Meghan Markle's "Girl Crush" Amanda Schull Dishes on Their Friendship (EXCLUSIVE)
Meghan Markle once called Amanda Schull her "forever girl crush."
Jul. 2 2024, Published 2:08 p.m. ET
Actor Amanda Schull may have initially auditioned for the role of Rachel Zane in Suits, but the friendship that ultimately bloomed between her and Meghan Markle proved to be far more fortuitous.
Amanda told Distractify during an exclusive interview that Meghan is a huge Center Stage fan. The classic 2000 film about a group of competitive American Ballet Academy students was Amanda's first major acting role.
In a wholesome 2016 post from her (now-deleted) Instagram, Meghan shared a photo of herself on the Suits set, gazing adoringly at Amanda. "To be clear," the future Duchess of Sussex captioned the photo — "I have been in love with Amanda Schull since she was in Center Stage."
Amanda dished further to Distractify about her time filming scenes with her friend, the future royal, how she felt during her first day on the Suits set, and more.
Amanda spoke exclusively to 'Distractify' about her friendship with Meghan Markle.
The future Duchess of Sussex added the hashtag, #forevergirlcrush to her Instagram post praising Amanda.
Responding in kind, the Hawaii-born actress reposted the photo with the following caption, "Stop it @meghanmarkle, the #girlcrush on you is all mine!"
Amanda spoke to Distractify about the "beautiful scenes," she got to film with Meghan on the Suits set.
"We have one episode where Rachel and Katrina are pulling the strings. Because Luis [Litt] isn't in the office, and we're trying to do the case as if we were him, without Jessica knowing. And [Katrina and Rachel] didn't get along before that point."
"That was something really interesting about the show is that adversaries, whether they liked it or not, inevitably had to team up," Amanda added.
While their Suits characters weren't exactly best friends, Amanda and Meghan had a moment during Suits Season 6, Episode 14 where their real-life friendship was able to shine through.
Rachel asks Katrina what it was like working for her dad, Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce). In true Katrina Bennett fashion, Amanda's character initially misses the emotional heart of the answer Rachel is searching for, referring to Rachel's father as the "best litigator I've ever seen."
However, Katrina is finally able to connect with Rachel in a way that's authentic to both of their characters.
"One more thing I learned about him," Katrina reveals to Rachel.
"He doesn't just love you, he respects you."
"That was the beauty of the show — you could have two characters share a scene that you just didn't see coming but still made perfect sense. Then they could go right back to being adversaries again, and then back to being teammates," Amanda told us.
Meghan would ultimately depart Suits in the show's seventh season following her engagement to Prince Harry.
Amanda showed her support for Meghan by referring to Harry as the "lucky" one.
The 12 Monkeys star told the Australian magazine New Idea (via the Daily Mail) that, "I'm so thrilled for both of them. I don't know Harry personally, but he's a very lucky man to have Meghan in his life because I can only say wonderful things about her."
Amanda also revealed to 'Distractify' how she felt during her first day on the 'Suits' set.
"My first episode with Gabriel [Macht] and Patrick [J. Adams], I was really intimidated. I had auditioned for between 10 and 15 roles at that point. And then they brought me in as Hurricane Katrina because she comes in as a hurricane and really disrupts everything," she explained. "It was really intimidating because she had to have all of this confidence because she blackmails them, basically."
Conveying her appreciation for the entire Suits cast throughout her chat with Distractify, Amanda elaborated a bit further on the subject of unlikely team-ups.
"[Through the duration of Suits], I had the opportunity [as Katrina] to team up with Patrick and Sarah [Rafferty] too. Donna and Katrina had moments because, you know, Donna was Harvey's gal and Katrina, was Louis's right hand."
She added, "And so we didn't always get along. But then we'd have those scenes together, where we did respect each other very much."
Suits is available to stream now on Netflix.