The cast and creatives of USA’s Suits spin-off Pearson gathered together on Tuesday afternoon in Pasadena for the Television Critics Association NBC Universal Winter Press tour, including Gina Torres, Isabel Arraiza, Eli Goree, Simon Kassianides, Bethany Joy Lenz, Chantal Riley, executive producer Aaron Korsh, and executive producer/showrunner, Daniel Arkin.
‘Second chances’ seems to be the theme for the upcoming season as Jessica Pearson navigates through the political world of Chicago. Torres, who also serves as executive producer for the series, knew she wanted to touch on this world for Jessica because of the 2016 election.
“I became obsessed with the 2016 election and that world and how that all sort of evolved with the leaders and if they were in it for the greater good or if they were in it for the power and my mind went to Jessica Pearson,” said Torres. “This character who I thought was in the rear-view mirror in my life and realized that is something that she did in the world of Suits. That was very much her life which was not just walking the line, but blurring it and rewriting it and what would she do in that world.”
Arkin added, “What I think is particularly nice about this spin-off is that the pieces were all there. It didn’t feel like we had to contrive something. There wasn’t premeditation to spin the character off. The character has come to a crisis in her life – personal and professional crisis… she wanted to do good and getting back to the core on why she became a lawyer, doing pro-bono work. All those pieces were there for her character. When Aaron [Korsh] came to me and said ‘we wanted to do a spin-off’ and I found out Gina had this idea of the political world, it just felt it made sense where she came up against the mayor and the people around the mayor. It felt very seamless that she got back into this world. She is trying to change her life and atone for things and be a better person but she’s coming into an already complicated world.”
Of course, Jessica is not going to be able to transition easily into Chicago like she did in New York. She will have to deal with a new work team, who do not trust her completely, and a family that she barely knows.
Riley plays Jessica’s cousin, Angela, who had a completely different upbringing than her successful cousin.
“My character gets to challenge her even more and put up some roadblocks that she may not be used to,” Riley revealed.
As for her new work team, which includes Chicago native Keri Allen, played by Lenz, who doesn’t completely trust Jessica’s motives. “You come in and come up against us in Chicago City Hall and then you come work with us,” said Lenz. “Keri is a born and bred Chicago girl… loyalty is her number one.”
Of course, like in Suits, Jessica will be making questionable decisions, but that doesn’t mean she’s the villain in this.
“When we first talked about it, we had this idea of having Jessica unleashed a little bit,” Korsh explained. “Seeing her in a different world. Seeing different sides of her. Sometimes she’s hero and sometimes you’ll be upset with her for that. You ‘ll never not be on her side. To be, the definition of a hero, you’ll always on their side, even though you may not like the choices she made, but you will always root for her.”
Torres added, “What is really so wonderful about this show is that I get to have this second chance with Jessica Pearson. You do now get to see a fully realized human being. A fully fleshed out woman and what it cost her to stay at the top of her game. To maintain her relationships, interpersonal relationships, whether they’re professional or personal. We never got to really see that. It was always in service to the firm and now she’s in service to her own life.”
Pearson premieres later this year on USA.
