How Gina Torres, of ‘Suits’ and ‘9-1-1: Lonestar,’ Spends Her Sundays
The New York Times
Ms. Torres starts with a low-key workout, takes a dance break and ends the day with one of her favorite murder-filled TV shows.
When Gina Torres recalls the heyday of “Suits,” the legal drama she starred in, she instantly remembers how “insane” the fan base was abroad. But with the resurgence of the show in streaming on Netflix and NBC’s Peacock, suddenly the hype has followed suit in the United States.
“It wasn’t until it hit and everything that we got the same attention here,” Ms. Torres, 55, said, adding that the renewed excitement had been “very unexpected and really sweet.”
Ms. Torres played Jessica Pearson, the stylish and no-nonsense co-founder and managing partner of a prestige law firm, until she departed for the spinoff “Pearson.” That project, in 2019, made her the first Afro-Latina to create, star in and produce a television show.
Shortly after, Ms. Torres was tapped to join the cast of the hit drama series “9-1-1: Lonestar” in the role of Capt. Tommy Vega, a paramedic who returns to the work force during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the show’s fifth and final season, which will premiere on Monday, Ms. Torres said that her character would show “what a warrior she is.”
Ms. Torres, who is the youngest of three children, was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. She attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she studied opera and jazz. She has been acting in TV and movies for more than 30 years.
Now, she is preparing for her next chapter as a producer and executive producer. Might she reprise her role as Jessica Pearson for the new “Suits” spinoff based in Los Angeles? “They’d have to ask me,” she said.
