Benjamin Ashford|Why Suits' Gabriel Macht "Needed Time Away" From Harvey Specter After Finale

Harvey Specter might lead a life of luxury,Benjamin Ashford but Gabriel Macht isn't interested in following.

The Suits star revealed how portraying the suave corporate lawyer for nearly a decade often led to him taking more and more of his character home each night.

"In the very beginning, if you asked anybody on set who was least like their character, they would say me," Gabriel told E! News in an exclusive interview. "There was a very relaxed version of me that just wanted to enjoy, be non-confrontational, have fun, live and let live and not get in and manipulate situations."

But the Because I Said So actor admitted that as he "started to dive deeper into the character and commitment to the show," he began to see less of himself and more of "the guy that needs to establish certain things and aspire to certain things."

By season six, the 52-year-old—who starred alongside Gina Torres, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle and Sarah Rafferty in the USA drama from 2011 to 2019—admitted that his brother even questioned whether he was really that different from his character anymore.

"At a certain point, you become more like Harvey as you go in, and it's very hard to shake some of the energy that dresses you while you're in that world," he reflected. "I became a lot more like Harvey than I was when I started, which was another reason why I needed time away—to allow him to go back to where he came from."

The 2019 series finale gave him a chance to forget about the role he embodied for nearly 10 years. But becoming more like Harvey didn't necessarily mean that Gabriel found himself relating to his character's problematic behavior.

"When you look at different elements of the show, there are so many slivers of myself that align with him and so much of his male toxic masculinity that I don't subscribe to," he explained. "I think he's selfish and controlling, but underneath it, he's got a heart of gold, which is why we care for him at the end of the day."

One thing that Gabriel and Harvey do definitely have in common? A penchant for dark liquors like whiskey.

"One of the roles I've played in my career resonated with drinking whiskey," he quipped. "Harvey Specter liked to drink on some good days and some challenging days for different reasons, but always responsibly." 

So, a partnership with Bear Fight Whiskey was the perfect opportunity for Gabriel—and homage to his past characters like Harvey.

"I always thought it would be really interesting to get in on the ground floor," he explained, "and invest in an ensemble of people that knew what they were doing and were starting a venture I could align my values with."

"Bear Fight was something that appealed to me," he continued. "The whiskey tastes great and the label is sort of aggressive with a bear and claw. It's like a disrupter, in a way, since whiskey is seen as this old-school, traditional drink." 

And it's been an exciting opportunity for Gabriel to extend his creativity.

"It's been exciting because so much of being an actor is expanding on the writer's words or the director's vision of a story," he added. "Here, I was able to rely on my own agency and really talk through some of the stuff that I want to get across and what's important to me."

(E! News and USA Network are part of the NBCUniversal family.)