Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast - Inside Track

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Suits is in Toronto! This week, Patrick and Sarah dive into episode 3 - Inside Track. We find out what it was like moving to, or in Patrick’s case moving *back* to Toronto and reveal which cast mate lived with both Patrick and Sarah during season 1. We explore Donna’s favorite word, and discuss love triangles, what it’s like to watch your own kissing scenes, and get a little background on the g*ddamn counter. Email us a voice memo of your questions about Suits at [e-mail]. We may use it on the show!Follow us on Instagram & TikTok - @suitssidebarGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/sidebar

Hi there, I'm Patrick Adams. You may know me as Mike Ross on the TV series Suits. And I am Sarah Rafferty, and you may know me as Donna Paulson on the TV series Suits. And this is Sidebar, a podcast where Sarah and I watch the series that we spent 10-plus years shooting but have never actually seen. So each week we're going to talk through an episode. We're going to try to tell stories from in front of and behind the camera.

We're going to compare notes. We're going to have some memories. We're going to talk through an episode. We're going to try to tell stories from in front of and behind the camera. We're going to compare notes. We're going to have some memories. We're going to have some feelings. We're going to answer some listener questions and talk to some of our friends and colleagues and so much more. But first, Sarah, there's something I've always wanted to ask you. What's that? What is your engine design philosophy? It's a random quote from this episode, it's important can we just get philosophical about it

yeah no that's i want to know i literally want to know what your engine design philosophy gratitude yes acceptance acceptance there was a pause for acceptance acceptance a little bitter pill to swallow well not so fast for the acceptance part. Trying to be kind to myself and others. I like your engine already. I'll buy your engine. How are you today? I'm good.

How are you? I'm so happy to see you. I am actually in the studio. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm here in person. It's not a hologram. Can we touch? Yeah, look at this. We're holding each other. We're passing a pulse.

One episode away from Scarlet. I couldn't take it. I had to fly back. I'm actually on a plane in just a few hours to go back, but luckily we got to fit this in while I'm in town. Thank you for making it work. Oh my God, of course. It's so much nicer to be looking in your eyes while we chat about this show we shot.

How are you doing otherwise, though? I'm good. You good? I'm good. We're figuring this out. Oh, wait. I just did. You good? I'm good. We're figuring this out. Oh, wait. I just did a mic laugh, kind of. Oh.

I got notes about that. We'll get to that. We're figuring this podcast thing out. How are you feeling so far? Let's have a quick episode. What are we in? Three? Four?

Where are you at? How are you feeling? I am feeling surprised and delighted, which is my favorite thing to feel, which is the delight of reviewing this, and then kind of surprised at what is coming up for me and what memory. Memory is a favorite thing to feel, which is the delight of reviewing this. And then kind of surprised at what is coming up for me and what memory, memory is a funny thing. And we'll get to that as we work through it. Yeah. I'm a quick behind the scenes. Basically, every episode we've recorded of this listener has been about 17 hours long. So we are trying to find a way to bring all of this insight in slightly a shorter amount of time, which I

think is a fascinating process. But the truth is, I just love talking to you, Sarah, and I could do it for hours and hours. And we are known to do that. We do. We like to go on. But I'm so happy to be here and to chat about this episode. Should we dive into the briefs, tell people what we're here to do today? Yes. So today we're tackling season one, episode three, titled Inside Track, written by Aaron Korsh and directed by Kevin Bray. And it originally aired on July 7th, 2011.

Yes. In this episode, Harvey tasks Mike with finding a loophole in the bylaws of McKernan Motors, the first client that Harvey brought into the firm, that would allow them to block the confirmation of its incoming CEO. Meanwhile, Mike feels pressure to throw an extravagant rookie dinner that incorporates Lewis's outrageous demands. Plus, Jenny returns to tell Mike how she feels about him disappearing from her and Trevor's lives. There's a lot in there. A lot of stuff happening in here. Let's get right into it. I want to talk about opening statements to this,

just like an overview of the experience of watching this. I know we actually had a fan question that lined up with something that hit me. Our amazing firms researcher here, Kristen, found it. And we thank you guys for sending in questions. Question was, hi, Patrick and Sarah. I really love the show Suits. Thank you. What was it like when you started filming and had to move to Toronto? P.S. I hope Troian will be in one of the episodes. So do I. You know what? She's in all the episodes of my life.

Yeah. I'll tell you that. You're so lucky. I'll tell you that right now. Yeah. I don't know how I tricked her. I love this question because it did really line up for something that hit me before I even, like from the first frame of this episode, which was the realization that this was our

first episode that we shot in Toronto. We talked last week about Errors and Emissions, was the name of it? But we, as we talked about that was shot, I think we discovered fifth. Yes. And this episode truly is watching all of us navigate. Moments after we arrived in Toronto. Yeah, we've arrived in Toronto. And so I really, before I could even proceed into the episode, I kind of had to put myself back into that experience of, you know, that sort of wild experience of moving to a new city, not a new city for me, which in some ways made it even weirder. It's where I was born and raised. And so I was returning to, I never thought I would be back there, especially so soon. And now I'm moving back to the city I was born and raised in to shoot this thing, but

leaving my life behind. And it just, for me, contextualized the whole episode, you know, both for me as a person, like getting used to being away from Troian, who at the time was my girlfriend and, you know, having to find a new place to live. I think I even remembered Gabriel living with me for the first week. We were both looking for places to live and Gabriel moved into my mother's apartment with me and we were like hanging out, which was amazing. And a really kind of cool way to start off the show. But it was just, I felt like I, throughout this episode, could see me trying to find my footing, could see the show trying to find its footing.

You know, like, oh wait, what are we here with this new crew and new camera operators and like everything was new and we were sort of trying to recapture the the magic of the pilot which is a really i think hard thing to do i think a lot of shows struggle with that transition from the the first thing you do and then you wait months and months and months and then you get picked up and then you show back up and you try and do more of the same thing you had done months before so that was my experience of watching it sort of framed how I how I took the whole thing in I think it was interesting for me because I didn't when we were watching Errors and Omissions I wasn't thinking about that as much but right when I started viewing this episode I was like oh that was my first scene. And that dress, you know, like there were

things that made me remember. And I remember the actual logistics, you know, we get relocated and big air quotes around that. It's just you get a date that you need to arrive in this new city and you get a plane ticket one time, one time for no matter how long you're on the show, you get one plane ticket and you are treated as if you've been relocated. But for me, it was a foreign country. I was crossing a border. It was not a place I was going to be invited to stay after my work permit was up. So I was not relocated. And I had a three-year-old at home and I was trying to get pregnant. And I remembered it like right when we were watching this, I went right into my real life. I remember landing in Toronto, a city I'd never been in.

It was not the prettiest month. It was a very… Oh, Toronto in April? I think April is the cruelest month. It's not a great time. Right? Yeah. And if you make fun of me for quoting Chaucer, I'm going to kill you.

Oh, my God. Where is the T.S. Eliot? Oh, no. I'm oh no bring it in it's a t.s everybody quiet everybody quiet it's t.s elliott it's t.s elliott don't do it don't go i'm not gonna say a word go oh oh quote it you said you were gonna quote did you already quote it did i miss the quote yeah oh i missed it what was it oh you did what was the quote it's um april is the cruelest month that's t.s elliott gosh i'm the four i love you look at the cruelest month. That's T.S. Eliot. Gosh. I love you. Look at the brains on us. Look, my mom's an English teacher.

