Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(29)
On her first day of the shoot, the normally nerveless Meghan was a little edgy. Though she had grown up on film sets, it was one thing sitting in the wings watching the action, quite another to be center stage. Nonetheless, all those hours after school on professional soundstages, observing the interaction of actors and crews, overhearing the snatches of conversation and gossip between production assistants, and hanging around the craft service table, had taught her how to behave on set. She was charming to everyone, from grips to the lighting director. There was a degree of self-interest at work, having learned from her father that the placement of a light could enhance or slightly deform a pretty face, and that some of the placement depended on goodwill.
Meghan was remembered as bubbly and warm, chatty but a good listener who didn’t dominate on-set conversations. She was a team player who radiated a sweet intelligence, saving her sterner, more ambitious self for those important on-set interactions with Patrick J. Adams.
In a show that became known as much for its fashion as its plotline, costume designer Jolie Andreatta’s vision of Meghan’s on-screen look was crucial. She later recalled: “Rachel is classic to the word with a hint of rebellion thrown in. Her style is understated and her cute figure pulls it off perfectly.”
On her return from New York, Trevor took Meghan to a beach resort in Belize for a vacation. It was here amid the tropical greenery and the soothing waves that he asked his girlfriend of six years to be his bride. Meghan was thrilled—and clearly in love. “They were both googly eyed for one another,” recalls a friend. “They were very much in love.”
She was marrying her long-time producer boyfriend and was in a pilot where the omens looked good. There was serious talk of a TV series. At long last her Hollywood dream was coming true. As her half brother, Tom Junior, recalls: “Meg was on her way up, marrying a guy with a production company and now making good money.”
All those on-set rumors turned into a joyous reality when in January 2011, USA Network gave the green light for the first series. Shooting would begin on April 25 in Toronto. Finally, after years of auditions that went nowhere, roles that ended up on the cutting room floor, and—most disheartening—pilots that never got picked up, Meghan had a series. The only downside was that she would have to take a five-hour flight if she was to see her Hollywood-based fiancé. The sacrifice was going to be worth it. As she and Trevor caught planes like others hailed taxis, the commute was not going to be a hardship. They were both ambitious young people; if anything, Trevor was more driven than Meghan. So he was totally understanding that this was an opportunity that she could not miss.
Her joy, however, was tempered with sorrow. While she was preparing for the series, her mother phoned to tell her that Alvin Ragland, her eighty-two-year-old grandfather, had tripped and fallen as a result of getting tangled with a dog lead while out walking his dog. He had hit his head on the sidewalk, and Doria’s father died of his injuries on March 12. She remembered Alvin as a real character. Meghan appreciated his knowledge of antiques, an enthusiasm that inspired her own fascination with the finer things in life. In the family reorganization following his death, Doria inherited his single-story green stucco house in what is known as the “black Beverly Hills.” It was close to the University of Southern California, where, in the late spring, Doria, now a mature student, would complete her master’s degree in social work. Her daughter was ecstatic, probably more effusive than her mother. She watched proudly as her mother collected her degree on a makeshift stage at one of the many graduation ceremonies taking place on the extensive campus in June. Given the difficulties of her background, the trouble at her high school following the earthquake, and the temporary jobs she had taken on to make ends meet, her achievement was a genuine personal triumph, an indication of her smarts and her determination.
The first episode of Suits aired on June 23, to generally favorable reviews and, more important, an enthusiastic audience. The cast, crew, and money men at the network were ecstatic, the producers thrilled that their gamble to cast Meghan opposite Patrick had paid off big time, the show’s fans buzzing about the couple’s on-screen chemistry.
Their off-screen chemistry was equally noticeable, almost uncomfortably so, according to guests at Meghan and Trevor’s wedding which took place in Jamaica in September 2011. They had clearly developed a bond of familiarity that is invariably the corollary of working up close and personal for so long and so intensely. Patrick J. Adams has a different take on their interaction at that time. He later told writer Lesley Goldberg: “In some ways, Meghan and I were the closest because we were the youngest people in the cast and both came in with the least experience. We grew up together over the course of the show.”
He might have kept his distance if he had known that she had been cast to play a calculating serial killer in an episode of the quirky crime show Castle, titled “Once Upon a Crime,” which she filmed while Suits was on hiatus. As Princess Sleeping Beauty, Meghan’s character plotted a complex series of murders with fairy-tale themes, and was cast for the part by her champion, Donna Rosenstein.
For Meghan, shooting her first series of Suits was actually more stressful than organizing her wedding. After choosing Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios, an idyllic spot with balconies overlooking the sea, she had delegated the organization to an in-house wedding coordinator who handled every detail of this destination wedding. Given the hectic lives she and Trevor were leading, it was a lifesaver. All she had to worry about was the guest list, choosing the flowers, agreeing to the menu—and packing a bikini or two. Oh, and her strappy white wedding dress.