On Thursday night, students weathered a cold, rainy night outside of Ackerman Grand Ballroom in order to catch the mid-season three premiere of the USA Network show “Suits” in honor of the SUITS College Tour.
Creator Aaron Korsh and cast members Sarah Rafferty and Gabriel Macht visited the UCLA campus for the second date of the SUITS College Tour and talked to the Daily Bruin’s Shelly Maldonado about what it is like to be back on a college campus, the renewed nature of the show and what viewers can expect in the second half of season three.
Daily Bruin: How does it feel to be on the college campus? Any nostalgic memories from college?
Sarah Rafferty: I feel drunk. I arrived, I got through the gate and I was like, I feel drunk.
DB: You guys totally fit in with the feeling.
Gabriel Macht: I’m excited to be here! I haven’t been on a university campus in a couple years, but I grew up around here, my hangout was Westwood. So it’s very familiar to me.
Aaron Korsh: This is different than all the other college tours because we live in L.A. I go to the Geffen theater all the time.
SR: I would say it’s undeniable when you come onto a campus to feel a different energy, because it’s just a really different vibe than being anywhere else in the world. There’s just like, a lot of great energy.
DB: Can you tell me a little bit about what the inspiration was behind creating this show?
AK: I had worked on Wall Street for a number of years before I graduated from college. I was somewhat of a pothead in college. And I went and worked on Wall Street and I felt like a fraud because I felt like I didn’t fit in with that world. This show was a way to externalize my feelings of feeling like a fraud, make a guy who actually is a fraud and kind of retell the story of my youth growing up.
I was a half-hour comedy writer, and the writers’ strike happened, and comedy was on its way down, and my agent said, “Write about your Wall Street days you’re always telling me about.”
DB: Loyalty is a really big theme that runs throughout the show. Is that something that you always intended to have in there, or did it develop as the show went on?
AK: The original title of the original pilot was “Loyalty is a Two-Way Street,” when it was set on Wall Street. We use that line in (season 1) episode 3. So yes, it was always a huge theme for the show.
DB: For the women in the show, they’re not the typical role that is usually found in other shows. All the females on this show are very powerful; they’re very complex characters. Is that also something you always intended to do?
AK: I think just inherently, my mom is a very strong, smart, wonderful woman; my wife is the same way. I don’t necessarily look at people like women behave this way, men behave that way. I want all my characters to be smart, charismatic and funny. I try to write them all that way, and I think that’s how it’s coming out.
GM: But you’re also in touch with your inner woman.
AK: Oh yeah.
SR: I will say I had an interesting conversation with you back in the first year when I was on a rampage of gratitude one day with (Korsh), just about the material that I personally felt like I was being offered on the show. You were like, “I don’t think about writing them in. I just think about writing people.” I think what’s really interesting about Pearson Hardman is that it’s not a man’s world.
I’m thrilled. Sometimes I feel like as a mom, my kids are gonna see this show one day and have the DVDs. And there’s no cattiness, there’s none of that other stuff that you see on TV, it’s just a breath of fresh air for all of us as women.
DB: If you could tell me, in short, where the show is going in terms of your characters in the second half of the season, what would it be?
SR: Naked. It is going naked.
GM: Rehab!
DB:How does it feel to be back doing promotions and getting back to the “Suits” vibe after being on hiatus for a little bit?
GM: It sucks. No, I’m totally kidding. It’s great! We’re very proud of this show, I’m extremely proud of the second half of season three. I think it moves, and there’s a lot for fans to get a hold of. And I’m excited for it.