How invested is Louis this season in helping Mike get out of his jam now?
Well Louis is always invested somehow, very invested somehow, but this is once again a test not only for Louis, but really for everybody. I think, loyalty. It really draws the question … You obviously don’t want to see someone you care about get in any trouble like go to jail or potentially go to jail and you also know that you’re connected somehow so it throws that interesting humility question through everybody’s character’s way and you’ll see it be answered somehow, some way, throughout the six episodes. He is very invested to answer.
Some of the fun with Louis is when he butts heads with some of the characters. Can you talk about who he might have conflict with this year?
I would say, butting heads? I would say everyone. Everyone. He always does, but I would say there’s with Harvey, with Jessica … The partners, it puts them in a really funky position, so it causes some potential heavy decision-making. There’s head-butting one way or another including Rachael and Donna. That’s what “Suits” is all about. It should be called “Head-butting”.
Who do you most enjoy butting heads with?
No. They’re all so different, each dynamic, between Louis … Donna is great. We always have fun. Louis, Harvey is always fun, just because it’s such a challenging relationship between all those fights and vulnerability that you have to sort of draw from somewhere and that is always for me a frightening experience, but so it’s fun and thrilling. I would say most of it these six episodes is left to Mike, Patrick’s character and Harvey’s character, and Rachel because of what’s happening to Mike. That’s really where those questions really count, with those characters. Louis is more, you know, in this portion of the … he has his own fish to fry, but obviously not. It’s not as heavy as what Mike is going through and Harvey. I hope that doesn’t really give anything away.
What was your reaction when you read the script for 5/10 and you were like, “Oh my god, we’re going to blow up, we’re going to do it?”
Right. We kind of have an idea of a little further ahead of time. Aaron is great that way as far as giving us … he loves to run by … one of the few creators that likes to call his principle actors in the car on the ride home and vent ideas and vent, which it’s really fun and cool. So I knew who would or whom it might be. I was just as excited about that in 10 as I was last year’s 10 because the writers always don’t give a shit and they take no prisoners and they’re like, “Yeah, we’re scared as hell and we ultimately don’t know where we’re going to go with this either, but this makes sense,” and that’s what’s cool I think. It’s why the show still has viewers to say the least.
You got slung earlier in the season. How fun was that scene to play?
I did all my own stunts. (laughs) Unfortunately I wanted to but I couldn’t. I couldn’t fall onto that glass. I wasn’t allowed. I wanted to fall into the glass, but they said no, and I was like, that’s such a lame stunt. It’s so easy.
You hear about all these actors doing their stunts. They won’t even let me fall into a table. It was challenging once again. That’s a scene that to me, you just hope you get it the way they want it because it takes a lot. It’s a lot. There’s a lot of fighting, but you want there to be some vulnerability in the midst of it. When you read it, you’re like, “oh god how am I going to do it?”, and then ultimately, you’re told that you did a good job so you just sort of take their word for it. For all I know, I might as well make it be like Alf. Terrible. Might as well be as talented as a muppet like Alf. I don’t know. So far it seems like it’s working. It seems like I’m being told that we’re doing a fine job, by the studio.
Can you talk about how Donna and Louis’s relationship has evolved because the honeymoon phase is over?
[laughs]. Oh, right. You haven’t seen anything, right. Right. They evolve more, further, in a surprising way, in a kind of refreshing way. That’s all I can say about their relationship. The writers really take full advantage of Donna and Louis and how they’ve grown as friends.
You guys really chew up the scene, so …
I would like to see Sarah. I love Sarah. That was by the way a huge accident how that started in the beginning in Season 1, by the way. That’s a whole other story. They needed more time in an episode and they decided to throw in a Louis/Donna scene and ever since, that’s how that relationship started.
In 5/10, the Hartman holds Louis’s sister as a trump card to use against him but Harvey ends up saving the day in his own way. Are there still repercussions because Hartman still has that card to play?
Well, no, because Harvey ends it at the final vote when he comes in with all the info on Hartman and that puts Hartman away. He has no power anymore, so it takes away that threat, but Louis made a moral decision that shows how Louis has grown once again.
Who is Louis loyal to right now?
The firm. Everyone. Louis has grown. As of now, Louis is really in … He’s not the bowl in the China shop. If anything, what these last six do show is that … Once again, to keep using the word, he’s evolving. He’s evolving and in an ironic way at times, roles are switched. You’d think that someone is acting off of their impulses and their emotions, where Louis could end up actually not being … He’d be the opposite of that in these episodes. Is that safe to say?
How about his dynamic with Jessica this season or for those six episodes? Was he on the same page with her?
As I said, Louis once again has sort of become more of a not stable, but he’s becoming more and more … He’s wiser, so the circumstances behind his arguing are more valid, but there is like I said the head-butting. There is that. It is like kerosene in these offices, in these six, based on what’s about to happen. So no, it’s not just Louis. It’s Mike. It’s Harvey. It’s everyone. This puts everybody in Defcon-1.
Stay tuned for the remaining interviews. If you missed the previous ones, they are linked below for easy access.
Gina Torres (Jessica Pearson)
Patrick J. Adams (Mike Ross)
Sarah Rafferty (Donna Paulsen)
Gabriel Macht (Harvey Specter)
Meghan Markle (Rachel Zane)
Aaron Korsh
Rick Hoffman (Louis Litt)