Katherine Heigl will make her debut on “Suits” this Wednesday, replacing Meghan Markle as the star female lead on the USA Network show.
Her decision to join the show has been anything but easy.
Heigl told Entertainment Tonight she worried about joining an established hit. Even though she’s always been a fan of the show, she worried her début would “screw this whole thing” and she’d ruin one of her favorite shows.
She also said relocating her entire family — musician Josh Kelley, daughters Adalaide and Naleigh and son Joshua Jr. — from Utah to Toronto, where “Suits” is filmed, included its own set of struggles. Heigl has long lived on a ranch in Utah. She has often shared Instagram posts and video interviews from her home, which I've written about before.
"It's a lot," she said about relocating. "Gone are the days where you would just pack a suitcase and go and be on location for nine months. It's taken me a really long time to somehow wrap my brain about the fact that they're over, so when you're looking for a place to live, I have to keep in mind, I need these many bedrooms, and I also raise my niece, so she's with us — there's four kids, my husband and I, and two dogs. It's chaos, but we're getting it together and better and down to a science."
Heigl will make her debut Wednesday night with the eighth season’s premiere.
The show’s seventh season ended with characters Mike (Patrick J. Adams) and Rachel (Meghan Markle) tying the knot before they decide to leave their New York law firm for one in Seattle. Both Mike and Rachel were once the focal point of the show, especially in the early seasons. Slowly the show became more about a top law firm in New York City.
The new season will kick off with character Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce) fighting with Harvey (Gabriel Macht) for the role of managing partner of the law firm as a round of layoffs hit the employees.
Wednesday night’s Season 8 debut episode will turn the spotlight of the show to new lead characters Alex (Dule Hill) and Sam (Heigl).
According to USA Today, “Alex is Harvey's new right-hand man, fighting the way Mike did for seven years. Sam is the new face, a lieutenant of Zane's jockeying for her space in the new firm.”
Heigl described her character in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
"Samantha is really fierce," Heigl told ET. "I keep hashtagging her #girlwithgumption ’cause she is. She just doesn't take any sh*t and she is not intimidated or afraid of any of these guys, and she has this attitude of 'Well, if this doesn't work, something else will. I always come up with something that will work.' She doesn't let anything (get to) her and she's a little crafty. She's a little underhanded."
USA Today’s review said the show is still pretty much the same and adding Heigl was a smart move for the show.
“Adding Heigl may prove to be a smart move, as the former ‘Grey's Anatomy’ actress dusts off her soapier acting chops and mile-a-minute speech,” USA Today wrote. “The writers even introduce Sam while she's boxing, to establish that she's a ‘strong woman’ ready to spar with the men at the center of ‘Suits.’”
As I previously wrote, the USA Network announced back in February it would replace Markle with Heigl, who left her own CBS legal drama “Doubt.”
Heigl said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly she enjoyed “Suits.”
“I have watched ‘Suits’ from the very beginning and feel incredibly lucky to be the newest member of the Pearson Specter Litt family,” she said in a statement.
Its a lot: Katherine Heigl shares struggles of relocating from Utah to Toronto ahead of Suits d