She would be so proud. I hope you're listening, Mimi. We love you, Mimi. Your quotes. And we love you, Rowan. She's already a huge fan of this show, by the way. Number one fan. Of the podcast that's not out yet?

Yeah. Okay. So anyway, I was saying about relocation. Landed in that city, the city I'd never been to, having left Santu and Una behind. And I didn't know how long I was going to be there. I had one night in a hotel room. They put us in that park Hyatt for one night and then we were on our own. And a car needed to be rented to get to set. Oh yeah. They weren't driving us in that first season. I remember that was quite a controversy. And it was all on us. Yeah. And it was, now that I look back on it, it was honestly watching this scene that we're going to get to that brought up all stuff I haven't processed yet, which was like how destabilized, I mean, look, it's a first world problem. I'm not saying it's a real problem, but it was emotional. Yeah. It was really emotional. I was really scared to leave my three-year-old. You just said the word that was just pinging through my body. I was just so scared. I was scared. And this was my home. I was showing up to my, I knew my mom was there,

everyone was there. And I was scared. I felt very destabilizing to just show up in a place and you just haven't figured out your rhythm yet. And then you're on set and you're doing this sort of crazy job that feels very high pressured and you're trying to make the show great it's just like energetically i remember i was like dialed to 15 every piece of me was so grateful and so excited dream come true oh my gosh the pilot got picked up which had not happened a lot in my life at that point. And I think I just pulled on my big girl panties and was like, okay, I'm going to line this up for my daughter and she'll have a play date and I'll FaceTime and I'm going to bring the book that I'm reading her so I can read it over FaceTime to her. And then, you know, when I get there, I don't know what I'm going to do. And then I get this, I remember getting a text from Gabriel. It was like, do you want me to pick you up at the hotel to take you to work today?

And I think I wanted to cry because I didn't realize how stressful. Sweetheart. Nice of you, Gabriel. Yeah. And just like, yeah, I do. I need some help. I need help. I'm really at sea.

Yeah. And so when I look through this, now we can get into the episode where I can say I can see that girl. Is that person who's just like, yep, powering through. I'm here. My tail is wagging. I am bright eyed and bushing tailed and I am grateful. And probably underneath that, very close to the surface, I'm feeling very lost. Vulnerable and scared. Yeah. I feel like I felt that from everything that I was watching too. Not about you, about me. Yeah,

because you have no idea, we have no idea how long we're committed to this thing. So I knew I was going to commute, right? I knew for that first season I was going to commute.

Yeah. And we can get into that more later. You lived with Gabriel in the beginning, then Gabriel and I rented a house together that our families

could fit in. And oh my God, ours was infested with raccoons and the smell of the urine that was in the walls. Oh, great. Great, great, great.

I can't believe you did this with kids because I had a dog. I had my dog, Charlie, who sadly is no longer with us. But that was it. I just had this dog that I had to protect. And so I was in this new city with this little dog. I can't imagine having to do all of this transition with a three-year-old and everything that brings up now that I know what that brings up. It was also logistically kind of hard to figure out how to make the three-year-old sibling. Not a lot of time.

Well, I was away. Anyway, that's a different podcast. How does that work? How does that, what do you have to talk me through that? I just want to say this one thing about this episode. Just one thing and then we'll shut it down. No, before it is, as an opening statement, I can really understand why Errors and Omissions was moved based on how

that episode that we talked about last week had so many more scenes that were comedic and how it really helped set up Lewis's character as a comedic character that makes you laugh

in advance of this episode where you still giggle here and there, but Lewis is more overtly drawn to be the guy that you're going to hate so i think it was incredibly important for lewis's arc to switch that viewing order yeah i think in general i just felt like i said before we were all finding our footing i loved it there's so many things in this episode and it was still so inherently all the great things that we love about Suits, but you can feel us all figuring it out in real time. I could feel it in the episode, not just us in front of the camera. I feel like I could see Kevin trying to figure it out. You know, you have a whole new crew of people. You have all these people that

haven't shot, you know, none of them were on the pilot. So you're all relearning the process. And I could feel it in this episode in a way that I found kind of charming when I realized what was going on. I was like, look at us all trying to figure out how this works. And the fact that we found it by episode five, because that's what that showed me is by episode five, we were locked in. I think a lot of shows takes a lot longer than that to get back to the original thing that made it special. So I was fascinated by this episode. So anyway, let's dive in. Yeah, very beginning. We open on Mike. A very good place to start. Biking through New York. With a helmet.

With a helmet. And I just want to say right now, just quick sidebar, my favorite piece of wardrobe, my fashion police honorable mention is the helmet. And if you've listened to this so far, you'll know why I'm choosing that. Oh my goodness. But there is a great song playing. Perfect Needle Drop called Perfect Day by The Constellations. Kevin's great with the needle drops. But do you notice how when Mike pulls up to the car place after the scene, he is not wearing the helmet.

I didn't notice that. Oh, yeah. Nice eye. Good eye. Well, because that's the scene where the bike pulls up and I'm no longer in traffic. Legally, I didn't have to have the helmet on. So, you know, you only have to have it because you're in the street and shooting with cars. And that's when like, you know, the parent companies are like, absolutely not. You have to have the helmet on. But you can see I decided with Kevin, I wouldn't have done it on my own,

that because I'm not in traffic, the helmet just literally disappears from the scene of me going through traffic to me pulling up, which doesn't make a lot of sense. And I just want to say that as your big sister watching you weave through that traffic, first of all, it looked so fun because obviously it had to be a controlled experience because you were shooting it, right? But I can't believe that when I lived in New York and I was the age that Mike was at this time, that I would do that on Rollerblades. Rollerblades in New York City? Bunkers. Oh God, I would pay for that footage.

I've grown into the risk-averse human that I am now. As we do, as we do. Yeah, yeah. I'm almost there. But oh for a city with bike lanes and city bikes, like so that we could live our best life as if we lived in the country. You can see how much I love it.

Me skinny, like I live for that stuff. You can see it on my face, how excited i am to be in traffic but anyway i think this needle drop makes the whole opening work in a really amazing way and i just want to tell you that i'm going to listen for the interstitial music that you brought up before yeah so now we're into the uh the car club uh where harvey is looking for his uh car for the evening which i thought do people in new york do this they look for an evening car because i've driven in new york it doesn't seem that much fun you know to rent a car for the night but anyway harvey's doing it he's looking for a fancy car then we have this strange tesla commercial uh which is

funny now in retrospect because because that was when the Tesla was like this mysterious quarter million dollar vehicle in there. I'm not a car guy really, but it was funny to see the Tesla be this, it's still a fancy car, but it was like it was a Lamborghini or something in there. And we get to meet Matt Cook playing Lawrence, who's trying to get the Tesla from under Harvey. And Harvey ends up letting him have it because it doesn't hurt to have a guy who runs a $2 billion hedge fund owe you a favor. It's just like you've always said. So we have this great scene again, where we're getting to know Harvey. We see that he's always thinking he's always on his feet. And then just as Harvey decides to go old school and pull away in his, I think it was a Mustang or something, Mike arrives in his bike.

