There are a lot of dynamic duos on television these days: Gordon and Bullock, Glazer and Jacobson, Stonebridge and Scott, but few can match up to Specter and Ross.
Over the years, Suits has taken its star partnership and flipped it on its head more times than the law-firm has changed names (well, almost as many). Now, heading into season 5, Screen Rant got a chance to sit down with stars Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams to see where things currently stand with the two New York City lawyers.
Gabriel Macht
Concerning his first reactions when learning Donna and Harvey would be splitting up in the new season, Macht said:
I think it’s great because it provides a different context for the show. I personally don’t think you should see main characters get together because as soon as they do, the mystery’s sort of gone. I like that push and pull thing. None of us are on the same page of how it all should be played out, so I think that lends really well to the material. Some people think we should be together, some people don’t think we should be together, the writers are writing that we should be together, and those are just examples. I might think we should be together but I’m playing against it, and [Sarah Rafferty] might think that we shouldn’t be together but the writers… do you see what I’m saying? It’s like a real maze, and I know that sounds very confusing, but for some reason, I think it’s actually really working for the show.
It’s played out really well, and I think what it does is shift the dynamic for season 5, [in order to give] us more space to figure out what [Harvey telling Donna he loves her] really means. It allows for Louis and Donna to work together, and it allows Harvey to explore this bigger picture thing, which is where we’re starting this season as far as his abandonment issues. I think we’ve posed this question early on about people abandoning him. He’s trying to work out some things about his past and how it works into his present.
On whether or not Macht was happy to finally be diving into the conflicted side of Harvey, the actor answered:
Yeah, that’s great because it’s really challenging. I thought it was really dynamic stuff. Harvey is a very cut and dry, says it like it is [kind of guy], and uses his confidence to cover so much of what’s really going on inside of him. So, to see that character actually go through something that doesn’t make him look like a superhero, I think, is awesome. It’s challenging for me to play as an actor. It allows me to explore some of those ideas in myself where I’m just totally insecure and trying to figure out my way, and I think it’s great to see him, sort of, break.
But, given that, is Harvey capable of having a happy ending in his personal life despite achieving nearly everything he’s pined for in his professional one?
I think he has the potential of that. I think he needs to understand, himself, what it means to be independent, to trust someone, to know that people have faults, to know that people are going to move on, that they’re going to change their lives and to be okay with that. We’re slowly getting into the bigger picture of this abandonment issues, and I hope we explore it further in regards to Harvey’s mom. I think once he gets the full picture of how all of that went down in his past, maybe he’ll be more settled. Maybe he’ll be able to trust a little bit more that someone might be moving on with their life but not necessarily leaving him. He is a narcissist, [though], let’s be clear, so it’s going to be very hard for him to understand that.
As for the changing dynamics of the show from season to season, the actor elaborated:
I think [the writers] probably do look at it like a chess game. Some people are pawns, and some people are mating, and some people are checking on each other. I think it’s a way to keep it alive. I think it’s a way to figure out how to shift the dynamics on a show, and I think they’ve done it pretty well.
Then, finally, on the dynamic of Harvey and Mike’s relationship in the new season, Macht stated:
There are some moments where you see Harvey really torn up and completely unbalanced. He’s pretty much untethered throughout these first six episodes, and Mike definitely steps up and confronts conflict head on and in a way that’s fully capable, and you see Harvey’s trust in him get a rise. You see his support in him. Mike is sensitive to Harvey’s journey in these episodes, and I think Harvey respects that. He’s not a guy who outwardly thanks people, but he tries here and there and then quickly gets off the subject because it becomes to intimate for him, I think.
