Suits' Best Female Character Was Originally Written As a Man

There's no legal drama as entertaining and full of unexpected plot twists as Suits. The show premiered in 2011 and was wrapped up after its season 9. The story of the series revolves around a big law firm and its extremely talented staff, including Harvey Specter, the best “closer” attorney, and Jessica Pearson, the firm’s partner.

There’s also another important character, Mike Ross, a college dropout who turned out to be a genius so Harvey hired him to work in Pearson Hardman. But except for them, there are many other powerful characters in the show, and what’s important is that many of them were women.

In fact, Suits is the show where every female character is portrayed with utmost respect and is shown as smart and powerful leaders. Of course, it was Gina Torres’ Jessica who still stood out among all.

Jessica Pearson was the head of the company, but apparently the character was originally written as a man. The thing is, when the show's creator, Aaron Korsh, wrote the script, he wanted the story to be about investment bankers, and he was sure that the head of the company should be a man. That idea didn't change when the show turned into a legal drama.

But the network didn't like that and suggested it be a female character. Korsh was not on board at first, especially as the casting difficulties approached, but in the end he was able to get Gina Torres for the part.

In an interview with IndieWire, he revealed that her name had been in his head for a long time, but at first he thought she was too young. However, after the audition, everything fell into place.

The interesting part of this story is actually the fact that when he changed the gender of the character, he left the dialogue as it was originally written and didn't change a word. "It will come right from the right person's mouth," he said.

Suits is now available on Netflix.

Source: IndieWire