Son's helmet tells him that he's late. That shot of Harvey driving away was very cool. Just added to the cool factor of Harvey. He's so obnoxiously cool. Yeah. And, you know, if you put me driving that car, it would look so weird. That's not true. No, I'm not trying to be.

It's just a different, especially in the context of the show, wouldn't make sense. But you see... That's not true. No, I'm not trying to be... It's just a different... Especially in the context of the show, it wouldn't make sense. But you see him in that car and it all clicks. Like classic Hollywood star. It's very cool. Where do we go from there?

We go to the Javits Center. The Javits Center, fun fact, which is where we had the suits up front, 2014 and 2015. And shot at an iconic Toronto location, Roy Thompson Hall. Oh, so beautiful. Yeah.

Such a great place. But what are the logistics of getting these location, Roy Thompson Hall. Oh, so beautiful. Yeah. Such a great place. But what are the logistics of getting these cars into Roy Thompson Hall? What is the budget of something like that? Yeah. So on the second episode, they were willing to gather those cars together. Yeah. Somehow wheel them in, put them on platforms. Yeah.

That must have been. An F1 car? Like, aren't those? I mean, I was thinking I was going to make a really gendered comment about like, ooh, that must have been so fun. All the boys and their toys. But that makes no sense now because now that my girls are teens and preteens, they are obsessed with Drive to Survive. They are totally into F1. All the stats. They go to car shows. One of them is like, I'd like to design. She wants to be potentially one

of these car designers. So I remember walking onto this set and being like, oh, wow, we are on a fancy show with some money. This is cool. But was everybody excited about the cars? Yeah. Again, like I had so many of my memories of this is just being a big transition, new city, new show. I was I feel like I was just like, get your lines right. Don't screw this up. You know how expensive everything is around me is just more pressure on like, don't be the one to drop the ball is sort of how I'm feeling at this point. So Harvey introduces Mike to Dominic Barone, played by Titus. The one and only Titus Welliver.

And I just want to say for the record, Your Honor, he has really dreamy eyes. He has dreamy everything. This man is a badass. And he was, you know, I was a big fan of Titus. He's been on so many things that are hard to count. But at the time, I had been a huge Lost fan And he was, you know, I was a big fan of Titus. He's been on so many things that are hard to count. But at the time, I had been a huge Lost fan and he was on Lost. And so to show up on sets, you know, I'm not, I was a guest star before Suits. You know, I was the guy that showed up on a set and tried to like get in with everybody for a week and then

you disappear. And to be on a show where I was like, oh, this is our show. And Titus Welliver is here. Episode one. I've made it. I was a little starstruck. I mean, and he's so good in this episode. So I kind of understated and he just says so much with so little. So it was very cool to have him play Dominic, the designer of the engines. He holds a grudge against Harvey about labor negotiations at this McKernan factory. I don't know if we've said that yet, but this is all about McKernan Motors. Yeah. And labor negotiations that hits deeper. And then not only do we have Titus Welliver, we have this actor Hamish McEwen, who I'm not as familiar with, but it was a real standout. He plays Robert Stensland, the incoming CEO of McKernan Motors. And Robert is impressed that Mike pulls his infinite knowledge of the local bylaws and such.

I'm always going to love those superhero Mike moments. So the problem that Mike and Harvey have to solve is Robert wants Mike to work on a deal to sell McKernan Motors land and move the factory overseas. Harvey disagrees and wants Mike to find a way to legally block Robert's CEO appointment. I can get behind that. Great setup for the episode. Yeah, I think it's a good time to take a quick break. Hey, let's take a break. You know what?

Let's take a break. I think we should take a break. Hi, we're back. Welcome back to SET. Welcome, we're back. So we're back. We come back from the teaser. And what's happening? Mike is still in yesterday's suit

and he wakes up on his couch in a pile of bylaws. God, he loves swimming and bylaws. He can't get enough of bylaws. Come on into the bylaws. It's warm in here. It's the super... If you noticed in this episode, there's always like, well, did you check the bylaws? He's in the bylaws. I'm realizing like, oh, it's a really useful story tool to just send Mike digging through some bylaws. You never know what you're going to find in the bylaws. I think we need to make merch. Yeah, that's true. Check the bylaws. Check the bylaws. Yeah, so we got Mike waking up on the couch. He's a mess. I love, I just love seeing, I love the contrast of Mike, the mess

on his couch in his weird apartment and Harvey Specter. I'm still not tired of it. It's fun for me to see these parts. And I noticed that we're on, I don't know, Blackberry's, his phone's ringing, it's in his back pocket. He can't find it. And we did a special on the phone, a special being like we insert a shot of the phone so that we can read what it says. And I think ultimately we really moved away from that. I think we moved away from using phones. I mean, people showed up at other people's apartments. I think, yeah, there was a lot of times when a scene wouldn't have happened if someone had just called another person. But I think we did have iPhones by the end of the show.

Or I think it was like Mike had an iPhone, but Harvey had a... Sarah did not have an iPhone. I don't remember. I was like on a Palm Pilot. A sidekick? Kick. So then Donna greets Harvey at her desk and hands him an envelope, which in Suitsland is always important, those envelopes.

Jessica escorts harvey to a conference room and so i feel like this is a spot that i could stop for a second to talk about with you my friend patrick because i didn't realize until we were watching this that i think this was my first scene it just kind of washed over me as like, oh, like I could feel the sort of nerves of it. I could feel the feeling of being in that really uncomfortable, very itchy, ill-fitting dress. And what I remember, one of the things that I remember is that we didn't have a dialogue yet with our directors necessarily about what the shot was which is something that you start even though this was kevin included on even though it was kevin kevin was doing a pretty special shot yeah where it was a famous kevin wonder where he was moving all of us kind of in and out of a morning scene and so when i got up from the chair to hand harvey that envelope i remember this so well gracefully, Kevin moved the camera on to

having Jessica enter and then carry him down the hall. And then we can cut back to seeing where Rachel and Mike are, I believe. But I remember when we did that, it was so fast. They never turned around for coverage. Coverage being when you like change the camera angle to see the other person in the scene's face. Yeah. So like first you do that way and then you do the other way. And I kind of was like, oh, oh, okay. Okay. So I'm not going to get covered on this show.

That's fine. We're not going to do my thing. I understand. I understand where I am now. So we'll come back to that thing. I've definitely had that experience on sets before where you're like, it's a very humbling moment where you're like, oh, I'm here and I got dressed up and I'm here to be an actor today. And the director's like, it is not about you today. And you're like, oh, I woke up thinking it was somewhat about me and it's not going to be

one of those days. And it wasn't even about that. It was so for me, it was just like Donna floats through and I was just like, okay, it it was just like noted it wasn't a thing that registered yet because remember i think we've had a conversation where i was like i am very comfortable kind of hiding as the woman behind the man but it's a pretty flirty quick moment between harvey and donna where he said something about how she slept it's a funny line did you get it picked it up yesterday. Did you sleep with it under your pillow? How I sleep is none of your concern.

Yeah, neither is the Yankees batting order, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. So I don't actually remember. You're saying there was no coverage of your face, even for the it's no business of yours how I sleep? Correct. That is not covered. Correct. Wow. I didn't catch it.

