Actress felt drawn to ‘Suits’ spinoff
In September 2016, after departing ‘‘Suits’’ as its legal queen bee, Jessica Pearson, Gina Torres spoke about leaving a door open. But walking back through it, she now acknowledges, was the furthest thing from her mind.
‘‘I just figured, OK, well, off she goes, and I’ll revisit her every now and then, and that will be just fine with me,’’ she said. Turns out it wasn’t. Torres found Jessica haunting her daydreams and realized she wasn’t finished with the character after all. And then her obsession with the presidential election and its strange bedfellows took flight.
‘‘I started thinking of Jessica in terms of a political fixer, and what would she do in that situation, and I started writing it down and sorting it out,’’ she recalled of the events that led to ‘‘Pearson,’’ her new drama, debuting Wednesday on USA.
The show finds the beleaguered Jessica — disbarred in New York and her law license revoked in Illinois — sitting at the right hand of Mayor Bobby Novak (Morgan Spector) of Chicago. It’s a
cruel city with a deep divide over which the Louboutin-shod Jessica teeters: on one side, Pat Mcgann (Wayne Duvall), the thuggish developer who holds Bobby’s purse strings. On the other, the projects-dwelling family abandoned by Jessica’s father, including her defiant cousin Angela Cook (Chantel Riley).
Born in New York to Cuban immigrants, Torres landed roles in two crash-andburn Broadway shows before moving on to “Firefly” and “Alias.” She also appeared in the “Matrix” franchise and “Hannibal” alongside her former husband, Laurence Fishburne, with whom she has a daughter, Delilah, 12.
In a phone interview from Los Angeles, Torres spoke about bringing Jessica out of retirement.
Q: You’ve suggested that Jessica has a little bit of Kellyanne Conway, President Donald Trump’s counselor, in her. Do tell.
A: I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t. When I would see Kellyanne Conway — and she wasn’t the only one, let me just put it that way — I just kept trying to figure out, Who are these people, really? Like, are they true believers? Are they opportunists? Are they making a power grab? What motivates them?
With Kellyanne, there were people that loved her, and there were people that loved to hate her. You just never quite knew which it was.
And then I thought, Oh, she’s like Jessica. No one really knows at the end of the day: Can she be trusted? Is she a moral person or is she just about the power?
And what I love about the new show is that we actually get to go behind the scenes to see what in fact motivates Jessica — that she does not act just out of (a) spine of steel but also a soul and a tremendous heart. She really is interested in using her very specific skill set for good. How she gets there is questionable.
Q: How does this Jessica differ from the one on “Suits”?
A: I remember talking to Aaron Korsh, the “Suits” creator about how do we expand this character? And he said, “I just need Jessica to be a superhero.” So that meant looking fabulous, flying in on a case, saving any given situation, making sure that the boys stayed on point. I thought my job was to keep Metropolis safe.
And now in “Pearson” we’re seeing a fully realized woman. We’re not used to seeing Jessica not being sure-footed in every single thing that she does. She’s going to win some, she’s going to lose some. There is a price that a person pays to live that kind of a life and to swim in those waters.
Q: What was it like trading Harvey Specter for Bobby Novak?
A: Easy — because Morgan Spector is an amazing actor. He’s fun and he’s funny and he’s just so good to work with.
Q: Jessica’s wardrobe is still something out of a “Suits” fantasy, but it’s been tweaked.
Well, it can’t be what it was. One of our executive producers was very adamant about sleeve size.
Sometimes I’d strut in on the “Suits” set wearing something that was pretty much just off the catwalk, that was always tailored within an inch of its life with these billowing sleeves. And so he was very concerned about sleeves in City Hall in Chicago.
We had to adjust — but she’s still very much Jessica, and she could care less for what the dress code is. She will slowly ease City Hall into a new sleeve reality. We can’t give all that away in the first season, but she’s still pretty darn fabulous. And the stiletto shoes aren’t going anywhere.
Q: Do you keep in touch with your “Suits” family?
A: Absolutely, yes, without a doubt. They’re a big part of my life for quite some time.