Patrick J. Adams just can’t seem to stay away from Toronto. While the Suits star may have jumped town to pursue his acting dreams in L.A. as a teenager, between filming a hit TV show, landing a dream cameo and headlining an upcoming Summerworks festival event, Adams has been keeping busy in Hollywood North. On June 6, Adams will take part in a special Summerworks Performance Festival launch party and fundraiser at Campbell House (160 Queen St. W.) that includes a live reading, performances, food, auction and much more in support of one of the city’s most exciting and enjoyable theatre festivals. We caught up with him this week to chat about Suits, Ukrainian playwrights and summer in the city.

How did you get involved with Summerworks

 I have an old friend who works for Summerworks, and I really wanted to do something out of the realm of TV and more in the realm of theatre, so we’ve gotten a group of people together and hopefully we’re going to do a reading of a play by Natalya Vorozhbit. She’s a Ukrainian playwright who recently wrote a play based on interviews from Kiev’s Independence Square during the protests. We thought it would be really interesting to do a reading of that and get the voices of some of the people involved in the protests out there.

The last time we spoke, Suits was in its first season and you were just getting used to having a steady job playing legal wünderkind Mike Ross. How have things changed for you in the last two years?

Things have been busier. I get a whole lot less sleep. But I can pay my rent now, and a whole lot more people know who Mike Ross is, so I meet lots of new friends walking down the street.

What brings you back to the streets of Toronto?

Well, I’m technically here filming the fourth season of Suits, but this weekend I’m here for the Summerworks festival.

So, not only do you star in one Toronto-shot show, but recently you had a cameo on another great Toronto show Orphan Black. Now, everyone who follows you on Twitter knows that you’re a self-professed super-fan of the sci-fi show, but rumour has it you got the part by just… asking. Is that true?

“Asking” isn’t the word I would use. I’d say it was more like “begging” and “bartering” and “pleading.” Let’s just say that I had my agent making a lot of calls back and forth. Seriously though, I absolutely love that show and I’m so excited that I got to be involved. 

The last season of Suits ended on a bit of a twist, with Mike Ross leaving his legal firm to work as an investment banker. Can you share any hints about how that’s going to affect the show?

I think it’s been a really good thing for the Mike Ross to get into a new environment, and now that Harry and Mike are on separate sides of the table, it’s really shaken up the power dynamics in their relationship. This season is going to really raise the stakes on a personal level.

In the first season, a lot of the jokes on Suits centered around the fatuousness of Harvard Law graduates, and really satirized the legal profession. Will they be taking on the investment banking world in the next season?

Well, it’s hard to answer that our show has become one that a lot of people in those industries watch. People who work on Bay Street, people who are working to become lawyers — they love the [lawyer] character who always wins, they love the powerful guy who gets everything he wants. But [the satire] is something that I certainly would like to see more of.

You grew up spending a lot of time in north Toronto, which is a fairly affluent area with more than a few lawyers. Have you ever drawn character inspiration from the old neighbourhood?

Well, not really. But my mother is an entrepreneur so I learned a lot about the drive and the focus of business people from watching her. When you work in a business like that, you need to work so hard and there is absolutely no room for error. But at the same time, they really love what they do. They really love that work.   

 So besides working, how do you plan to spend summer in TO?

I just want to go to the park. Maybe spend some time on Queen West, Roncesvalles, Trinity Bellwoods and also explore the island, but not go in the water.

Why don’t you want to go in the water?

I don’t like toxic waste.

It’s not toxic, it’s very clean. Toronto has some of the cleanest beaches in the country.

 All I know is that when I went into the water when I was a kid, I got a rash.

That was 20 years ago

Yeah but… still.