Former The Walking Dead star Josh McDermitt is now playing a major role in NBC's latest legal drama Suits LA, and he has one A-list actor in mind to join the growing list of celebrities to feature on the show.
Suits LA set out to differentiate from the mothership series as it pivoted to an L.A. setting, exploring the world of entertainment law. That format has opened the doors to actors appearing as fictionalized versions of themselves, including John Amos (Good Times), Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille), and Brian Baumgartner (The Office).
The legal drama sets out to establish just how big of a figure Stephen Amell's Ted Black is in Hollywood by featuring A-list actors in unique roles as clients of his who never actually appear, including Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks.
Alongside entertainment lawyer Ted Black is his longtime friend and business partner Stuart Lane, played by Josh McDermitt, who focuses on criminal law.
Suits LA Star Discusses Dream Cameos & Returning Icons
"It Would Be Fun to Have [Will Ferrell] Play, I Don't Know, like the Mayor."
The Direct's Sam Hargrave recently spoke with Suits LA actor Josh McDermitt, who plays Stuart Lane and is a series regular on the ongoing season. The actor (also known for playing Eugene in The Walking Dead)
The Direct: "There's already been some big celebrities showing up as versions of themselves. We have had Patton Oswalt, John Amos, and Enrico Colantoni. Is there anyone that you'd like to come on the show and play themselves or another character and run a case with?"
Josh McDermitt: "I would love to have Will Ferrell come over here. I would love to see him try and play a button-down guy, something extremely against type for Will Ferrell, but he can't keep it together, and we gotta let Will Ferrell be Will Ferrell. Like, if he wants to play himself, fine, but I think it would be fun to have him play, I don't know, like the Mayor or something. I'd love that.
Yeah, there's a lot of folks, and I think we all just need to start making calls to all our friends that we know in town and hopefully get some folks in here. Melissa McCarthy would be amazing, too. Kind of in the same vein of Will Ferrell, it'd be a lot of fun."
- The Direct: "This season, you have two people from the original show back: we have Harvey Specter and Louis Litt. Did you work much with Gabriel Macht and Rick Hoffman? If so, what were they like?"
McDermitt: "They're lovely. Gabriel has been doing a lot of press for our show, which is very nice, and to just sit there and have conversations with him, where we're kind of learning from him about the things that he took away from doing the original show.
One of the things that he had brought up is to never lose sight of the fact that we get to shoot 'Suits LA' in LA; they shot the 'Suits' pilot in New York, but then the production moved to Toronto, and that's taxing. I mean, I did 'The Walking Dead' in Atlanta for nine years, like that's a that's a long time to be away from home. So it's just to never lose sight of the fact that that we're shooting this show in LA, we get to go home to our own home, sleep in our own bed, not in a hotel, like that sort of thing is is really great.
And the fact that Rick Hoffman and Gabriel both said yes to coming back to play with us just means the world to us. We're such big fans of theirs, big fans of the original series, and the fact that we get to do an extension of that universe and do our own show, but to have them come play with us is truly remarkable."
Josh McDermitt Talks Suits LA Season 2 Chances & His Favorite Episode
"Hopefully, We Only Hear Good News Because We're Having a Great Time."
- The Direct: "Have you heard anything about what the future might hold for 'Suits LA' in terms of Season 2?"
Josh McDermitt: "We're still waiting. We're still filming. I don't know what episode we're in, but we're nearing the end, so we're still in production. I think NBC and Universal will kind of figure some things out after we wrap up, but hopefully, we only hear good news because we're having a great time.
One of the things that I was drawn to on the original series is that I'm watching, and you can just tell that everyone's having a good time, and I feel like we've recaptured that here. I've certainly been on shows where people aren't having fun, and that's not fun to do, and you're hoping it gets canceled.
So it's like, this is a show where we're clicking, and each script that comes out gets better and better, and each episode that airs is better and better. And so we want to do more episodes, and hopefully, we get a chance to do so."
- The Direct: "Do you have a favorite episode this season, and which would it be?"
McDermitt: "The problem is that all the episodes are starting to run together in my mind right now. I really love Episode 10. Episode 12 is pretty great. Maybe Episode 12. I don't know, how can you pick your favorite child?"
Josh McDermitt Speaks on Stuart Lane's Future Storylines in Suits LA
"I Definitely Think the Seeds of Reconciliation Have Been Planted."
Editor's note: This interview was conducted after Suits LA Episode 6, "Dester," aired on NBC and before Episode 7 was released.
Ted Black and Stuart Lane may have split ways and ended their friendship in the series premiere, but after Episode 6, "Dester," the two appeared set for reconciliation as they teamed up to win a murder trial.
- The Direct: "In Episode 6, 'Dester,' we finally see that Stuart and Ted have come back together and reconciled the differences after a season of Fallout. Now that they're on speaking terms again, do you see them being under the same firm again one day?"
Josh McDermitt: "I definitely think the seeds of reconciliation have been planted. Whether or not they get back together under one roof remains to be seen because I think there's more work to be done in patching things up between the two of them.
I mean, they've been best friends, brothers, really, for more than 20 years, and there's a lot of hurt that's gone on between them. And this isn't just a one-way hurt. It's not just Stuart being hurt by Ted. I think he even said in one of the episodes, Stuart says to Rick, he's like, 'One of the reasons I left is we didn't always bring out the best in each other.'
And so I think there's some more work to be done, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. I also think it's good to see two people not always yelling at each other. They can't be in the same room together. It's nice to come together. So I would like that, but I don't know if that will ever happen. We'll see."
- The Direct: "In the show, we know Stuart has an actual family and a wife, Helen. Do you think we'll see more of that explored later in the season or in the future in general?"
McDermitt: "Yeah, for sure. I mean, that was one of the things that was very important to me, and I didn't realize how important it was to me until I read in the script that Stuart had a good family. A lot of times when we see Stuart, he's yelling at someone, or he's in some argument, or some volatile reason for him being there.
And then when I read that he's got this great home life, I started crying. I was, like, good because I don't want to see that at home, too, and it's nice that he's able to kind of separate the two and have this amazing wife and amazing kids and just a good family. And he's got, like, you know, his kids play sports, and he goes and watches their games or whatever.
I didn't realize how big of a deal it was until we saw that, and until I read that, and I know that we're going to, we're going to dive deeper into that and maybe even possibly see some of the origins of his family and that sort of thing. So it'll be good, it's a nice thing.
I think [Stephen Amell] said in an interview once because they were talking about the relationship dynamics between everyone and who can hook up with whom. And Stephen said everyone's in play, and I was like, 'Not Stuart. Stuart is fine. Stuart's Good.'"
New episodes of Suits LA air every Sunday on NBC at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