And that is, that's no bueno. And well, no, it was when you see the cut because of how Kevin is creating the pace of an early morning and not like lingering on that moment. Because it's getting him right into Jessica and then they're gone. And it's just so good. It's such a good shot. What I remember thinking when I read the script on that line was I really just wanted this line to be a quick piece of office banter. I did not want it to be like a thing that she was maybe into him in a sad kind of unrequited way. And it was probably one of the first times that it crossed my mind that I wanted to steer clear specifically of that trope while being totally open to the fact that these guys have a past and they're very close and they really mean a lot to each other. But it was the first time that I went like, ding, ding, ding.

I want the relationship that happens here to be more complex, I will say, than just the trope of like, she must be pining for him because he's New York's greatest closer. Like, I was just clear that I'm like, I'm going to play against that because I really don't want to give them any ideas to write into that. Not that I had that kind of control, but does that make any sense to you?

That I had an aversion like out of the game? Well, I think you're smart. I think you knew like, oh, that's not going to buy me a lot of time on this show. Like, you know what I mean? Like, if I'm just that girl, then that's the least interesting version of that. This woman is the one that's just pining after this guy., the opposite. Exactly. If he sensed that at all, you know, I bet he'd be like, I can't have that, right? And she's the person who has everybody's number. So like going back to the conversation that we had last time where I was just a fan and just excited about Harvey and Lauren to get together. When we left that conversation, I was like, you're right.

We already do know that Harvey's a bit of a player. If Lauren were my child, I'd be like, uh-uh, no dates with him. So now it's all coming back to me that that was something that I very specifically thought about in advance of the scene. Anyway. This all speaks to what I've said before, and I'll continue to say it again. There's this like, people don't know what they've got in Sarah Rafferty yet. And while I can only imagine that's actually kind of painful, but it just takes them a yet. And while I can only imagine that's actually kind of painful, but it just takes them a while. And so I see scenes like this and I'm like, oh, you don't get it yet. You don't know, but you're going to figure it out. So Mike stumbles into the office,

papers falling out of his hands again. You can see me trying to like repeat some stuff from the pilot and hold on to his sort of, he can't take two steps without making a mess routine. And then we're back at Donna's desk. Donna tells Mike that Harvey is at his senior partner initiation and gives Mike a lesson on senior partners. I love, they did shoot your coverage on this scene and you basically have two no's in this scene, right? And then you explain the senior partner initiation, but there's a look that you give to them. I put the folders on your little cubicle. You say no in that way that only Donna can say no. And then I ask you a

question and I put the folders back on it and you give a look to the folders. That is Emmy worthy. I think you mentioned to me that you had a lot of no's. And like a big part of Donna was a saying no to things without it being. So this was the second script, right? And every scene Donna had said, pretty much had said no. And so, I mean, look, it's so stupid, nerdy. But it was like, okay, all we really have is script. And then what's the words that are on the page. And then you've got to create like the character and the backstory about it.

So I had this whole conversation with one of my dearest friends and this incredible acting coach, Warner Laughlin. And we were just like, yep, right now we lean into the fact that she just loves to say no. I love that you were coaching. I love that you were coaching on the line no. But you know what? It shows. It shows you have only a no and I learned so much. But I mean, it's like, who's the person who really just says no constantly all the time and loves the shit out of saying no. That's so good. You know what, sidebar, I didn't tell you this, but the theater nerds and us will love this. Do you know what? I flew to Toronto a week early before we shot this season. Do you know why?

To see somebody in a play. Even worse. What? I signed up for a week-long Alexander workshop. Oh, yes, I did. Yes, you did. For those uninitiated, Alexander's sort of actor's movement technique theory, it's about people already falling asleep. I figured the theater kid in you would be very proud of the theater kid in me. I decided before I go shoot my first season of television, I should really do a week-long actor's workshop in Toronto. We can both make fun of it, but let, let's face it, it's about opening up your body. We care. I think the moral of this story is the reason I bring it up is like, we cared. Like, we wanted to do a good job here. We really cared, like, about bringing our best

selves to this thing. And I think that's adorable. Good job, guys. Okay. And then we have a scene where Harvey officially becomes senior partner. Then. In the next scene, Lewis approaches Mike's desk and hands him a list of foods he's allergic to and informs Mike that he must plan and host the traditional rookie dinner for his fellow 50 associates. Lewis leaves a handshake hanging with Mike here earlier. Harvey didn't high five him. Robert denied his handshake.

There's a whole series of, there's two things that seem consistent for Mike in this episode. He is late in every scene and everybody calls him out on it. And he's always trying to make some physical contact with somebody and nobody will let him. There's like a lot of status stuff going on. Yeah, there's that great moment in the teaser. I go to shake his hand and he hands me the champagne flute. I love stuff like that. Oh my gosh. So we're going to use some of that interstitial music that you once talked about starting right here. And yeah,

and I, I'm, you know, look, the jury's still out on, for me, in terms of how I feel

about these things. About the music? About this interstitial music that you talked about being the surfing music. Hey, which by the way, I'm already getting into. I'm episode three and my mind is a changing. Okay.

So that's where I am because it leads right into Harvey walks through the bullpen and another associate, Danny McDonald, offers assistance to Harvey, but is shut down when Harvey calls him Alan. Because his name is Aaron. Okay. I think this might be the best line in the episode. Yeah, let's play it. There's going to be some of the interstitial music.

Excuse me, Mr. Spector. I was wondering if you might need a hand sometime with one of your matters. Anyone. Well, Alan. It's Aaron. I think that says it all, don't you? Gabriel played that perfectly.

And how do you feel about the music? Slapping that bass, man. There's a lot of bass slapping in this episode. It made me want to groove. You know what? It's goofy, but it's growing on me. I don't know why. And I look, I don't want to talk any crap about this show and the people, I mean, the people work on and picked the music. They had a good reason for it. And I think it becomes a fabric of the show. What I'm interested is I do feel like it may be changed and sort of evolved and maybe matured a bit. This feels like we're in the earliest part of the show. And I'm curious to track interstitial music. We should like take clips of it. I got another spot for you coming up. Okay. I'll let you know. Great. But I think it like changed and we weren't afraid to let moments linger a little bit more as we went on in further seasons so i think i'm just curious about the evolution of

the interstitial music i mean you know hopefully one day we'll have like jeff wachtel on here to talk a bit about it because he was sort of responsible at ucp for building that era but there was a very similar tone not too dark dark, you know, not afraid to like, maybe have some moments of seriousness, but always pivoting back to a lightness that I think really evolved also with our show, because after our show, Mr. Robot, we sort of pulled them out of Blue Sky, not out of, because I think we always were in that realm, but we were allowed to make things a little more serious. We were allowed to have things land and not have to have it be as funny all the time. And then Mr. Robot came out after us and Blue Sky was over. And then we broke Netflix and now it's all coming back.

So Mike is struggling to find a location for the Rookie Dinner and Harvey's struggling to find a CEO for McKernan Motors. Mike suggests Dominic. Harvey explains to Mike how important it is to just get it. There's a lot of getting it. It's a running theme in this. You got to get it. Who's getting it? Are you getting it? You don't get it, which is great. I didn't quite understand the turn in this scene. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but you have Marvie. Marvie, you have Marvie. Oh, we will talk about Marvie at some point. There will be some fan interaction about that. I saw some of those questions, but we'll sidebar that. That's a fanfic sidebar.

