Gina Torres Talks 9-1-1: Lone Star, Life as a Single Working Mom and What She Learned in 2020

GinaTorres, the 51-year-old star of Suits and its spinoff, Pearson, joins season two of 9-1-1: Lone Star (Jan. 18 on Fox) in the newly created role of paramedic captain Tommy Vega. After being a stay-at-home mom for eight years, Tommy returns to work to support her family during the COVID-19 pandemic when her husband’s restaurant fails.

Season two of 9-1-1: Lone Star begins with a volcanic eruption. How was it being thrown into something so huge?

It was why I wanted to be a part of this business—it’s all hands on deck! I loved being in the middle of this big, beautiful circus.

Tell us about Tommy.

She undoubtedly has a skill set or she wouldn’t have risen to the rank that she did before she left the job and then found that fairy dust that puts her back into place [as a captain]. It’s wonderful to play the duality of she’s one thing when she’s out in the field, then another when she’s at home. And then there’s this middle ground, where the two meld.

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How is Tommy adjusting to becoming a working mom?

Her challenges, choices and sacrifices are going to resonate deeply with a wide cross section of families—parents that thought they had life all figured out or were in the process of reaching certain goals, and then the world went sideways. She’s never felt this torn before. That is something as a working mother I completely understand.

The pandemic forced Tommy to return to work. How is it affecting you?

Well, it’s twofold, right? As actors, as professionals, there’s that fear of how is my industry going to adjust to this? How am I ever going to work again? What has to change? That great unknown loomed large in my life, as for so many actors.

The other piece of that, of course, is that actors are kind of meant for this kind of questioning of our lives because we never know, we never really believe that we’re ever going to work again. Because one job ends and then you’re starting at square one. A lot of us have learned how to stay busy during those down times, during the valleys of our careers.

And it’s also extremes, right? You go from zero to 300 in about 60 seconds because we really did go from not being around very many people, just your tiny, little, nuclear family, to working with hundreds of people again on a set and doing what we do. Thankfully, blessfully, Disney and Fox have been amazing, just completely amazing, putting protocols in place, and not just doing the bare minimum, but going above and beyond to make sure that we’re all safe.

What has 2020 taught you?

It has solidified the desire to play a bigger role in the world that I want my daughter [Delilah Fishburne, 13] to grow up in. I want to put myself further out there in terms of activism. I’m still trying to figure out what that is.

You starred as Jessica Pearson on both Suits and Pearson. What’s it like to start fresh?

It’s great. As an actor, you spend most of your time climbing in and out of bodies and personalities. It’s rare, especially with all the content that’s out there, that you get to be on a show and be somebody for a long time. And then at some point, after about year five or six— if you’re that lucky—you go, “Can I even be anybody else?” Especially a character like Jessica Pearson. She was so iconic in so many ways. There’s something beloved about that. You don’t want to let it go, but you do.

But I have to tell you, when I had my first fitting for Tommy, it was a third of the time that it took me to have a fitting for Suits or Pearson. I literally have one fitting a month as opposed to three a week. That was one thing. And then putting on my boots, as opposed to tipping around in five-inch stilettos, I was like, “I’m good, this is good. I’ve got on my uniform, got on my boots, I think I’m going to like it here.”

Related: Everything You Need to Know About the New Season of 9-1-1

To play Jessica, you had to learn a lot of legal jargon. But this is more action-oriented. How are you doing with handling emergency medical procedures?

We have an amazing tech support. She’s fantastic. My first day, we had a little bit of rehearsal and the team took me through all the things that I would be working with. Splints and clamps, and I got a whole set of clamps to go home and practice with, so that’s been great. Double-checking on pronunciations of certain medications and medical terms. So, yeah, that’s been great, that’s been wonderful. Will I be able to set your arm out in the field? I really don’t think so. That’s not my job, though. My job is to make it look as though I can. I still have people asking me for legal advice, and I’m like, “I can’t help you. Can’t do it.”

As an actor you have no control over how your work does when it’s released. How disappointing was it that Pearson only got one season?

That broke my heart. It was beyond disappointing. I honestly believed with all of my heart that we would get two. I wasn’t looking for five or seven, or the runaway success that Suits had. Of course, I was hopeful, but I know that that’s lightning in a bottle and so you just have to be prepared for whatever it might be. But we did plan out two season’s worth of story. We had two season’s worth of story to tell, and it really did feel like we just got cut way too soon. Because there was a button at the end of the two, there was a way to tell the story and evolve into what the next phase was going to be, and really put a bow on this character who I had lived with for so long, who I really do feel deserved a platform. I just feel still that she’s such a fascinating entity.

You have a nice list of achievements with your career and your daughter. What is left for you to accomplish? Do you have new goals at this age?

Of course. You never stop having goals, you never stop dreaming. That’s what makes you old, that’s what puts you out to pasture, is your own limitations. I want to continue to produce, I want to continue to tell stories that don’t just interest me but what I believe probably interests other people.

Is there a lesson in life that you were taught that took you a long time to unlearn? Maybe something from your parents, who think they know best?

You mean like walking barefoot is going to give me a cold? Debunking stuff like that? The walking barefoot thing was big for me. I don’t know if that’s a Caribbean thing, but walking barefoot is like the root of all kinds of evil, from catching a cold to really bad menstrual cramps, which is a whole other thing.

I would say that we get advice from our parents that works both ways; you either grow out of it or you grow into it. Because their minds and their world start to make more sense to you as you grow up. Then the world changes as well. The rules are different.

What is it you don’t have in your life right now that you wish you did?

Certainty. Of course, I would love to have certainty, especially in such uncertain times. But then what’s the surprise in that? What’s the fun in that?

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