NEXT PAGE: Patrick J. Adams on Mike's Secret, His Relationship with Rachel & More
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Patrick J. Adams
When we sat down with Adams, he got into the nature of Mike’s current status with Harvey and how equal the two are at this point in the series:
I don’t think it’s equal quite yet because Harvey’s still Harvey and large and in charge, for the most part, but I think it’s far more equal [than before], and I think Mike has really come into his own. You know, Mike and Harvey aren’t working together on everything anymore. They’re relationship isn’t just totally about each other. I’ve worked very little with Gabriel [this season]. I mean, we have great scenes where we come back together and discuss what’s going on in our separate lives, but I’m doing a lot of stuff with Robert Zane this season, trying to win his respect while we work on a case together, and Harvey deals with what we see him deal with in the premiere, so I think that Mike has grown up a lot. I think that, for me, my mission every year is to go, ‘What did Mike learn last year, and how does he change?’ He’s at that age where I think a lot of our viewers relate to that - being at that age where you’re changing every year because you have to.
On whether or not there’s a place Mike hasn’t gone yet in the show that the actor would like to take him, Adams said:
I mean, it’s him coming into his own, right? I would love to see him get free of the pressure of this secret that he has. That’s the only thing standing in his way. If I were Mike’s best friend that would be the thing I would be so worried about for him. I don’t know exactly what it would look like or how it would happen when and if it did, but I would like to know what would happen to Mike if he could just finally live his life truthfully.
Concerning the nature of the secret at this point – the fact that Mike never actually went to law school, and is thus practicing illegally – the actor elaborated:
It’s never gone, and it’s never gone for me in the playing of the character. But, the show has always been careful not to make… you would have been bored of it after two seasons if that had been the sole conflict. I think the writers have done a really excellent job of giving good reasons why we don’t have to worry about that on a weekly basis. They’ve given us a few outs, but I don’t think it’s gone by any means. I think it’s always going to be a part of the show and something we come back to.
As for the status of Mike’s current storyline with Rachel and if it must end happily after everything the two have been through, Adams explained:
I don’t think [it] ‘must’ anything, no. I hope it does, and I think they clearly really care about each other. So, yeah, I definitely root for them, but there’s a lot that they’re going to have to deal with, potentially, Mike’s secret being a big version of that. It’s constantly looming over her head as much as it is Mike’s. Eventually, you’re attaching your life to someone that’s living a very fractured, unstable existence, so for all of them there’s huge stakes involved with trying to get out from under the secret. But I hope they do [end happy], for sure.
Shifting gears, Adams did get into how the split between Donna and Harvey will affect Mike in the new season:
Well, that’s their relationship, so it’s not like Mike has a lot of stock in it. He just wants both of those people to be happy. I think, for Donna, she’s just trying to do something that makes her more happy. Mike and Donna don’t have a lot to do together, but just from my outsider point of view, that would probably be how he’d feel about Donna. Then, for Harvey, he’s just worried like he would be for a friend. As Harvey’s going through his process and Mike learns more and more about what’s going on, I think it’s just, like, ‘how do I help him get through that?’
Then, finally, Adams elaborated on how much he’s been let on concerning the future Mike’s story:
The writers don’t really know. I think [Aaron Korsh]’s been really vocal about that, so I’m not letting the cat out of the bag, but they figure it out… not even on a season by season basis. They sort of have an idea of where a season is kind of headed generally, and so I know that for this season, but [Aaron] really lets the story unravel as it’s unraveling because he realized the more he planned, the more things got changed anyway. So he sees where it goes, which is sometimes frustrating because, as an actor, I would love to know what I’m playing towards. But I once heard Bryan Cranston say, about 'Breaking Bad,' that he loved not knowing because that’s what life is like, so [he] just [got] to react the way a human being would react. Things happen all the time, and you don’t know that they’re coming. Does that change the way you’re living your life? No. I could see both arguments, but I do wish I [knew] a little more about where Mike [is] headed.
MORE: Suits Interview with Sarah Rafferty & Rick Hoffman
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Suits season 5 premieres June 24th, 2015 @9pm on USA.
Click here to see what Sarah Rafferty And Rick Hoffman had to say about Donna and Louis’ heading into the new season, and here to learn more about Jessica and Rachel from actresses Gina Torres And Meghan Markle.