“You have nowhere to go after the first two seasons”: Why ‘Suits’ Star Gabriel Macht’s Movie Career Became an Obstacle After Landing Harvey Specter  

Aaron Korsh’s very popular legal drama Suits starred Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, and more. The series follows Mike Ross and Harvey Specter in a fictional New York City corporate firm, winning lawsuits and closing cases but also, at the same time, trying to hide Mike Ross’s secret. The secret is that Ross never went to law school, and he’s a college dropout with a photographic memory.

Suits has been regarded as one of the best legal dramas on television, and its impact was seen after the show was added to the streaming platforms Netflix and Peacock. Attracting not only the new audience but also inviting the ardent fans of the show, Suits’ rating and viewership saw an immense surge in 2023, which led to NBCUniversal developing its spin-off series, Suits L.A. The upcoming show is going to see a familiar face returning to the screens; Gabriel Macht.

Gabriel Macht on transitioning from movies to television for Suits

Actor Gabriel Macht, who played Harvey Specter on Suits, was highly lauded for his performance throughout nine seasons of the show. The critics and the audience appreciated his dynamic with his fellow actor Patrick J. Adams, who played Mike Ross.

The actor, before taking upon the role of Harvey Specter, had been a part of movies and was asked about his transition from movies to TV during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar in 2017. He said,

Before I did Suits, I hadn’t done a series in a decade, and I only did 13 episodes of that show before going off to do movies. With a series, it’s slow turns and deepening of a character.

Gabriel Macht shared with the publication that while approaching his character, he started to have his character change within the first season. Macht went on to explain how the transition was slow but eventually became interesting for him,

I had to pull the brakes, because if you do it quickly, then you have nowhere to go after the first two seasons. It was a bit of a learning curve for me, the slow burn, and then it became really exciting to play because it became a bit more challenging.

Macht mentioned that while playing a character on television, one can deepen the character so much more compared to the one in the film. He shared further that the show bounces between aspirational and realistic, and in the beginning, it was super-aspirational. He touched upon how season five started to see a shift in Harvey Specter’s character when he started to deal with anxiety attacks, which went on to give the show a more realistic tone.

In an interview (via Daily Telegraph), the actor revealed that he is very different from the character he has played on-screen, adding that at the time, being in the headspace of his character was draining to him.

However, the actor managed to keep it going. The actor had added while speaking to Harper’s Bazaar that the cast and crew of Suits were fortunate to get to 100 episodes, adding that it’s so rare that a show lasts long enough. He mentioned that the love from fans across the world only makes them humble.

Gabriel Macht revealed why he ‘needed time away’ after Suits’ finale

Actor Gabriel Macht bid goodbye to his famous character Harvey Specter as Suits concluded in 2019. In an interview with E! News, the actor shared that he needed some time to disassociate himself from the character. He said,

In the very beginning, if you asked anybody on set who was least like their character, they would say me. There was a very relaxed version of me that just wanted to enjoy, be non-confrontational, have fun, live and let live, and not get in and manipulate situations.

But over nine years, Macht admitted that he did dive deep into the characters and commitment to the show, and thus he started to feel less like himself and more like Harvey Specter, who needed to establish and aspire to things.

He mentioned,

At a certain point, you become more like Harvey Specter as you go in, and it’s very hard to shake some of the energy that dresses you while you’re in that world.

Gabriel Macht noted at the time that he became a lot more like Harvey than he was when he initially started to work on the show, and it became one of the reasons he needed some much-needed time away to allow himself to go back to where he came from.

The actor described his character as selfish, and controlling, but underneath it, he’s got a heart of gold. He said it’s the reason why people care about him to date.

Suits is available to stream on Netflix and Peacock.