Giselda Torres
The original series regular exited the USA Network drama during Tuesday's midseason finale.
That didn't take long.
Less than 24 hours after being written out of USA Network drama Suits, Gina Torres has lined up her next gig: ABC's Shondaland sophomore The Catch.
Torres will have a recurring guest star on the drama that is overseen by showrunner Allan Heinberg and executive producers Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers and Julie Anne Robinson. Character details are being kept under wraps in typical Shondaland fashion.
The casting comes after Suits creator Aaron Korsh told The Hollywood Reporterthat Torres had asked to leave the Toronto-shot series in order to spend more time in Los Angeles. The actress had signed on to star in The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez, an ABC drama pilot this past season, which filmed in L.A., but did not move forward. The casting reunites her at the network where she also had a recurring role on Revenge. Should that pilot have moved to series, she would have returned to Suits and been written out just the same.
"Toward the beginning of season five, Gina expressed that due to personal stuff going on in her life she needed to be in L.A. more," Korsh said. "We formulated a plan at that point to try and gracefully exit her from the show. She said at the time that if Suits were shot in L.A. she’d be on it forever, and if I had my way she’d be on it forever. But we tried as best we could to require her in Toronto as little as possible during season five and in season six we were just going to ratchet her episodes down. She ended up getting a pilot, and part of the requirements of having her be the lead in that was for us to not have her in first [position] for the back six [episodes] of this season. So her exit ended up being in episode 610. Her pilot ended up not getting picked up, but at that point we had the storyline sort of locked."
Torres (Firefly, Alias, Pushing Daisies, Law & Order) joins her husband, Blackish star Laurence Fishburne, with series on ABC. She is repped by Domain, Framework Entertainment and Shreck Rose.
Torres joins a season two cast of The Catch that also includes Shondaland alum T.R. Knight, who will also recur in a mystery role.
The Catch, starring Mireille Enos and Peter Krause, was renewed for a surprise second season after a sluggish midseason debut. The drama will return for another midseason run at a date to be announced.
Suits