Why Did Patrick J. Adams (aka Mike Ross) Leave 'Suits'? He Explains Why Season 7 Was His Last
If you don’t know, Suits is the newest streaming sensation, garnering 18 billion minutes of viewing time in the month of July after the USA network show was added to Netflix. It’s also available on Peacock.
Now, we’re looking back at one of the main stars of the show, Patrick J. Adams, who portrayed Mike Ross on the show, and why he decided to exit the show after season 7.
Keep reading to find out more…
In 2018, Patrick did an interview where he was asked why he was leaving.
He told THR at the time, After seven seasons — really, eight years of being away from home and away from my now-wife [Pretty Little Liars' Troian Bellisario] and there was that pressure. I started thinking about leaving at the end of the first half of season six, after Mike was released from prison. From a story point of view, I was a little unsure of what was left for him to do. Mike had made the pledge during his trial that if he were allowed to continue to practice the law, he would dedicate his time and energy to underrepresented people and not big, corporate interests. I wasn’t sure how we were going to work that version of the character into the fabric of the show.”
He continued, “Aaron Korsh and I talked about it and he pitched this idea of Harvey (Gabriel Macht) offering a one-for-one deal that would keep Mike working at the firm so he could gather the resources to go and do more pro-bono cases. That brought up an interesting season seven. And I’m proud of how this season turned out.”
He was then asked when he knew that season 7 would be it for him.
He responded, “Halfway through it. As we were starting to talk about renegotiating contracts [for season eight and beyond], I took a moment. Everybody was going full steam ahead and I stopped and said, ‘We need to think about this because this is more of my time and more of my life — and what’s the story left to tell?’ When I looked at the work I was doing, Mike would become a full-fledged, certified, legal on paper lawyer. That’s a long way from when we met him and he was this brilliant burnout pothead with no real prospects.”
He continued, “I thought we’d come so far and now Mike is going to work to be a lawyer and he’s engaged to the woman of his dreams and he’s got the means and opportunity to do whatever he can imagine. I had this voice in my head that said that we’ve told his story and if he hangs out longer, Mike is just going to be another lawyer on television. That didn’t feel right for him. It didn’t feel right for where I was at in my life, either. I started having conversations with Aaron and we both decided [Adams leaving] made sense, as sad and scary as it was. It just felt like it was the way to go.”
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