Vanessa Ray Laughs About Her Suits Audition Mishap Where Producers Told Her to Come Back Looking ‘TV Pretty’ (Exclusive)

Vanessa Ray is looking back on the choices she made during her first Suits audition.

The actress, who played Jenny Griffith on the hit USA Network show, sits down with Sarah Rafferty and Patrick J. Adams for the Jan. 21 episode of SiriusXM’s Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek, Ray, 43, recalls the outfit she wore to her audition in an attempt to look “cool” — but all it did was come off unprofessional.

“I remember this audition as clearly as anything because it was the first time that I thought, ‘I’m going to just be a cool girl who doesn’t wear a lot of makeup,’” she explains. “And it’s a hot day in New York City and the description was like, ‘girl.’ It wasn’t like, ‘girl who does anything.’” 

Adams begins laughing about that being “the breakdown for Jenny,” as her character was the girlfriend of Trevor Evans (Tom Lipinski) and a close friend of Trevor’s best friend Mike Ross (Adams).

Rafferty then jokes the listeners “should see the swaggy situation [and] the wiggle that’s happening” as Ray explains the role description. 

“I was like, ‘I’m a cool girl in New York City and I’m going to come in without makeup and I’m going to wear shorts,’” Ray says, shocking her former costars. “I wore shorts, I didn’t care! I walked into that audition and all the girls were wearing suits for real.”

She jokes that the other actresses were trying to look “legal” for the audition (which Ray says ended up being the first scene fans saw of them at the loft) but she thought that her look was great at the time.

“They were like, ‘Who the f— does this girl think she is?’” she recalls. 

Curious at her mindset at the time, Adams asks, “Did you feel empowered at that moment or were you feeling like, ‘I’ve made a horrible mistake. I should be in suits’?”

“I thought I was just doing something different,” Ray replies, and Adams commends her: “Hell yeah! Great.”

“Well this is why I remember it,” Ray continues. “I got a callback and the callback notes were, ‘Can she come in again but just look, like, TV pretty?’”

Adams then gasps, “Woah!”

“I was like, ‘Okay, I get it, I’m not cool,’” Ray teases.

“What I like about that note though — it’s honest. It’s like they didn’t even try to mask it,” Adams says. “Just be TV pretty!”

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New episodes of SiriusXM’s Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast are available every Tuesday on the SiriusXM app and wherever podcasts are available.