After the conclusion of the show Suits four years ago, the cast of the show was not expecting it to be the most popular program on a streaming platform.
“I’m gobsmacked,” Sarah Rafferty tells PEOPLE about the outpouring of affection for the courtroom drama, which notched up three billion watching minutes within the first week it was available on Netflix in June. “I’m gobsmacked,” she says.
According to Rafferty, who is 51 years old, “You definitely can’t metabolize that in a real-world kind of way.” “I don’t understand it.”
It is a feeling that is shared by her castmates as well, as she discloses the answer that was given in the cast group chat: “Somebody sent one of the articles that said ‘billions of minutes,’ and everybody was like, ‘Wait, what?!'”
It is “amazing” that the story is still resonating with people “ten years later,” according to Rafferty, who now stars in the most recent hit on Netflix, My Life with the Walter Boys. Rafferty played Donna, the ultimate assistant (and eventually Chief Operating Officer) on the legal drama that aired on the USA Network. She also starred alongside Patrick J. Adams, Gabriel Macht, and Meghan Markle.
What she has to say is, “I am extremely thankful because our world right now sometimes feels like it is growing increasingly dark and fractured and limited in moments, and I believe that it helps — it makes me feel good,” she says.
To know that this thing that we have been working on for ten years is giving people with an escape, or offering connection, meaning, in any way, shape, or form, is, in a word, as easy as that. I am willing to take a vacation from the news of the world if that is what it takes to get away from it.
During her contemplation of the fact that “a generation of kids who were eight when the thing came out” are now falling in love with the tale, Rafferty makes the observation that “the multi-generational piece of Suits is kind of amazing.”
When she thinks back to one of the first recollections she has of being recognized from the program, which ran from 2011 to 2019, she recalls a woman in Toronto who rolled down the window of her vehicle and thanked her for the series because it was assisting her in “connecting” with her kid, and they had also been watching it with his grandma.
When she first began receiving that type of “feedback” ten years ago, she has continued to get it for more than twelve years after the show’s first airing. The emotional impact of these moments of connection like that continues to be felt by her.
“I know I’m being cheesy, but the fact that I get to be a part of something, even if it’s just a small part of something that does that for a family, makes me feel like I have a lump in my throat sometimes.”
Within the few months that have passed since the addition of Suits on Netflix, a number of Rafferty’s fellow cast members have expressed their astonishment at the support that the series is receiving.
“I’m humbled that the stories we created and produced for nine seasons have been watched and rewatched and will continue to create memories for all those who enjoy the fruits of our labor,” Macht, who portrayed the main man Harvey Specter, said on Instagram in July. “I’m grateful that the stories we created and produced have been watched repeatedly.”
During the month of November, Meghan Markle, who had played the role of Rachel Zane on the program for seven seasons before deciding to finish her stint in 2018 in preparation for her marriage to Prince Harry, expressed her own reaction to the news by stating that the series was excellent to work on.
“Such a great cast and crew, we had a really fun time,” she said to Variety attendees at the Power of Women event that was hosted by the publication.
The streaming figures, she added, were “wild,” but she gave respect to the program for how well it had held up over the course of that period.
According to Markle, who is 42 years old, “it is difficult to find a show that you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days, so that could have something to do with it.” she remarked. A excellent concert, on the other hand, will never end.