Sarah Rafferty and Patrick J. Adams are winning fans over with Sidebar, their Suits rewatch podcast—which is simultaneously more than a rewatch podcast. While Patrick and Sarah impressed legions of TV viewers in their roles as Mike Ross and Donna Paulsen respectively, they hadn’t actually watched Suits during its years as one of the best shows on television. So for these two actors, the podcast is also a chance to reflect. And for the audience, it’s something with more depth and heart than the usual celebrity podcast ventures.

I had a chance to reconnect with Sarah and Patrick to discuss what motivated them to start Sidebar, on which they serve not only as co-hosts and co-creators, but also executive producers. They also dished on what goes into the making of the show, which is produced by SiriusXM’s Stitcher Studios and drops new episodes weekly.

Brittany Frederick: Celebrity podcasts, especially rewatch podcasts, are a dime a dozen these days. What interested the two of you in joining that competitive space, and what did you want to bring that was different?

Sarah Rafferty: It was Patrick’s idea, and I wouldn’t have had the courage to pitch it to him. I wouldn’t have thought of it. The idea that he had, that we would look at this thing, and sometimes it would be possibly scary to look at ourselves… but mostly it was going to become a celebration of a time that we’re ready to look at. That we are prepared to do and to process.

The podcast is about celebrating this time in our lives, these fans that made it possible for us, and to most of all, not have missed it. We have this new opportunity to visit it again and reclaim some of that processing time. And I think that that’s a really beautiful thing to be able to do together, and with the fans and with Kristin [Schrader] and all the collaborators.

Patrick J. Adams: Whenever something is as scary as the idea of doing this, it’s a good indication that maybe it’s something worth doing. There was a lot of fear about the idea of facing this thing that I was very comfortable just having be in the past, and I don’t have to think about it, and I just get to focus on whatever the next job is. There was a lot of fear, and in that fear, I saw something that was probably worth doing.

There’s obviously the reasons of engaging with the fans and finally giving the fans something to coalesce around, because the show’s been gone for so long. [And] talking to my friend Sarah multiple times a week, which has been a huge part of it. I’ve never needed a reason to talk for hours on end, but now we get to do it formally.

Patrick, you in particular covered so much emotional ground on Suits. It was your first television lead role, your breakout role, and your life changed and crew a lot over those years. So what is the emotional experience of Sidebar to you, knowing the additional impact the show had for you?

Adams: [Suits] was so fundamental to my development, and to who I was, and my career and all these things like my life. You can really draw a line in my life before Suits and after Suits. But I just refused to look at it—like a lot of things in my life, when it feels important, I’m like “Okay, I’m just not going to look at that.” I don’t want to poke around in there, because it feels too important, and so I’m just not going to examine it. And I think as I’m getting older, there’s a general sense of, that doesn’t work.

You have to be willing to look at these things, and you have to not just be willing to but [also to] enjoy it. Find a way to not be so hard on it, which I was for the years that I was in it, and I still am in my work, to be honest. I’m continuing that trend, and I don’t like it, and I don’t want to do it anymore. And so beyond just the desire to obviously interact with fans and give them something to bring them back to Suits, this was really a chance for me to examine why I do that to myself—examine why I’m so hard on myself, examine why I don’t have more fun in the moment, examine why I put so much pressure.

We can also be hard on certain things along the way and have a laugh. And examine where we’re really having a tough time watching stuff, but for the most part, we can just enjoy it and realize how cool it was and how great it was and how rare it is. And really do that with the fans holding our hands through the process.

Even when we were popular, I would always be the guy going, yeah, but this isn’t good, and I’m not good enough, and I haven’t done this enough. Now I get to let the fans and their energy and their enthusiasm and their positivity guide us through the process and see it from their perspective. We’ve just started, but it’s an incredibly trippy but healing thing to do.

As you’ve recorded this first batch of episodes, going through the early installments, do you see anything differently now with the benefit of hindsight?

Rafferty: One thing that I’ve been discovering is, I think we can all agree with the Buddha who said nothing independently arises. Being able to watch the show and see all the parts that I wasn’t involved in, and then reflect on the parts that I was, is a really amazing way to get very grateful for all the elements that I was surrounded by at the time.

Patrick and I talked [in Sidebar Episode 9] about a scene that put Donna on track, and I had this opportunity to go well, there was really interesting writing that wasn’t meant for that episode [“Bail Out”]. Then I was there with Rick [Hoffman], and then Kevin Bray came back and did this thing, and Gabriel [Macht] was there because he had lines at the beginning and the end. I felt like all these people helped me discover who Donna was in collaboration. And everything is so gratifying when it’s in collaboration.

Adams: I just feel like it’s so strange to watch a younger version of yourself operate. It’s like when you look at an old photo, and you realize when the photo was taken and you’re so hard on yourself, and then you look at it years later, and you’re like, “What was I talking about? I look great.” So there’s just the physical vanity part of it, but then there’s a huge part of the show [that] I don’t remember so much. I don’t even remember huge story points. I don’t remember scenes.

I remember them when I watch them, which is the gift, again, of this. I suddenly go, “Oh my god, I do remember this moment,” and I remember how fun this was to shoot, or how hard we struggled with that part. But unless I sit there and watch the whole scene in context of the episode, I never would have remembered that moment. There’s a lot more I don’t remember than I do remember, if I’m honest.

You’ve had some of your Suits colleagues on Sidebar already. What have you learned in conversation with them, in bringing them into the journey you’re taking?

Adams: We’ve both talked to [Suits creator] Aaron [Korsh] for ten years of our lives at this point, and yet I find it so fascinating when he dials into a detail or a scene, because he really has a photographic memory. I’m always fascinated by his approach. He was not a guy with a ton of experience before he walked onto this show, and so I’m just always astounded by how brave he was, and how willing to go through the process he was and listen to other people, but at the same time really know what he wanted. That’s hard to do, and you have a lot of people who are powerful telling you what to do.

The more perspective I have of this thing now, and the more I talk to Aaron, the more I’m in awe of his capacity to hold the line for what he knew this show needed to be in order to be what was in his in his mind, in his heart. And thank God he did it, because if he had bent to all the different people who probably wanted him to do different things, it just wouldn’t have been the show that it was. When I talk to Aaron about a new scene or a new a new part, there’s always a sort of story in there, of like, it almost wasn’t that, but either [he] fought for it, or [he] listened to somebody else who came up with that idea, and it resonated with [him], so [he] fought for their idea. I think that’s the sign of a great showrunner.

Rafferty: I also was kind of tickled when we talked to Gina [Torres], because I talk to Gina all the time. I’ve known Gina for a long time, but I have never been in the circumstance like we are on the podcast of saying, “How was it creating this character for you?” She’s not coming over for a glass of wine. I’m going to ask her how she created Jessica Pearson.

The story is incredible and just so illuminating about who she is, especially when she shared with us that there were moments where she was like, I’m not sure that these particular writers right now know where I’m going, but I know where I’m going with this character. I thought that was so interesting and such a cool way to come at the character, and I think it’s what makes us all lean in when we see her on the screen in those early episodes.

Adams: I’m really loving our conversations where we get to dip out of the show and talk to people. Hopefully we’re going to have a lot more. We’ve got a lot of people who are excited to come in and do it, because, like you just said, Sarah, those are not conversations that we typically have with those people. We really get to dive into who they are and where they were before Suits, what they came in with, and what their experience was and how it felt afterwards. I’m really loving those experiences and those conversations.

Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast is now available on SiriusXM, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. Listen now and find more information here. Photo Credit: Sela Shiloni/Courtesy of SiriusXM.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.