‘Suits LA’ Guest Stars Patton Oswalt and Brian Baumgartner Tease Playing ‘Fictional Versions’ of Themselves (Exclusive)

Sunday’s Suits LA is bringing the guest stars with Patton Oswalt and Brian Baumgartner! The two actors chatted with PopCulture.com about what to expect in “He Knew,” airing this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. Per an episode synopsis, “Ted and Kevin deal with a bombshell about Lester’s motive for killing his producing partner. Erica and Leah try to fulfill an unorthodox request for a celebrity client. In the past, Ted drags his old friend Stuart into his mob case.”

As for that “unorthodox request for a celebrity client,” Oswalt shared that he and Baumgartner are “playing versions of ourselves that maybe doesn’t go as planned, and I’ll leave it at that.” Baumgartner added, “We had so much fun as fictional versions of ourselves, playing with fictional versions of the other person, working on Suits LA. It was a lot of fun, and I’ve been caught up with the other episodes that preceded us, and I’m really enjoying the show.”

Considering the two actors will be playing fictionalized versions of themselves, one would think it’s a bit easier rather than taking on a whole new character. But for Oswalt, “it definitely felt like a character.” He continued, “I mean, even though, yes, I’m playing myself, but I’m playing a mutated, amplified version of myself, which in a way was very free. You’re just like, ‘Oh, well, this isn’t really me. I can kinda go off a little bit.’”

“I agree,” Baumgartner echoed. “It’s not totally different, but I don’t know that there is something that allows you to sort of poke fun at maybe a part of yourself as well by playing yourself in a certain way that is, as Patton says, sort of freeing and fun. And I think having both of us together, not having to, whatever, pretend Patton’s a lawyer or like that he is Patton Oswalt and I am me, that I think does add an extra energy, at least to this scene that was, yeah, it just was fun. It was just fun, Megan. That’s I mean, that’s the best way that I can describe it. We had a great time.”

Since Oswalt and Baumgartner will be sharing the screen together, Oswalt expressed how “great” it was working with The Office alum. “I mean, I obviously knew who he was, and I feel like we’ve been talking about how we feel like we’ve met a couple times but never did any deep-sitting, having a conversation but once we got through the scenes, it just fell together so naturally. It was great.”

Despite being on a show like Suits LA, neither Patton Oswalt nor Brian Baumgartner had seen the original Suits, even amid its record-breaking resurgence on Netflix. “I never got to watch the original,” Oswalt admitted. “I mean, there’s so much good TV right now. You really gotta pick. I never really watched the original. I understand it’s very popular.”

Baumgartner, meanwhile, has plans to watch it after working on Suits LA. “Now, my experience with Aaron Korsh, the executive producer, makes me wanna go back and watch,” he said. “I had such a great time with them. But I had seen sporadic episodes part of one season back in the day, but I have not gone back and watched the show recently.”

This is only the third episode of Suits LA, so there is no telling what will happen or how the dynamics between the characters will continue, but Oswalt and Baumgartner couldn’t praise the new cast enough. “It’s exciting when you’re on a new venture like this,” Oswalt expressed. “You can see where they take it and what they do with the characters in the setting.”

“Lex [Scott Davis], who I had the opportunity to work with quite a bit, she was fantastic, and I understand based on the story that she’s not my actual lawyer,” Baumgartner added. “She was kind of filling in, but if Brian needs some other legal help and goes back, it would be my pleasure to work with her again. She was she was great.”

Make sure to catch Patton Oswalt and Brian Baumgartner as fictionalized versions of themselves in a new episode of Suits LA airing this Sunday, Mar. 9 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.