Didn't quite understand the turn in this scene. It starts when Harvey is saying, you better not be prioritizing that dinner. And then Mike gives him the idea for who should be CEO. And then he gets frustrated with Mike. And then he tells him he needs to care more about the dinner, which there's no pleasing this guy, Harvey Harvey especially if he's in a rough mood

Mike can't win um also my question to you is is Harvey offering like great career advice here he says first impressions last you start behind the eight ball it's a great never get in front yeah no I mean the final lesson I was like that pretty strong. I also think that it's really fun that Harvey, like super fast sidebar, says you can't use that restaurant that Mike was considering because it's a Wachtel Lipton client. So we've got Jeff Wachtel, Gene Klein. Jeff Wachtel runs UCP. Gene Klein is one of our producers, but who's Lipton? Who's Lipton?

We'll have to ask. But also it was Aaron. the guy's name was aaron oh that's true yeah so we also the name of our showrunner right okay so here between these scenes harvey leaves mike walks to rachel's office and this may be the place where i'm missing the interstitial music was it totally quiet i? I don't remember. It was. It was like, I feel like maybe there's a little sound of your feet on the carpeting. There was general sound of the inside of an office building. I can't tell yet, but I felt like it might have been too much if the music was there, but I also felt that the pace slowed for a second on your entrance and I didn't think

it helped. I don't know. I'll have to go back and watch. I think what's my problem with interstitial music in general is on any show, music is there to guide my experience of a show, right? Like tell me how seriously I should be taking a thing or like don't take it too seriously. Help me transition out of one thing into the next. As a viewer, I'm always like, why are you trying to make me feel a way? But you got to embrace that this is what Suits is. Again, we're also figuring it out. And it's also giving me the cue of like, hey, stay in this mood. And I think maybe a lot of the jokes and the lightness of the show wouldn't land if you didn't set it up properly.

Yeah. So Mike visits Rachel's office to try to get her help with the rookie dinner because Rachel's a foodie. And she talks about a pizza that I would never ever want to eat. Would you? What was the kind of pizza? Do we remember? It was like shrimp, goat cheese. I don't remember shrimp on it. Goat cheese, tomato.

It was like red pepper, shrimp, and goat cheese. There is shrimp on it. And I don't want to put the shrimp in my goat cheese. Yeah, like I'm a pretty basic B when it comes to the old P. Okay, so no to the pizza. No please on the pizza. Yeah, I wouldn't eat that pizza. So, then.

Jenny knocks on Mike's apartment door as he's getting ready. Just, can I say how happy I was to see Jenny again? Yes. I feel like an episode away from her and I was like, oh, right. Wait, I missed this person. And then she just hauls off on Mike. Just a hard slap. Did that hurt?

Do you remember? I think, again, I was in like actor mode. I was like, really hit me. Really hit me. Don't break my jaw, but hit me. So she probably did hit me. She's so good in this scene. Although knowing Vanessa, she probably was like, I can't.

Don't. She's so sweet. I don't want to do that. She was really good in this scene. She's wonderful. She's angry at him for hiding Trevor's secret, which is fair, I think, you know, to be lying about the fact that her boyfriend is dealing the best weed on planet earth. And then this really brought up for me, you know, we're building up, I guess, a triangle between these two, which I'm sort of like reliving now that I'm like, oh yeah,

of course he has sort of had these two love interests. And so a good check-in is like, after this scene, like where are you at as an audience member on the Jenny or Rachel of it all? Are we rooting for Mike and Rachel at this point? Because clearly the show is trying to set it up. Yeah, I don't know.

I really am. I have a real aversion to team so-and-so, team so-and-so stuff. Fair enough. But that's just my bias. I hope everybody wins. You're all pretty. Harvey finds Lewis having dinner at a nice restaurant with Robert Stensland,

and Lewis is interfering with the McKernan Motors sale because Harvey is moving too slow. Harvey is able to continue to stall the deal. Okay, so this scene I think is so important because it is beautiful character development for Lewis. I just want to say he has starts with a line where he says, apparently the diligence wasn't preceding a pace. And I just want to tell you that is spoken like a man who knows about Shakespeare and, you know, maybe even Commedia dell'arte. I mean, he might be able to spell Lottie. I just want to say that last week, maybe I was channeling the dorkiness of Lewis and maybe one of the reasons why we dislike him. You want to talk about merch.

We are getting Lottie on a mug right away. But it is really great character development, I think. And then Mike and Grammy are playing checkers and Mike confides that he's worried about her. Great line in here, right? Great character development, I think. And then Mike and Grammy are playing checkers. And Mike confides that he's worried about her. Great line in here, right? Grammy has a history with a man she went to Russia with. Did you guess that? I was like, whoa, what?

What? We all have history. Oh, I love it. So does everybody's heart leap when we get to see Grammy? Like, what is her particular kind of sorcery? I never got to meet her. You have to tell me about her. I want to know her. She's just, she was wonderful. Rebecca Scholl, she's an amazing actor. We were so lucky to have her. She'd have to, you know, come up. Now we shot originally in New York, which is where she's from. But now again, we're in Toronto. So

she's like, you know, flying up to Toronto. She's an older lady and she was, you know, having to make the big trip up to Toronto and like get in the hotel and come and be with us. And she couldn't have been more excited to be there. She's somebody who's obviously been on so many shows and been doing this for so long, but she still brought such like a kind and loving energy. And we had a really good thing going. And I think it's just a gift to the show because you don't get family members on the show, at least not for a bit.

We don't get to like meet Harvey's dad or Harvey's brother. You know, this is a show about work. This is a workplace environment. And so I think, you know, a real gift for me as a character, too, to have that other person to play with that other energy of like, you know, this is what set everything in motion was Mike's desire to do something for his grandmother. So I'm really happy that she managed to, you know, be at least a small part was Mike's desire to do something for his grandmother. So I'm really happy that she managed to be at least a small part of Mike's backstory throughout the season. And we couldn't

have been more lucky to have her as an actress. So later that night, Jessica is waiting in Harvey's office to question him about his plan. He confesses he wants Robert out. And Jessica reminds him that it's not his job to tell Stensland or Jessica how to run their companies and that he needs to close the deal. She's so good. I loved this scene. I loved the blocking. I love how she starts out in his chair. She's in the power position.

I like the way she moves away from behind the desk and how she attunes to Harvey's emotional weak spot. And she's just very goddessy in it. It's really good writing too. Like this is where I think Suits is at its like absolute highest power when there's these like real big chess moves of powerful people doing things. Like that's hard. It's hard to like make convincing and real. And yes, you know, you have Jessica, Gina Torres,

unbelievably powerful person who just sort of owns the space and just great writing. I just find that they do such a good job of really differentiating the kind of power that Jessica has in the room versus Gabriel. Because they're both very powerful, Harvey and Jessica. They're both so powerful, but she's got this other thing that we get into, which is she is the firm. She's thinking on this whole fourth dimension that Harvey can't quite get there yet because there's still a bit of him that's selfish and not thinking outside of himself, which is a big part of what Mike's trying to teach him too. So I don't know. I just love the full circle-ness of that. I think that's really great writing. I think that's a perfect time to take a quick break and then maybe we can get more into that triangle you were talking about. Although, you know, I refuse to take sides. We'll be right back. All right, we're back. The next day we're in Harvey's office. Harvey assigns Mike to prepare a draft of a new CEO speech. Harvey's going to convince Dominic to take the job. a set, you either wake up and get in the van or drive there and you put your clothes on, you go through hair and makeup and you show up. And then you are sometimes essentially in the background of a scene. And sometimes it's really essential. You need to hear that thing happen in

the scene in order for another scene to play out. But then sometimes like in this scene, I noticed on my way out the door, you are standing there. And I seem to have some memories early on of us having to figure out when this was appropriate and when it wasn't, because it's never something you want to do to an actor unless it's really necessary that they be there. And there was probably no shortage of scenes, I imagine, where Donna had to be there to hear a thing. But it'd be a long scene between Harvey and Mike and Donna would have to hear it. So sometimes once we had our act together, we'd like shoot Donna hearing it first so that you could go home and we could shoot the whole scene or something like that so that you get the person out of there. But in this scene, you're not wrong, right?

