Warning: SPOILERS for the Suits LA episode “He Knew” are ahead!
One of the main ways Suits LA distinguishes itself from its predecessor, location aside, is by following attorneys who represent powerful clients in the entertainment industry. So naturally this provides countless opportunities for actors to appear as themselves on the NBC series that can also be streamed with a Peacock subscription. The late John Amos made his final onscreen appearance in the Suits LA pilot, and tonight’s episode saw The Office’s Brian Baumgartner and The Goldbergs’ Patton Oswalt paired together. Both actors shared with CinemaBlend what it was like to “tear it up” with each other, making for an experience that was the complete opposite of what their fictional selves experienced.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Baumgartner and Oswalt separately ahead of “Hew Knew” airing on the 2025 TV schedule. The two were introduced to each other in the Suits LA world thanks to Lex Scott Davis’ Erica Rollins, but in real life, they’d already crossed paths on a few occasions. As Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on The Office (one of the best sitcoms of all time) told me:
We had met, but peripherally, we had certainly not spent 12 hours consecutively together, or whatever it was, that day. I’ve always been a big fan of his. What’s funny is I told him, we were just talking… it was like 3 weeks before, there’s a stand-up comedian who’s a friend of mine who was down here where I live, and Patton was headlining it. This is before any of this came up. I was like seconds away, something happened at the last minute from going to the show, which would have then just added a whole other layer. I’m a big fan of his. I think he’s great. We had a great time working together. You talk about just the back and forth that we were able to have that happened very, very quickly. He’s one of the good ones, for sure.
This meeting in Suits LA came as a result of Brian Baumgartner wanting to “kill” Kevin Malone, by which he meant he wanted to leave his comedic performing behind and try to become an Oscar-winning dramatic actor. Baumgartner requested that Erica arrange for him to meet Tom Hanks to he could pick the Forrest Gump actor’s brain, but there was no way that was going to happen for a multitude of reasons. So instead, Alice Lee’s Leah Power arranged for Patton Oswalt to stop by instead, as he’s a comedic actor who has experience in the dramatic realm.
Unfortunately, the conversation Baumgartner and Oswalt devolved once the latter told the former he didn’t have what it took to bring home an Academy Award. Several brutal jabs later (Oswalt said that Toby was funnier than Kevin on The Office, Baumgartner mocked Oswalt for voicing Remy in Ratatouille), and Baumgartner left angrily, upset at Erica for not delivering on what he asked for. But, like the real life Office alum told me, he had nothing but a blast working with The King of Queens actor, who echoed that same sentiment to me later on. As Oswalt put it:
He was as fun as you think he would be. I was absolutely delighted. It was really fun to tear it up in a scene with him and play these amplified mutated versions of ourselves. I’m speaking for myself, but I think we both had a blast.
The good news is that we don’t have to worry about Brian Baumgartner and Patton Oswalt becoming mortal enemies in the Suits LA world. It turned out that Erica Rollins asked Oswalt prior to the meeting to deliberately rile Baumgartner up to test his determination to win an Oscar, as she knew what it was like to be underestimated. With the Kevin Malone actor still unwilling to back down from this goal, Erica was pleased her plan worked and threw her support behind Baumgartner. However, Baumgartner asked that she still be ready to book comedic roles in case the dramatic acting doesn’t work out.
Suits LA airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on NBC. Next week’s episode, “Batman Returns,” will see Suits’ Gabriel Macht returning as Harvey Specter for the first of three episodes he has lined up, and it was also announced a few days ago that Rick Hoffman will reprise Louis Litt later this season. Meanwhile, I’ll be over here rooting for you, Fictional Brian, and hopefully you and Fictional Patton can have a less heated conversation the next time you run into each other.
