The creator of the legal drama Suits has revealed a seemingly innocent line of dialogue had to be changed after Meghan Markle became involved with the Royal Family.
Markle wasn't linked to Prince Harry when she was first cast as a paralegal in the series in 2011, but by the time she left the show in 2018 she was engaged and officially set to become a Duchess.
The actor announced her engagement to Harry in November 2017, just after the seventh series of Suits had finished airing.
The series came to an end for good in 2019, but after seeing a boost in fans since it was added to Netflix, creator Aaron Korsh has reflected back on the show, and how the 'Meghan Markle effect' might have had a part to play in its resurgence.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Korsh remembered being 'as excited in some ways as everybody else' when he learned about his cast member's royal boyfriend.
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He went on to admit that the relationship didn't come without impacts on the series, saying: "Yeah! I mean, your initial reaction is, like, 'We’re dating a prince!'
"But the security and all that stuff, we shot in Toronto and the writers room was in L.A., so other people were dealing with that.
"I will say, and I think Harry put this in the book, because I heard people talking about it — [the Royal Family] weighed in on some stuff."
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Korsh said there weren't 'many things' the family got involved with, but there were 'a few things that [showrunners] wanted to do and couldn’t do'.
He added: "It was a little irritating."
According to Korsh, the list of things they 'couldn't do' included the use of one particular word in a line of dialogue.
He recalled: "Look, I’ll just say what the line was. My wife’s family, when they have a topic to discuss that might be sensitive, they use the word 'poppycock'.
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"Let’s say you wanted to do something that you knew your husband didn’t want to do, but you wanted to at least discuss it, and in just discussing it, you wouldn’t hold him to anything he said, you’d be like, 'It’s poppycock'.
"So, in the episode, Mike and Rachel [Markle’s character] were going to have a thing, and as a nod to my in-laws, we were going to have her say, 'My family would say poppycock.' And the Royal Family did not want her saying the word."
It seems innocuous enough, but Korsh explained why the Royal Family had a problem with it.
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He believes he received the instruction from the directing producer or Markle's agent rather than the actor herself, and said the Royal Family 'didn't want to put the word poppycock in [Markle's] mouth' because, he believed, they were worried about people cutting the clip down to just the last syllable.
Surprisingly, they were apparently happy enough with the replacement word, as Korsh explained: "We had to change it to 'bulls**t' instead of 'poppycock', and I did not like it because I’d told my in-laws that [poppycock] was going to be in the show.
"There was maybe one or two more things, but I can’t remember. "
Korsh added that he knew the Royal Family had access to the scripts, but he didn't know how they got hold of them.
Topics: Meghan Markle, Film and TV, Celebrity
Emily Brown