You were standing there the whole time. Yeah, the whole time. Do you remember? Was it like they wanted to have you reacting to this scene? I mean, it's just any time we're shooting a scene, Donna should be there outside watching. Yeah, I think we were trying to figure that out. I think they also realized like, ooh, we put her desk where in the camera angles,

we're going to know if she's there or not. And so they started to think about that. But I think at the time, and this is something that I can talk about more at the end when I'm gathering my thoughts about the whole, you know, in a closing statement about watching this whole thing. Like that girl was just like, yep. Yeah. Wherever you want me. Sure. I'm great. And I'll observe and it's important to be present and just bright eyed and bushy tailed and wanting to please instead of what had to happen you know

by season two when I'd had a child and I was breastfeeding and it had to be like guys we really need to pick in shoes when I need to because that kind of scene that you had would have been three or four hours to shoot that I would have been waiting there. And I think, you know, at that time, I was just eager and happy and grateful. And then later I grew into somebody else who became more aware of how this thing works. Like I don't need to, if you need me to, again, some scenes you need to be there. It's a story thing. It's annoying, but I've read the script and I'm going to have to, this is going to have to be the way that it is.

And then other times it feels, can sometimes be egregious. And it's like, well, I don't think I actually need to be here for this. It's like nudity. And you don't, you're afraid to stand up for it when you're first on a show. And I did not feel like I was in a position to stand up for it in any way, shape or form.

What was particularly egregious though, because you just said a thing, well, sometimes the camera angle and she's there, but in this way you're standing. So it's not even... So like they placed me in there. If you were at your desk, you actually wouldn't have been in the shot. If you were sitting at your desk, you are standing there. So it just led me to think, was there a moment when it was going to be important that you saw something in this scene? But anyway, we don't need to dwell too much on it. It seemed a little egregious. Well, I have, I mean, the hardest part for me about that whole thing was when I look back at it and I rewind that moment was that I was wearing black pantyhose. Of course, this is what you remember. Because, I mean, that's the real crime.

Nowadays, we can wear tights because it's cold. We're going to wear some black tights. We're going to make it. But pantyhose were like not the same it's like and you know i thought like after the 90s after i did the maxi pad with wings commercial that i was not gonna say panty publicly ever again like you did a maxi pack commercial oh yes pull it up always with wings um i'm just gonna try to work panty in as many times because this is my last day this is it this is the final moment this is the end of it but just i day of saying pantyhose. This is it. This is the final moment. This is the end of it. But just noted those pantyhose, they were not the right kind of

sheerness. You either got to go opaque or sheer. You got to get a... It just was wrong. I'm not okay with it. So that was the real egregious part. The particular crime was you were in the wrong clothes. Appreciate you talking us through that. Mike returns to his desk to find Devin, played by Julian DeZotti, who I think we had for a little bit on the show. I'm excited to see if he keeps coming back. Checking his progress on choosing a restaurant for the rookie dinner. Mike threatens Devin with violence, which was a bit of a standout for me. Is Mike an imposing figure? Are we thinking Mike's going to throw punches because he gets slapped by Jenny in this episode and then a little later he just gets quickly tossed around by Trevor. So I'm not getting the impression that Mike is a particularly adept fighter.

Is Mike athletic? He rides bikes. For necessity. I guess I pointed out as I'm like, I think it's the first time I've seen Mike threaten someone with violence. And I was a little, and I played him, and I'm a little unsure that he's going to be able to deliver on that promise. I feel like in this particular moment, it seems like Mike has learned a little something about intimidation from Lewis and Harvey. Good call. Very good call. So Harvey tells Dominic that he needs to step up as CEO to save the company. And then Rachel and Mike have a flirty moment because they're going to go to dinner.

Go, Mike. I'm excited for these two. In the conference room, Harvey and Mike help Dominic with the speech that Mike drafted. Harvey storms out and tasks Mike with making sure that Dominic gets it. I think I might have mentioned this before,

but I'm noticing with every episode, there's a scene, at least one or two, where I'm like, oh, I can put myself back in this room. I am sitting there. I can remember what it felt to shoot this scene. The last episode was Harvey and I in the office at the end going tete-a-tete. And in this, it's this scene.

And I don't remember why. I think it has something to do with Mike getting to be the closer for once. And me noticing it story-wise, like, Oh, like Harvey cannot do this without Mike. And maybe it was the first time Mike has been helpful. He's been doing all sorts of great things.

He's been proving himself. This is maybe the first moment where Harvey is like, they're playing good cop, bad cop or good lawyer, bad lawyer. Like they say in the next scene, like it's really Mike's job to make this happen. And I think I knew that in the moment

and I felt the way that Mike might feel as the actor. I was like, oh, okay, I get to do this now. I get to make Titus Welliver do something that he maybe initially doesn't want to do. And also just getting a solo scene with Titus as an actor probably. I know, a very memorable moment. Then Mike approaches Rachel in a restaurant and she's helping him plan his rookie dinner. They discuss food, and we learn more about where they both came from. Jenny calls, but he ignores it. Yeah, it's heavy. I know you don't want to take sides, but this is a moment. Mike walks Rachel to a taxi where they sort of have their first real little flirt session. They're standing very close to each other. It is very close. I've noticed this as an actor,

and it was something that came up a lot with Gabriel, I remember, is I do a thing as an actor where I really stand close to people. Like if I decide that it's like either a scene where there's like, I'm really standing up to someone or there's like supposed to be this intimacy, I think I stand about three inches too close. So can we call you a close talker? I think I stand about three inches too close. So can we call you a close talker?

I think I officially am. Gabriel would always, we'd be doing the scene and as it got more intense, I'd kind of get closer and closer. And Gabriel would have this thing he'd do where he'd always just put his hand on my chest and a light pushing me away from him very fairly. I think he was just like, humans don't stand this close. This is just a little too, unless they're like about to kiss. They don't do this. Maybe that's how you built in the Marvie. That's good. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. You know, we're pushing up against each other. But in this scene, I even felt like, you know, there's supposed to be this intimacy, but Mike is, it was weird that they didn't kiss, you know, which wouldn't have made any sense in the story. But the way that they were standing together, Mike and Rachel, this was a little close for comfort.

But I, you know, I thought this was cute, them being together, us doing the thing. And are you a foodie? Oh, God, no. Not at all. Did they know? That Megan was a bit of a foodie? Yeah. I think so.

And they wrote it in on the second episode? I don't know. Yeah, I guess because Aaron wrote this episode, so I don't think it would have been new information that Megan's a bit of a foodie. Okay. Yeah. So I don't know. It's a good question for Aaron.

