‘Shrinking' Season 3 spoilers exposed during set visit, including Harrison Ford's ‘extraordinary' time with Michael J. Fox
"The doctor will see you now," Harrison Ford told a group of Emmy voters as he opened the door to his character's therapy office during a one-of-a-kind set visit for Apple TV+'s Shrinking, held Friday at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
Ford and the rest of the cast — Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley, and Brett Goldstein — had been filming since 6 a.m., but they stayed overtime until late in the evening to shake hands with Television Academy members and answer their burning questions. The whole ensemble then joined moderator Yvette Nicole Brown and showrunner Bill Lawrence at the Steven J. Ross Theater for a hilarious Q&A (in which some Season 3 spoilers were exposed), followed by a screening of the Season 2 finale.
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Ford was excited to "dish the dirt" about the comedy series, revealing to Gold Derby that he had just worked with upcoming guest star Michael J. Fox the previous day. "It was an extraordinary experience," Ford said while standing behind his character's desk, which was adorned with files, pens, and a rainbow-colored pillbox. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, the same ailment that Ford's character, Paul Rhoades, deals with on Shrinking.
"For me, he is an extraordinary presence," Ford said of Fox. "He's suffering terribly from debilitations of Parkinson's, but his brain, his humor, his intellect is 100 percent. He's fast and funny, a whole human being wrapped in this devastated body. This is real sh-t we're dealing with here. It's really fun to be a part of a serious effort to investigate what it feels like to be going through these things, and bringing the audience the experience of human empathy."
The sets were created by production designer Cabot McMullen, who has worked with Lawrence for 30 years, ever since Spin City, and set decorator Andrea Mae Fenton. They greeted audience members just outside the therapy office sets and said that the actors were "having a lot of fun in there." They explained that the show's interiors are filmed on the Warners lot, while the exteriors are shot in Altadena, which was recently devastated by the Los Angeles wildfires.
Ford and Maxwell were in Paul's office and raved about the "high-class production," as fake sunlight poured in from behind the windows. Segel, Urie, and Goldstein were in Jimmy's office, where Urie encouraged everyone not to listen to the tour guides, and Segel pretended to be one, shouting, "Right this way, everyone!" Williams and Tennie were in Gabby's office, and she proudly pointed out her character's props like "scrunchies" and "literature." And Miller and McGinley were in the kitchen set, where they divulged that production had just been allowed to return to Altadena "last week," so now they're catching up by filming eight episodes on location simultaneously.
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During the panel, Lawrence teased that Season 3 is all about "moving forward. ... This show is about being stuck. I don't know how long this show is going to go on, but I know we're going to finish the three-season story that we're trying to tell. If the show came back a fourth year and Jason's character was going, 'I'm still really sad about my wife,' I'd be in trouble. Hopefully you'll get to see these characters take steps forward in their lives, and some work out, and some do not."
On the topic of chemistry reads, Segel stated that he threw every "mandate out the window" when he met Williams, because their "conversation was just so alive, and she was just very clearly who we wanted to hire." After he read with Maxwell the first time, he immediately sent a group email to everyone that simply declared, "That's my daughter." When he got some pushback, Segel reiterated, "I'm happy to read with whoever you want, but that's my daughter."
The team then joked about how Ford was an "overnight success" because of Shrinking. "I didn't audition — they did," laughed the veteran actor whose movie credits include the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. So, why did he want to come to television? "Bill was especially heartwarming ... and it has been an exceptional honor to be a part of this company and to work on this material, with the intention that these people have. Every one of these people are rocket ship kinds of crazy, brave, wonderful people." Ford got a big laugh when he literally dropped his microphone on the floor, and Segel quickly picked it up for him.
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When it came to finding Gabby's voice, Williams remarked that "it starts with great writing and ends with great writing." Shrinking was the "perfect opportunity" for her because she'd been such a fan of Lawrence's show Scrubs, and of Segel's acting work. Williams added, "There's a genuine joy with working with [the cast], and we all make each other better. I want to rise to the occasion to work with them."
Speaking about her dual roles as an actress and as the music supervisor, Miller stated that choosing the songs "informs what I'm doing acting-wise. Liz has her heart on her sleeve ... and so now I have my heart on my sleeve all the time. My son graduated college, and I was the only one sobbing when the confetti came down. I'm that person now."
Urie told the crowd that he had no idea Brian was a narcissist until midway through Season 2. "Bill would say, 'You're such a narcissist, say something narcissistic here.' And I was like, 'Why does he keep saying this about my character?' Season 2 came out and I watched it, and I was like, 'Oh sh-t!' This therapist came to me and she was like, 'I love the show, and I love your character. You're such a narcissist.' And that was the moment I was like, 'OK, a therapist said it, I guess it's really true.' It's this weird thing where, you know, a narcissist doesn't know they're a narcissist. So, I guess I was!"
SEE 'Shrinking' acting Emmy submissions include Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, and these 4 guest stars
Goldstein hilariously went off on Lawrence for not believing that he was the right person to portray Louis Winston, the drunk driver responsible for Jimmy's wife's death. "He said, 'I don't see it. I've never seen it,'" Goldstein recalled. "And then 24 hours later, he said, 'I believe in you as an artist. If you think you can do this, then I will back you. But just know that this character and the entire season rests on you, and if you f--k this up, you killed Shrinking.'" Ultimately, Goldstein wanted to play the character because, "You only live once, so what the f--k?"
The team also discussed the return of Cobie Smulders as Sofi in Season 3, after being introduced last year as a potential love interest for Jimmy. Speaking about his former How I Met Your Mother costar, Segel said, "Cobie and I worked together for 10 years, but because of the way that I was married on that show, Cobie and I never really had many storylines together. ... There's a history between us that the characters [on Shrinking] seem to have for no reason, [and] it looks like they've known each other forever."
Miller chimed in, "We got to work with Cobie today, who I'm obsessed with. But that scene in Season 2, you just killed it."
All of the regular actors are being submitted by Apple TV+ for this year's Emmys, along with four guest stars: Smulders, Damon Wayans Jr., Kelly Bishop, and Heidi Gardner. Shrinking received two Emmy nominations last time for Segel and Williams, while Urie won the Critics Choice Award.
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