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.
Ms. Torres lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights with, she said, “amazing views” of the Palisades and the Hudson River.
SLOW BURN Sundays aren’t a hard workout. Sundays are just about reminding my blood that it needs to move through my body and stretching. I like to start with a stretch, and then go, take a nice long walk in Fort Tryon Park at a pace. I’m not a runner, but it’s not a stroll. There are stairs that have been built into a cliff line in Washington Heights, and these are stairs that I walked up every single day as a kid to go to my middle school. Of course, the irony is that now I use them as exercises. I run up them two at a time, then I lunge up them the second time around and then I run up them one last time.
GROCERY RUN There’s this great market called Frank’s Market, and they have everything you could possibly need. I love it because it’s such a typical New York little grocery store. No space is wasted. It’s beautifully organized, and there’s also fresh deli food, there’s premade food, everything you could possibly want.
TEA FIX I’m not a coffee drinker. I’m going to have my Cuban card revoked when they find out. I do love tea and Chai, a large soy Chai from Buunni Coffee. My partner, Kevin, and I got a scone and a biscuit.
DAY DATE There are these beautiful grounds where I live, and it’s residents only. Usually, there are people picnicking and kids playing, and it just lives right in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge. You feel like you can touch it. There are benches there, so my guy and I just sat on our bench, drank our warm drinks and had our scone and our biscuit. Just took it in, had a nice conversation.
SHOWERING AND SCRIPT READING In between the grounds, there was a shower. I’m all about exfoliation, so I love a good scrub. I have shower gloves, which I think are great. You don’t feel like you’re getting your bang for your buck for the washcloth. Hydration after that and moisturizing. There was some script reading. These are projects that I’m currently in development for, so it’s reading script samples from writers that I’m talking to. It’s reading the latest rewrite of a script that I’m working on.
NEIGHBORHOOD DINING At Flor De Mayo, we had dinner with a girlfriend of mine, my partner and I. The Chino-Latino culinary experience is singular to New York, and it’s important to get my fried rice, my ropa vieja and my plantains.
ROOFTOP TOAST My friend and I and my partner went back to the apartment, and we went up to a nearby rooftop deck with a bottle of Champagne — because there was much to celebrate — and had a dance at golden hour on the rooftop. We danced to ’80s music.
MURDER MYSTERY My partner is a huge football fan, so there’s inevitably a game on. He loves the Houston Texans and the University of Utah Utes. There’s usually a problem when I’m rooting for the Giants. So he gets his football time, and then I get my “Only Murders in the Building” time.
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