoot the thing and then you're gonna kind of be open to figuring out what reveals itself to you.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Early on, sometimes we would wrench about what order the SC that are in two different storylines. Right. Like if you're in a Harvey story or a Mike story, should it be a Harvey and then a Harvey or a Harvey Mike and then Harvey? And once I realized pretty early on, once I started editing that, I was like, we don't need to talk about it at all when we're writing the script. Because the fact is these are all decisions you're gonna make in the edit bay anyway. So why spend hours talking?

[Aaron Korsh]

Yes, yes.

[Patrick J. Adams]

And that was something I learned as we went.

[Aaron Korsh]

Mm.

[Sarah Rafferty]

So interesting.

[Aaron Korsh]

Let's talk about the weed for a bit. We've been doing the math on this weed. Cause there's a lot of money.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Listen, it was gonna make gold.

[Aaron Korsh]

First of all, I love that mike is told by a very aggressive doctor. Like just in the hallway, you're gonna have to give me 25k. Like I have questions about that doctor. There's no payment plan, we're not adding, no follow up questions. The doctor's just like, straight up, give me 25. And I was like, okay, okay, great. And then lo and behold, the next scene is, I'm going to give you 25k to move this pot. Great. All right, I'm going to move it in order to. I think we did the math on the weed in order.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Well, I found the average price of an ounce of weed in New York City in 2011. And it says it was about $100 an ounce, right?

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes.

[Aaron Korsh]

I would have to be holding, like, 16 pounds of weed in my briefcase.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Just to cover the 25K.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Is that not possible?

[Aaron Korsh]

No. £15. We did a Google search of what £15 of weed look like.

[Patrick J. Adams]

It's a lot.

[Aaron Korsh]

It takes up most of the middle of this table. Oh, my God. Because I think we had this conversation during the podium, and we all argued about it, and Erin was like, I do not care. It does not matter to me. And it's true, because it does not matter at all.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I was intrigued when I was watching it, how much of it we made up there of Donna's stuff, because there wasn't even a line there. When he said, do I look like a pimp?

[Aaron Korsh]

That wasn't there.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It was like, yeah, a little bit like.

[Aaron Korsh]

And I remember the pimp wine wasn't there. Or the yellow.

[Sarah Rafferty]

The pimp was there. But I didn't have a response. And I remember. I remember being scared to ask if I could speak.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right, right.

[Patrick J. Adams]

That's the truth. Did you ask me?

[Sarah Rafferty]

I probably asked Kevin. I probably asked Kevin.

[Patrick J. Adams]

What did he say?

[Sarah Rafferty]

Because I actually didn't know any of you.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yeah, no, none of us knew anybody.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I may not have known that you were the writer guy when I was there.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, here's the funny thing is I was scared during the. You know, I was a low. I had been an assistant for eight years. So in my head, I'm still assistant. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say. And then I had been staffed as a writer for a couple of years. But, you know, there's a hierarchy of writers, and I was the bottom level. And still sometimes in my head, no one wants to hear what I have to say. And I'm just an assistant. And I think that sometimes.

[Aaron Korsh]

And that's the end of the show. Thank you so much.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Sometimes. That's why I sometimes overreact to someone disagreeing with what I'm saying, is because I'm feeling like they think I'm unimportant. And I'm like, no, you're gonna listen to what I have to say. And then I realized, wait a minute. They're gonna listen.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Sounds like marriage.

[Aaron Korsh]

Did you guys catch the weirdness of Harvey hitting on. There's this moment where he's. Lisa comes over Waitress comes over to check on them to have a little flirt. And then there's like a moment in the middle of it where Harvey glances over at Jessica as if to say, like, is it cool if I do my thing here? And Jessica gives him a little, like, go for it. And then he makes the move. And just a ton of questions out of that interaction. It was very like, he just full on hauls off to hit on this girl, this waitress, but Jessica giving him the go ahead.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I actually thought they were more. Jessica and Harvey were a little flirty with each other in that.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

In that scene.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

And that's something we could have explored. We never did.

[Aaron Korsh]

I love the scene later in the second half when she's getting ready to go out. Categorically stunning.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Categorically stunning. Yes, yes, yes.

[Sarah Rafferty]

And I think that was our first introduction into where the fashion was going to go.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, when she looked like a million zillion dollars.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

You think you're the only one who can close a client? I believe is what she says to him.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Wow.

[Aaron Korsh]

That is it. See, photographic memory. We have a particular category that I like to talk about, which is going to be called Statue of limitations, which is things that have aged not so well, of which I'm curious if you have any things that you think of. Gerald Tate said something about pansy ass attitude, which I was like, I don't know if in 2024 we're. Oh, do we do that? I don't know.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, but even at the time of that we're supposed to think Gerald Tate is an.

