Sarah Rafferty’s Wild Year

Many years ago, one of the first times I got stopped in Toronto after we premiered, I was crossing the street and somebody pulled their car in front of me. She rolled down her window, and said, “I just had to stop you because I’ve been watching your show with my teenage son. We’ve had trouble connecting lately, and it brings us together every week.”

When we started, Suits was kind of before social media was in our face. The feedback really mattered, and to know that it was bringing this family together in Toronto was just really special. I swore I was going to live off of that [sentiment]. And the feedback like that this summer has meant a lot to me.

Speaking of Toronto, you’re back in Canada for My Life With the Walter Boys, which stands in for Colorado.

We’re in Calgary, so it’s like the Canadian Rockies. It’s so pretty. You know I love Canada…[but] this was different. It’s astonishingly beautiful. It looks fake, right? In the same way that Suits‘ wardrobe was kind of its own character, the scenery is its own character in My Life With the Walter Boys. It was really fun to get all up in it.

You have two daughters in real life, but in the show you are a mom to a lot of young boys. What’s that been like?

There’s not a lot of boys in my family life. I have three sisters. My mom is one of three sisters, so I’m one of four sisters. My parents have nine grandchildren. Only two of them are boys. To play fake family with tons of boys was so fun. The young actors who play the Walter boys made my job so easy. You spend one minute with these young gentlemen and totally fall in love with them. We got to spend time together on the weekends driving up to Banff and going hiking and all that fun stuff.

Your character, Katherine, is a veterinarian and her style is very laid-back, as it should be. What’s that like after dressing to the nines on Suits?

Donna was like fantasy wardrobe. That may never happen [to me] again. That was the once-in-a-lifetime fairy-tale couture craziness. But I loved Katherine’s wardrobe, and I loved working with Addie [Taiwo], our wardrobe designer. Because I come from theater, wardrobe is the primary tool for me to [step] into somebody else, which I find incredibly comfortable. Even though Donna’s clothes were not comfortable, especially considering what you have to wear under her clothes in order to make the clothes look like that…they’re not comfortable.