But the dinner that we had was much like any dinner that Megan and I might have, where she is very aware of the good food and what to order, and I'm scanning for the tiny burger. I think I've gotten a bit better in my old age, but not much. You just had a haggis. I did. So. After having a stomach.

That I can't. Yeah. Moving on. After listening to the voicemail from Jenny, Mike shows up at Trevor's apartment to confront him. Trevor still refuses to tell the truth or accept help from Mike. Trevor then brings up Jenny and then punches her throne and Mike storms out. We're done. I just have to say, one of my favorite, I don't know who needs this to happen, but if you notice in the scene, remember in the pilot or in that big loft, do you remember?

Yes. With Trevor. And you remember what's in that loft. What's in the loft? The motorcycle. He's got a motorcycle in his loft. What's in the loft? The motorcycle. He's got a motorcycle in his loft, which I had questions in the first thing. I don't approve of motorcycles. What? I don't approve of motorcycles. You don't like motorcycles, but I understand Trevor maybe being into motorcycles,

having it in your loft, maybe that's a New York thing to do. You're into motorcycles. I love motorcycles. Patrick, I don't approve. I love motorcycles. By the end of this podcast, people, I'm going to get Patrick to sell his bike. No way. Two.

I have two bikes. And I'm not getting rid of either of them. But the point being is that this set, you can tell, is the smallest apartment. You know, this happens when you change locations. You know, they decide for one scene, we're not going to go rent

some other giant loft in Toronto. So they kind of made this smaller space work as if it was like the lobby of Trevor's giant New York condo. Oh, yeah. Okay. But they decided that the motorcycle needed to be there to like sell it, to sell it. But it looks like it's in the hallway to the bathroom or something. It looks like it looks like someone who's put a motorcycle in their like little one bedroom New York apartment when you're in this room. I love that. So we I want to have when we do get Kevin Br that. So we, I want to have, when we do get Kevin Bray on the show, I want to have a motorcycle conversation. And then you guys get in a

big fight and Mike gets it handed to him. Like I said, not a fighter, a lover, not a fighter. And then you leave the apartment. Yeah. And guess what? You forgot your bag. Did I have my bag going into the scene? Yeah. Really? It goes on the floor. Like all bets are off. The bag gets taken off. We're done. Oh, it's hard. Did I not grab it? I might not have grabbed it.

We'll have to go back and reshoot. Then we have some of our fancy New York transition, and then we're in the Fairmont Royal York. Wait, can I talk about this? Yeah. I'm so excited about that. First of all, there's snappy transition music to get out of that. Oh, Dominic?

He's waiting for us outside. So we're outside. We're going to meet Dominic to go into the meeting. And I remember shooting this. This is one of our first outdoor Toronto scenes and it's freezing. You can see how cold we are. We are cold and trying to pretend like we are not cold. And you walk by a Tim Hortons, which immediately, look, all these little tiny things bring back

so many feelings from these little details. What's going on with my hair in this episode? Can we have a sidebar about that? My hair goes from, I think I have six different lengths of hair over the course of this episode. But can I say something that I'm excited to talk about? I would love to hear what you're excited to talk about. I'm excited to talk about this location. So when you're going into this scene, you are indeed in Toronto because we see the Tim Hortons. When you exit this scene, you are going to cross over Park Avenue in New York City and it's going to be different weather.

Where are we when we're in the scene? You are about to walk into the Fairmont Royal York, which is just so iconic. And I was there last September doing an event, a fashion event, and I gave like a little speech-a-roo and spoke around. I hate that I said speech-a-roo. What's the difference? We're keeping that. Wait, just a quick, could you walk us through what the difference is? No, no, no. What's the difference between a speech and a speech-a-roo? I was honored to be hosting an event back in Toronto, a fashion event that took place in the Fairmont Royal Arc. And I spoke in my speech about so many things about how much I loved living in Toronto,

which we will go through in the future. But I talked about how the last time I had been there was when you were directing an episode. That's right. And how good it felt to be standing there. And I also want to say, I love this hotel. That's right. And how good it felt to be standing there. And I also want to say, I love this hotel. It's haunted. They have amazing soaps. The Lullabo Rose Soaps.

Always got to steal those when you see them in a hotel. Absolutely. And I have to say the locations like all over Canada of these hotels are so amazing. What do we have in this episode? We have the Roy Thompson Hall and we have Royal York. The Royal York Hotel, I think before it was even a Fairmont. I grew up in Toronto. That building is an iconic part of the skyline.

It's got this beautiful gold roof. Like Queen Elizabeth. Yeah. Before she was queen, I think she was a princess. She threw an influencer event there. This is good. That's a headline. Here we go. Anyway, but it's haunted the stories are real

if you ask the staff which i did the night that you were directing us they all confirm that it's haunted and the whole hotel chain doesn't try to say that that's not true when you were there did anyone else give any speecharoos or was that just you? I was hosting an event and I was thrilled to be back. And I spoke about you in my speech. Yes, I actually, we'll get to that episode a million episodes from now. But yes, seeing that lobby was a very full circle moment for me as somebody who grew up in Toronto. Anyway, things are not going well for our guys here.

We are now back in New York City. Mike has apparently had time to go get a haircut. And they're trying to figure out what they do next. In Jessica's office, we discover Jessica hedged her bets by sending Lewis in to undermine Harvey. Which is, again, brilliant. I love this. I just love the chess playing of it all. Now, no matter which of them loses,

the firm wins. She reminds Harvey that he bought in. He is the firm. And then Harvey has... Aha! You just said it! I know now. I figured it out.

But you noticed something really cool about this scene that I'm excited to hear more about from you. Oh, right. Yes. This scene was shot handheld. Yeah. I don't know if you noticed. It's pretty subtle. I don't know why I kind of picked up on it. Our show was very much not handheld from this

point on. And this is one of those things I'm talking about where I can see us trying to find the visual language of the show. And it's a long time ago, but I think I had some memories of Kevin really like wanting to explore because for those of you, you know, that don't know how a show shoots, when you set up a camera on a tripod or on a dolly or whatever, it takes time. It's a whole team of people that roll the thing in and get the thing on and get it set up. And, you know, then your camera is stable, but it's, it involves a lot of time and i think we

were at a stage where we were trying to find out how to make the most of our time and so there was this idea that maybe we could shoot scenes handheld which really just means a camera goes up on someone's shoulder and they're shooting the scene and it kind of moves around sort of a friday night lights vibe but like a show like that is shot entirely handheld it's very intimate for the camera person and an actor right i think It also makes things go faster because someone's holding a camera and that just, and everybody feels it. Everybody feels the cameras in someone's shoulder. It's heavy. Like there's no time to be wasted. Let's like move. As soon as cameras go on a dolly, there's just a slight, you can kind of slow down and know you're taking your time and nobody's inconvenienced by holding a camera.