[Aaron Korsh]

It works.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I don't know that that would age out. But look, over the course of the series, there are some things. I'm not gonna reveal them, but there are some things.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, we'll find them.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Listen, listen and look. This is a nice opportunity for me to say something about what was said before, which was like when I kind of made the sort of soft joke of hyper masculine world. It truly is supposed to be a hyper masculine world in a time that's different than the time we're living in now. Like that particular world of that poker game where the guy says, when are you gonna work for a man? You know, stop working for a woman? That kind of thing. I think that was being set up on purpose to understand the world we were in. Right as that.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I thought they cut that, by the way, at it. So that never aired that line.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It's in the Netflix cut.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Oh, it's in the Netflix cut. Oh, it was not in the cut.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I liked it. In there.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Here's the cut.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I like calling attention to it.

[Patrick J. Adams]

No, what I liked about it was, is that Harvey doesn't care that he works for a woman. Harvey is. Look what Harvey says to Gerald Tate. And what Harry Harvey feels is, I'm comfortable with who I am as a man. So that when you say these things that are supposed to be insults to me, I don't feel insulted. He says, it's Gerald Tate. I'm comfortable enough with my manhood. And he doesn't care that he works for a woman. So to me, I don't think those things would be out of place right now. Because there are still men that have the attitude that the guy in the poker game has and there are still Gerald Tate. There's nothing better to show your character is different or than something. Than to show that thing and show how the character reacts in the face of that. I'll give it a little context. When back at the time, USA was not sure if their pilots were going to get picked up to series. So you had to write a 90 page script that was. In case it didn't get picked up to series. They would air it as a movie overseas and it would be much longer.

[Aaron Korsh]

That's why they were 90 pages.

[Patrick J. Adams]

That's why they were 90 pages.

[Aaron Korsh]

I didn't know.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Yes. So we had to have a longer version and a shorter version. The shorter version would be.

[Aaron Korsh]

That's how they like recoup their losses if a show didn't go.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Exactly, exactly.

[Aaron Korsh]

Oh, my God.

[Patrick J. Adams]

So but even the one if it did go, it would air as an hour and a half with commercials.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

As opposed to most shows are an hour with commercials.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right.

[Patrick J. Adams]

So anyway, that's sort of how it goes.

[Aaron Korsh]

So weird that they decided. Did you have any decision in like whether it gets put back into a Netflix cut?

[Patrick J. Adams]

There was some weird version that was like a middle length cut. I don't remember what it was for. I think maybe. I don't know. But I had no idea that Netflix was going to air a different version than we had aired. Like, to me it's not the right version. No one asked me. I didn't even know till people started saying, why is Victor Garber in the thing? He's obviously a great actor, let me say. And those scenes were great and he would have been great. But it didn't work for the pilot at the time. And no, if you ask me, I like to have. I'm an originalist. Like, I don't, I don't like that they added that Scene back to Star Wars.

[Aaron Korsh]

Yeah.

[Patrick J. Adams]

With Jabba the Hutt. It was like, that wasn't in the original. Why are we doing that? So I would leave it the way it was.

[Aaron Korsh]

But it's interesting.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Yesterday you said the thing like, when the food's out of the kitchen, it's.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Sarah was asking me yesterday if it bothered me. I was like, it does bother me. But I'm like, I made the pilot. I'm happy with the pilot that I made. If somebody's watching a slightly different version and they still love it, I'm not going, like, lose sleep over it.

[Aaron Korsh]

Right. And then when you jump into your giant swimming pool of money and go swimming.

[Sarah Rafferty]

No, but it's not about that.

[Patrick J. Adams]

It's like hundreds of people.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I do.

[Aaron Korsh]

It's just like.

[Sarah Rafferty]

It's just a couple choppers. But, like.

[Aaron Korsh]

But like, I can't hear any of it from my helicopter.

[Sarah Rafferty]

We are definitely giving the wrong impression of Hollywood. I think it's weird to not consult the creator.

[Aaron Korsh]

Best needle drop is another thing we're talking about. One of the things we have is fashion police. We want to talk. Which is really just an opportunity to talk about the fashion, which I've learned is a thing we can't really talk about in the pilot. Cause nobody's particularly fashionable, is what I've heard.

[Sarah Rafferty]

No, and what's interesting is I loved the. I think the first thing you see me in is this green dress that's belted. And I remember that was Club Monaco.

[Aaron Korsh]

Did you notice at the beginning of that scene, you're also saying something about.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I'm talking about clothes.

[Aaron Korsh]

Like the beginning, you're standing there talking to the woman about it.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I didn't think that would ever. I didn't even think that. Would you be able to tell?

[Aaron Korsh]

That's great. I love it.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But I was just placed with her. I mean, we were there for four seconds before action. And I just was like, oh, gotta talk about something. It was like a cute little little thing that you cinch if you like. We must have been talking about outfits.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I suddenly I just remembered the line, like, after that, you want me to show you how to wipe your ass? I don't know what made me think of that. But when you guys are all scene.

