While Patrick J. Adams has moved on from his lead role in Suits, now starring in projects like the recently released movie Young Werther, he’s revisiting Aaron Korsh’s popular TV show for his podcast “Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast” with former costar Sarah Rafferty. But while Adams has been watching Suits for the podcast, providing fans with behind-the-scenes details on some of their favourite episodes, the actor admitted he doesn’t like to watch his own work.
“I don’t watch my own stuff and so I [hadn’t watched Young Wether] until last night,” Adams shared with Yahoo Canada ahead of the release of the film. “I watched the first 45 minutes because I suddenly was like, I need to talk about this tomorrow.”
In Young Werther (based the 18th-century novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”) Adams plays Albert who’s engaged to Charlotte (Alison Pill), the woman that the title character, Werther (Douglas Booth), has fallen in love with and is trying to win over.
Adams was drawn to project from the “charming” scripted written by José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço, who also directed the film. Lourenço certainly put a strong emphasis on the dialogue for this movie to create a unique, appealing, and quirky tone for the whole film — a departure from Adams playing Mike Ross in Suits.
“It scared me a little bit, to be honest. … As an actor I was like, how is that going to play? It was very heightened, very almost romantic language for all of us,” Adams said. “I remember asking José about it. At first I was like, how do we do this? How are you wanting to play this heightened language? Are we playing it down? Are we playing it up? I didn’t quite understand the tone and how it was going to translate into a modern film.”
“As soon as I got to set and we were all speaking this very heightened language, everybody’s so good and so grounded, and really making compelling, interesting, very real choices, that the language just kind of flowed. And it was a real gift, because we don’t get to make films in 2024 where people talk quite like this. … José is truly, I think, a visionary. He had already written this beautiful script and I’d seen some of his other short films, and he has such a unique, beautiful point of view, but he’s so good at welcoming people’s input. … The longer I do this, that is such a hard thing to do.”
SUITS — “Bad Man” Episode 712 — Pictured: (l-r) Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane, Ray Proscia as Dr. Lipschitz, Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross — (Photo by: Ian Watson/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
‘I’m not proud of the fact that it’s quite difficult for me to engage with the material’
While Adams is warming up to the idea of watching his entire performance in Young Werther, the actor also highlighted that it’s been “healing” for him to watch Suits for his podcast.
“It’s really a healing, to be honest, because it’s at a distance now,” Adams shared. “The problem with watching something is, … if someone takes a picture of me right now and shows me the picture I’m like, ‘Oh god.’ I spin out. And I’m like, ‘That’s what I look like? Oh no.’ You show me that exact same picture in three weeks, I’m fine. You show me in six months and I’m like, ‘I look great.'”
“I’m at the point now with Suits that it’s so far behind that I can really watch it and totally appreciate the work and be so grateful for it, and really take it much easier on myself, and on the material. … It’s not that I can’t still be hard on certain moments, but it feels way dialled down. It’s something that I want to get better at, because I want to be able to celebrate Young Werther or any other film I do in the moment of it. So I’m not proud of the fact that it’s quite difficult for me to engage with the material for a while, but it’s just tough for me. It’s hard.”
Patrick J. Adams and Troian Bellisario at the 81st Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Golden Globes 2024/Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images)
Adams also revealed that it was even difficult for him to watch his wedding video, now married to fellow actor Troian Bellisario, shortly after their wedding day. Not dissimilar to how it’s still difficult for him to finish watching Young Werther.
“My wedding, best day of my life by far to this day, maybe only the birth of my children, but it was an amazing day, weekend really. And there was this beautiful wedding video made of it that my friend did,” Adams explained. “I started watching the wedding video like the week after it was made and I couldn’t watch. It was so painful to see this thing that had been so magical, much like Werther.”
“It feels very uncomfortable to whittle it down to a video, like a wedding, or even just the end result of this film, and that makes me … want to live in the joy of having made it longer before it turns into a product that’s out in the world. But the truth is, it’s part of our job, and that’s what we’re doing it for, … and I promise I will finish it.”