(SPOT.ph) Suits fans got all pumped up last February 27 as they finally had the opportunity meet Mike Ross in the flesh. Thanks to Jack TV, Patrick J. Adams was here in Manila for an exclusive gathering in time for the show’s finale. Read on as the 31-year old Canadian actor gamely answers questions from the local press people who gathered to meet him and talks about his first trip to the Philippines, his love for mangoes (check out his tweet!), and the best part about being on the show.
Welcome to the Philippines! Is this your first time here?
I’ve actually been here once before. I’ve been to Cebu but I was about 15 or 16 years old. It was a family vacation.
Why Cebu?
We went to a resort near Cebu and then we spent a couple of days in town. My father was a journalist so he likes to travel to places that are a little off the beaten path rather than going where you would typically go, so that’s where we went and we had a great time.
We’ve seen on Twitter that you’ve been eating a lot of mangoes here.
It’s so good! It’s so good here. No balut yet but…
Yeah, we’re pretty sure you’d get to taste that.
How many people here have had balut? [A couple of hands go up] Yeah? NOT excited.
Tell us your experience in the Philippines so far, is there anything in particular that stuck out apart from mangoes?
Sadly we haven’t had a lot of time to walk around to see the city which, if you’ve been following our trips to Singapore and Malaysia, we like to walk around and take pictures and just go out there and see what’s what. But we’re gonna take off to some secret location. We’ll be on the beach for a while but sadly that won’t be here [in Manila]. (Ed’s Note: They spent the weekend in El Nido, Palawan.)
What is your impression of Philippine beaches based on your research or your trip to Cebu from way back?
Well my impression from being here the last time was it’s so beautiful, one of the best beaches for scuba diving. The last time I was here it was gorgeous, the water was beautiful and the people were so warm and we just felt so immediately welcomed.
Are you surprised by how popular Suits has become in this part of the world?
Of course! We shoot the show in this warehouse in Toronto and it feels remarkably unsexy when we’re doing it and then to step outside of that and see that it actually reached so many people everywhere is shocking. Imagine what you do every day and then suddenly there’s so many others outside the planet thanking you for it…it’s great, it’s incredible, and very surreal.
What do you think sets Suits apart from other similar-themed shows?
I think what sets it apart is that even though it’s a legal show we don’t rely on the cases. There are a lot of times where an episode will go by and you’ll see just five minutes of the actual case. It’s really about how it incorporates all these characters and [about] how it changes them. We’re really not interested in doing a play-by-play of a case but if it ever comes up and it’s important to the story, we can. But it is more important that we advance the story of these characters and that takes a lot of confidence on the part of the writers to create characters that you’d be interested in following. It seemed to have worked so far and hopefully we could keep it going.
Do you get a say in what happens to your character in the series?
Not really. We do sit down with the writers and we ask them questions and we have conversations but it’s never as direct as [going around and saying] “Hey, I really wanna do this.” There are a couple of things though, like Harvey’s boxing scene from this season. That whole thing came out of a discussion that Gabriel had with the director, so they thought about it and then it became part of the show. So there are things along the way but always very informal, very relaxed.
Dressed down at the Jack TV press conference
Ultimately what do you want to happen to your character?
I think he should become an astronaut. [Laughs] I try not to get too wrapped up in it, to be honest, because I don’t want to have too many expectations. When working on a TV show you kind of need to just roll with the punches. I just like seeing him grow up, make mistakes, mess up. I think that’s sort of the heart of the show—watching someone drop the bomb and get back up again. I just hope that he keeps evolving and that we find him becoming more of the man that he wanted to be.
If you had a photographic memory in real life, how would you use it to your advantage?
I’m an actor so I would just remember lines, just open up a play and then read them and then know it. I can’t imagine a way it wouldn’t be useful. In fact, I think the more interesting thing that I’m sort of looking at in the show are ways where having a photographic memory could negatively affect someone; you know, the curse of that. I’m interested in exploring Mike’s process in the things that he wishes to forget but he can’t, and the things he can’t control.
