Suitable for Cast Talk landing roles in series and more from the ATX panel

USA Network / Courtesy of: Everett Collection

Who could imagine Suits without Donna?

Well, believe it or not, Sarah Rafferty’s character — who arguably complements the dynamic between Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Mike (Patrick J. Adams) and is part of the legal fabric of USA Network’s legal drama — n It wasn’t supposed to be a series regular when they shot the pilot episode.

“Gabriel called and said, ‘Look, there’s this amazing actress that I know, and I know we’re casting Donna and she’s not a regular but she’s the person who’s going to be my assistant. I would love for you to read it,” recalls Jeff Wachtel, the former president of USA Network who was largely responsible for the development of Suits as well as much of the network’s “Blue Sky” programming.

Wachtel remembered the moment during the ATX Suits retrospective on Sunday, saying the moment in the pilot where Rafferty’s Donna looked between Mike and Harvey while they had a conversation was the moment they knew she would be indispensable to the series.

“They’re talking and she looks from one to the other and you smell the glue,” he said. “Like I just want to hang out with these people.” So it’s just wonderful to see how things can turn out in unexpected ways.

Rafferty, who joined Wachtel and some of her fellow panel members, also recalled starring in the pilot, telling the audience that she had recently learned that another pilot she had worked on was not going to not be taken back. when Macht, who was an old friend, insisted that she audition for the role of Donna.

“I wanted to make Donna indispensable,” she said, adding that she paid for her own travel from Los Angeles to take the job. “I told them to tell them I live in New York. I am a local employee. So I got on a plane, got up and played Donna.

The panel also included Amanda Schull, Dulé Hill and Abigail Spencer, who all shared behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Suits. Speaking of characters who weren’t meant to return, Spencer’s Scottie was another one.

“I was only supposed to be in one episode,” she said. “Aaron called me and said, ‘I wrote this role with you in mind.’ It was this show called Suits which had not yet been broadcast. Actually, Bonnie Zane (casting director) sent me a DVD and she said, “Watch it.” I know it hasn’t aired yet, but I think it’s really special. And she was right. I looked at it and I had just made a pass on Mad Men. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s Mad Men for lawyers. I hope I can be a part of it just once.

It turns out that being integrated Suits It was a serendipitous moment for every actor on the panel. Schull revealed that she initially auditioned for the role of Rachel Zane, which ultimately went to Meghan Markle.

“Then I turned to each female guest star. This is not an exaggeration. I played for every female guest star for the whole first season and then half of the second season,” she said. “And then I got a call saying they had written a role with me in mind.”

She joked that she “had to audition for it again”, and this time she got the role. This is how Katrina Bennett was born.

Hill, who was already in the USA Network ecosystem with his series Psychjoined season 7 but said he was a fan of Suits from the beginning. Even leading man Adams admitted that the job came to him at a time when he was unsure about the future of his Hollywood career.

“I had been fired from a pilot…and I was so sure that I was done with this business and that no one wanted anything to do with me other than my process of getting into this, I I read the script and I was like, ‘Well, I understand this guy. All the sides were the sides of that famous scene with Harvey where this guy is at his lowest. He no longer has any options. And he says, ‘You have to give me this job, and I’ll work harder than any of these guys,’ basically,” he said. “Well, that’s all I had to say at the audition. That’s what I felt. I had just been fired from a pilot. I had been a professional guest star for about 10 years. I had been in a group of failed pilots, and then I had this recent shot… I just walked into that room and I just said those words. If you give me this job, I will literally work harder than all these actors who are in the hallways, waiting to come here and do this. And it was like the most honest I could ever be.

According to Adams, he and Macht didn’t do any chemistry readings before they were each chosen, which made the process a bit nerve-wracking. The first time they met, they went to lunch together before filming to get to know each other.

“It was not an exciting lunch. It was just two guys, like I was praying the other one wasn’t a complete asshole,” he joked.

Throughout the panel, the cast and audience watched several clips from the series, including the scene where Harvey visits Mike’s apartment and they smoke marijuana together.

Watching the scene, Adams said he remembered “how much fun it was to be silly with Gabriel like that, because he’s so silly…he didn’t often get the chance to show that side of himself in that character, and for us to have a scene like that where we could be as ridiculous as we actually were off-screen and just have fun, and then after that we go for it in Pearson Hardman. So it had to be that, but on set it was like the most fun in the world.

Macht and Adams recently reunited for a T-Mobile commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, thanks to renewed buzz around the series after it arrived on Netflix last year. Adams said it took “three seconds” for the couple to get back to their Harvey and Mike dynamic.

“We couldn’t fail if we tried. It’s actually hard for Gabriel and I to date, I would say as people, because we fall into this rhythm – which doesn’t really make sense for who we are personally, but it’s so much a part of who we are. he said, adding that the TV spot was “very unscripted” and calling it “such a gift to get back together and be able to do this.”

Although Macht was not present at the panel on Sunday, Suits fans can still hope to see this dynamic again in a possible reunion project. In response to a fan question, Adams revealed that creator Aaron Korsh was “interested” in the possibility of a Suits reunion film, which could potentially reunite much of the original cast.