After seven seasons, Patrick J. Adams is saying goodbye to Mike Ross. The actor opened up in a new interview about his decision to leave Suits following the end of season 7. He revealed that about halfway through filming the season, as negotiations began, he realized it was time for him to depart.
“After seven seasons — really, eight years of being away from home and away from my now-wife [Troian Bellisario] and there was that pressure,” Adams told The Hollywood Reporter. “I started having conversations with Aaron [Korsh] and we both decided [leaving] made sense, as sad and scary as it was. It just felt like it was the way to go.”
While he’s admittedly nervous that he’ll let down fans, he realized he needed to honor the show and leave when he was ready. “Just because something stops for me doesn’t mean that there isn’t more for the show itself to do. It’s just not right for me to be a part of it from here on out,” the 36-year-old actor said.
His costar Meghan Markle also announced she’ll be leaving at the end of the season, as she’s set to marry Prince Harry in May. However, they didn’t really discuss their respective decisions to leave the show at the same time.
“With Meghan, a lot went unsaid. Meghan has this whole crazy part of her life that’s just beginning now. In some ways, Meghan and I were the closest because we were the youngest people in the cast and both came in with the least experience,” Adams revealed. “We grew up together over the course of the show. There was this natural sense that we both knew that the time had come for both of us. It went unspoken and we just enjoyed the hell out of the last few episodes that we got to shoot. We both knew that we wouldn’t be coming back. It made every one of our scenes that much more special. We had a great time. We could laugh through it. Even the things that might have frustrated us about the show, they became things that we could have a good laugh about and compare notes on just how crazy this thing had become.”
Their characters will have a wedding this season —during episode 16, to be exact — and while he won’t reveal much, Adams said he does believe Mike and Rachel are very much in love and are “willing to go to great lengths and sacrifice a ton in order to keep their relationship going.”
As for 36-year-old Markle’s real-life fairytale, don’t expect any royal nods to come through on screen.
“Aaron has always actively avoided any sort of real-life commentary. He actively wanted to keep those two worlds totally separate,” Adams pointed out. “People can draw their own conclusions and comparisons. The last season of Suits has been really special in that we didn’t let anything bleed into our world.”
For now, Adams doesn’t have any immediate plans for a next job: “It’s really nice to be with Troian, our dogs and to take the time to figure out exactly what shape I want my career to take after this.”
Suits will return with its final eight episodes of season 7 on USA Wednesday, March 28, at 9 p.m. The show has been renewed for an eighth season.
