Ready for more Jessica Pearson? So is Gina Torres. The actress leads the Suits spinoff, Pearson, and is eager to explore who Jessica is and where she comes from when she moves to Chicago and gets involved with the messy world of political drama. However, with her in the spotlight, a new side of the lawyer will also be revealed.
“As an actor, to live with a character for so long and have really the most minimal access to her interior life as we all did, as I did on Suits, was quite frustrating towards the end. What’s so beautiful about being able to revisit Jessica in this setting and in this way is, it’s a walk through all those doors that just weren’t open while we were doing Suits,” Torres, 50, told Us Weekly exclusively.
She added that this means seeing “more of the woman” behind those powerful and stunning suits.
“We will get to meet her family. You know she wasn’t just hatched from an egg and then plugged in to this corner office. There’s life there. There’s a story behind the eyes,” she added. “There’s a reason why she does the things that she does and there are consequences to the things that she does — good and bad.”
When the series begins, Jessica is also still with Jeff Malone, played by D.B. Woodside.
“They are together, they are in love and they remain very different people,” the Firefly alum said. “That presents its own set of challenges. If anybody’s ever been in a relationship with somebody that you just adore and can’t be around or just try to navigate, [you ask], ‘As much as you love this person, is this person my person? Is this person good for me?’ All of those things come in to play. Are we really on the same side and if we are, why are our perspectives so different?”
As for their future, Torres noted, “Anything’s possible.”
Pearson premieres Wednesday, July 17, at 10 p.m. ET.