[Sarah Rafferty]

In the script. I was not in that scene. I was on the intercom. So on the day it changed, and I was there. And I do remember the moment. Like, it was my impression. This probably wasn't real, but it was my impression that Kevin Bray and Gabriel separated were kind of like boosting Me forward a little bit. Like, taking me out of the wings and being like, no, come here. Come do this. So we. Gabriel and I decided that he was signing things, and he was looking at those pages and that we knew that you had to get the card. But I remember saying, maybe I give him the card, because I'm the one who has, like, all your stuff, who does all this for you. Like, you're above having the card. And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Gabriel was also helpful in developing the character of Donna and who Donna was.

[Aaron Korsh]

Well, he also just never wanted to hold anything. So a lot of our characters were just based on Harvey never wanting to have a briefcase. Like, that was me. It was like, well, Patrick has to hold it. Cause I'm not holding it. So Mike always had to have the paperwork, because Gabriel was just like, I'm not. I don't carry things. Which works. Look, I want to be mindful of time, because we could do this forever. So I thought maybe a good way to close is just to say, first of all, thank you so much for coming today. Thank you for having me. It's so helpful not only to have you here, but to just have you be a champion of us doing this. Ever since we called you and told you that we wanted to do this, you've been so supportive and so excited for us to do it.

[Patrick J. Adams]

I actually changed his mind. I came here to serve you guys with papers, and I want you to see some desist. This is bull.

[Aaron Korsh]

This is garbage. I was gonna see how it was gonna go. This is the thanks I get.

[Sarah Rafferty]

But just to echo, what you were saying, too, is you've been so generous to say that you are willing to come back and maybe send us some voice memos or let us have the Kors or email us back when we have a question in the future so that we're gonna have your point of view as a bit of a touchstone throughout the whole thing, which I think will be really special, for which you.

[Aaron Korsh]

Will be paid.00 dollars. I'm.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Okay.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I'm gonna pay you in hugs.

[Aaron Korsh]

But in closing, I guess before we sign off here, you know, are there any things that you would say to us as we head down this path? Cause you have rewatched the show a lot, and anything that you would hope for us in the process of rewatching, I think you both know that we're people that have sort of avoided watching this show for multiple reasons. It's hard to watch ourselves, hard to go down that path. So anything you want to say to us as we begin this process of looking back.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Well, I mean, first of all, I hope you guys love it. I mean, I really hope you can, with distance, appreciate the work you did. It was amazing. And this is even if you hadn't done this, I was like, I hope that someday you can each watch it with your children and they can appreciate what you do and you can appreciate what you did. That's really what I hope for you. I don't give a about this podcast, really. I love it. I love that this exists. I love that you're doing it. And as much as I can be a part of it, I would love to be. And I hope you bring in everybody and it's awesome.

[Aaron Korsh]

Cool.

[Sarah Rafferty]

Thanks for changing my life. Aaron Korsh.

[Aaron Korsh]

Thanks for Aaron Kors. You guys.

[Patrick J. Adams]

You guys did the same.

[Aaron Korsh]

We appreciate it.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Thank you.

[Sarah Rafferty]

I'm so excited to keep talking to Aaron as we go through this series, but that's all we have for this week. Next week we're going to be breaking down episode two of Suits Errors and Omissions. In the meantime, please reach out with any questions or thoughts to sidebarpodcasteriousm.com we can't wait to hear from you. See you next week. Sidebar is produced by Sara Rafferty, Patrick J. Adams and SiriusXM Media. Our senior producer is Kimmy Gregory, our producer and researcher is Christian Schrader, our sound engineer is Alex Gonzalez and our audio mix is by Eduardo Perez. Our music is by Brendan Burns and our executive producers are Cody Fisher and Colin Anderson.

[T Mobile]

T mobile 5G Internet keeps getting better. Boost your connection to harder to reach places with Home Internet plus and get Internet right where you want it with.

[Patrick J. Adams]

Wi fi that reaches the attic. I finally have a home office.

[T Mobile]

Get a free upgrade to T Mobile Home Internet plus while supplies last. Home Internet plus starts at 50 bucks a month with auto pay in any voice line. Check availability@t mobile.com home Internet during congestion, customers on this plan may notice speeds lower than other customers and further reduction of using greater than 1.2 terabytes per month due to data prioritization. After $20 bill credit plus $5 per month without auto pay debit bank account required regulatory fees included for qualifying accounts. $35 connection charge applies.

[Patrick J. Adams]

First and foremost, the thing that powers.

[Aaron Korsh]

Your business is power.

[Patrick J. Adams]

And when it comes to power, Ford Pro has options. Now scratch that.

[T Mobile]

We've got every option. Diesel, gas, hybrid and all electric. Plus they're all connected so you're always.

[Patrick J. Adams]

In the driver's seat.

[Aaron Korsh]

The power is yours.

[T Mobile]

Visit FordPro.com today to learn more.