And it really is a different style of shooting in that you can move quickly. Like I'm shooting a scene with you. We're shooting, like we talked about your side of things and getting your dialogue. And then the camera can run over to the other side of the room. And now we're getting you like, it feels sort of a lot of actors really love to shoot it because it feels very electric and in the moment. And you don't even really know where the camera is at any moment. You're going to focus on the performance. It's fun. And I think there was this attempt on our show to see if we could pull that off. But for the most part,

I think the idea that we would ever do this in the office ended up not being a thing. So it was interesting to see a scene where it was happening. I got to be honest, I liked it. I thought it felt... I did too. It did something for the tension of the scene. Great line alert. I think we both agree you're a member get it do you get it

moving on harvey finds mike and sends him to see dominic harvey has a new plan the next day dominic harvey and mike interrupt the mccurnan sale approval vote to inform the board that they've secured a new and lucrative offer. And it's over for Stensland. Harvey and Mike are crossing the same street as yesterday, but with a completely different attitude. Mike gets it. Was it tricky filming in New York, like walking back and forth and resetting across Park Avenue like that? I mean, they were beautiful shots and it really was you know proved to us hey

we're in new york but is it hard to do with the real traffic and all that like a safety perspective i think just the vibe of being in new york with the energy and the cars and the people like it feels good to have that so yeah it was probably hard it's awkward to like reset and wait for the light and all that stuff but it's so outweighed by how great it is just being that city. It's like, no, you know, there's no other city in the world like New York. So anytime we shot down there, we were kind of in hog heaven. I'm in hog heaven right now. I love hogs.

So weird. Can we speech-a-roo just for a quick second? Hey, can I talk to you for a second? I got a quick speech-a-roo just for a quick second? Hey, can I talk to you for a second? I got a quick speech-a-roo. And then our episode ends with Mike waiting for Jenny outside her apartment. He tells her that she was right and makes amends by confessing that Trevor is still dealing.

The push and pull before they know it, they're kissing. Mike pulls away. He just fought with Trevor, and this is very complicated. As he walks away, Rachel calls his cell. And it says here in this that he ignores her, but he doesn't. Can we replay it?

I don't think he ignores her. He picks up the phone? No, he doesn't do either. He ignores it and that he doesn't pick it up, but he doesn't, you know, we saw her. You're miming turning it off. We saw him actively ignore Jenny earlier. See, phone's ringing. Picks it up. It's Rachel on a Blackberry. Did I hit the button? Sorry. It sounded like there was a click.

Oh, because you know what I mean? They showed it in a close up before when I ignored Jenny ignored jenny you saw like ignore can i say something about kissing i wish you would let's have a thing where we rate our kisses on this show it's never no it has nothing to do with the acting it never feels normal to kiss someone on camera no no no i'm not saying that i'm just saying Sarah watching her Suits brothers have kissing scenes, whether it's you or Gabriel or Rick, makes me want to giggle. Makes you giggle. I'm just like, Mom, don't make me look at this. It's really funny. I had to watch it three times to see if I could just like try to watch it as like a normal viewer and then i was like nope i just think i feel like

it's just weird watching my brother you know it's always weird being an actor and having to watch yourself do things because in life we don't really watch ourselves do most things but it's particularly weird to watch um you kiss someone Because that's something you really don't ever have to see. And it's a real... I can think of a couple more things. Oh, that's what it looks like. Okay. So that's the end of our episode.

Yeah. Look at us. We got through it. I know you don't like a triangle, but we're left with it. Whether you like it or not, we are in the zone. Was there a whole team thing back in the day? Like team Rachel, team Jenny? Oh, for sure. I mean, people love to play that stuff up. You know, for me, I think we all wanted to avoid it as much as possible. We just wanted to play the reality of the situation, which,

you know, is that these are two very different characters. You know, one is in the high-powered world and sort of represents what Mike is reaching for. Like, he just wants to be part of this world and these kinds of people and this new life. And one is a really safe, wonderful version of his old life. And that was fun to play and figure out together. And I was so lucky to do it with two incredible actors. So it goes a little bit back to what you were saying about wanting to play against maybe the easiest version of scenes, you know, and I think you're right. Like, I think we actively wanted to not just be Betty and Veronica or something, you know, but be a little bit more elevated than that.

But do we have some closing statements? How do we feel? Where are we at? I'm surprised at how much I felt a couple of days after watching this. Like, honestly, watching this episode brought up more for me in terms of memory than the others, I think, because I was like, oh, this was the first one, right? Like we said. And with this viewing, I'm really recognizing how much growth I've had in the last decade plus. It's been about 12 years. And I can almost look at the girl in those scenes and she feels as distant yet familiar as looking at photos of my childhood. And I don't have a lot definitively say about that yet. It's's still forming except that this viewing put me on watch in a way of the stuff that's gonna bubble up i also found like that in this episode

in particular that i can't just put on my suits fangirl hat and just get lost in it because i am watching the people who were so formative in my life. And it's like, for me, it's like getting consumed in a home movie, you know, for a moment. I think I, this is what I'm getting from what you're saying. And I really relate to it, which is that we got into this process to watch this show. We've always talked about how we wanted this conversation to be more than just, oh, how much we love the show and all the details and telling funny stories about it, but really realizing that this was like an insane time of our lives and that we changed dramatically throughout the process. the show and all the details and telling funny stories about it, but really realizing that this was like an insane time of our lives and that we changed dramatically throughout the process. And there were great days and there were hard days and there were challenges. And, you know, you and I

have talked a lot about in the prep of this thing, like we want to figure out where we can also have those conversations. And I feel it as well, watching it, that I'm having a ball, I'm enjoying it. I'm falling in love with this thing that's sort of been a thing I've been scared to look at for so many years but I'm also you know there's an emotional reaction to it there is a like all right like we're going on the journey and I also want to say that like just like watching this and referencing the growth that has happened between then and now which you, you know, look, all growth isn't always like comfy, brings up like a really simple and complex thing for me that every single human being wrestles with in their own ways. But it's just the passage of time.

And so, yes, this is fun and fuzzy to watch and talk about. And I'm so happy to be here with you and our guests and our viewers and listeners. But it's also not totally devoid of some like achy lumps in the throat. So I just want to say thanks for being my partner in this. My pleasure. Thank you.

I love you. You're the best. I don't know how to pivot from that beautiful thing to can we get a goddamn count yeah let's get the goddamn count this was a low goddamn count

I think well let's guess what do you have a number two I'm gonna go I'm gonna go six five

there were five I didn't count but I felt more than the last time I felt I felt them happening. So what is that a grand total of? 13. 13.

13 goddams. God damn it. We should say, I mean, we've never saw it. We're counting the goddams. It was a big deal. People were angry. It was a thing that they loved. Remember all the comments we'd get, which was like, we love this show so much,

but what is with the goddamn... And we weren't allowed to not say them sometimes when we particularly didn't want to. There were moments when we didn't want them.

There was a stretch of time where people started going, I just can't do this anymore. And not for moral... I don't even think it was for like a morality. It was also just like we're saying it a lot.

And yeah, well, we'll get to it. Yeah, we'll get to it. But it certainly is a fabric of the show. That's why we're counting it. So that's a wrap on Inside Track. Thank you all so much for coming back. Please join us next week for episode four, where we're going to chat about dirty little secrets. What are the dirty little secrets? I got to say, I'm excited to watch. I'm going to watch it on the plane in four hours. Yeah. Sidebar is produced by Sarah Rafferty, Patrick J. Adams, and Sirius XM Media. Our senior producer is Kimmy Gregory.

Our producer and researcher is Christian Schrader. Our sound engineer is Alex Gonzalez. And our audio mix is by Eduardo Perez. Our music is by Brendan Burns. And our executive producers are Cody Fisher and Colin Anderson.