Why Gina Torres Walked Away From Suits After Season 6
The recent influx of people streaming USA Network's legal drama "Suits" on Netflix has been generally attributed to what one might call the Meghan Markle factor. Personally, however, I like to pretend it's because everyone suddenly discovered there's a show where Gina Torres plays Jessica Lourdes Pearson, an attorney whom they would gladly let step on their neck.
The "Firefly" and "Hannibal" fan-favorite was part of the main "Suits" cast for its first six seasons, prior to her character leaving the world of New York City-based corporate law for Chicago to be with her paramour, Jeff Malone (D. B. Woodside). Who knew lawyering could be so romantic? (We'll ignore that whole thing about Jessica losing her license to practice the law in New York.)
Naturally, anytime a beloved actor departs a show, fans are bound to start wondering if it was the result of some behind-the-scenes turmoil or even those all-too-inauspicious two words: "creative differences." In this case, though, it seems Torres had a far more personal reason for stepping away from the "Suits" universe. "My contract was up, so this wasn't a power play that went terribly wrong," she clarified during an interview with The New York Times, right after her final episode as a series regular in September 2016. "My personal life needed to be tended to," she added, stating that having to travel between the show's set in Toronto and her home in Los Angeles put a strain on her relationship with her family.
Unfortunately, the proof is in the pudding in this case. Torres and her husband of 14 years/fellow actor, Laurence Fishburne, separated shortly after that interview. They finalized their divorce in 2018.
'You know these boys are going to screw it up at some point'
The SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes have provided a bit of a wake-up call for those who imagine making a film or TV series as being some kind of glamorous experience, as opposed to what it really is: a job with long, strenuous hours that leave little room for having a personal life and comes with no guarantee of a livable salary. Obviously, though, for a bigger name like Torres, the pay was never the issue when it came to "Suits." It was the stress of never seeing her husband and daughter, as she explained to NYT:
"I think the public doesn't understand the rigors of shooting a show for an actor, much less when you're on location and away from home. At one point I approached Aaron [Korsh, the showrunner,] and said: 'It's not that I don't love the show and love Jessica, who is my alter ego. But my life is my life, and I need to take care of it.' And everyone was completely supportive."
Continuing, Torres confirmed Jessica's open-ended fate in "Suits" season 6 was by design. "And it was one of my pitches to Aaron: 'You know these boys are going to screw it up at some point,'" she added. Sure enough, Torres popped in for a handful of season 7 episodes on her way to starring in her own spinoff series, titled "Pearson," for a single season in 2019. Sadly, even with the massive popularity of "Suits" on Netflix, that's likely the last we'll see of Jessica, now that the streamer is more prone to canceling popular shows than reviving them like it used to. Then again, by now we should all know better than to ever count Miss Pearson fully out of the game, right?