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'Shrinking' star Michael Urie reveals run-in with Harrison Ford at the NYC Pride Parade
'Shrinking' star Michael Urie reveals run-in with Harrison Ford at the NYC Pride Parade
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Actor Michael Urie recalls moments with JLo, Cher at 2019 Met Gala
Michael Urie recalls a few stories from attending the 2019 Met Gala to USA TODAY's Ralphie Aversa. The actor wore a custom Christian Siriano design.
NEW YORK - Michael Urie has two things on his mind in the month of June: Pride and his TV series "Shrinking." The actor reveals that Harrison Ford, his co-star in the Apple TV+ dramedy, is a common thread.
Urie, 44, recalls that in 2009 he was riding on a float in New York City's Pride Parade and spotted a familiar face in the crowd: Ford, standing on a lamppost, watching the festivities. Urie nudged his friends and pointed out the "Indiana Jones" actor, but quickly forgot about it.
In 2012, while Urie was working with Nick Jonas on Broadway in "How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," the actor was reminded of the celebrity sighting. "(Jonas') bodyguard comes up to me and he is like, 'You made a lot of trouble for me during the Gay Pride Parade. I was watching Harrison Ford. You pointed him out and everyone swarmed him,'" Urie says of the conversation. "I thought that was just a guy that looked like Harrison Ford. It was really him."
On the set of "Shrinking," Urie brought up the incident to Ford, who immediately asked what movie he was shooting at the time in New York. What the "Star Wars" actor did next shocked Urie. "(Ford) pulls up his phone and, I kid you not, Harrison Ford Googles 'Harrison Ford movies' to figure out what movie he was shooting," Urie says. "It was so funny to watch him Google himself to figure out what movie he was shooting." (Ford was filming "Morning Glory" with Diane Keaton.)
Michael Urie is currently filming 'Shrinking' Season 3
Urie jokes he'll be earning "a lot of frequent flyer miles" in June. The actor began the month in New York, winning a Drama Desk Award for best featured performance in a musical for "Once Upon a Mattress." He's also been in Los Angeles shooting Season 3 of "Shrinking." Urie is also returning to the East coast for Pride Plays, a festival he co-founded that celebrates queer playwrights. The festival, held in Washington D.C. in early June, moves to New York for a June 23 set of performances at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater.
"Shrinking" stars Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a grieving and filter-free therapist. Segel also co-created the series and co-writes it alongside Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence. Urie plays Brian, a lawyer and Jimmy's best friend. In February, Urie's performance earned him a Critics Choice Award for best supporting actor, and he says he's excited about Brian's storyline for Season 3. Michael J. Fox, who worked with Lawrence on the ABC sitcom "Spin City," is also set to join the cast.
"I think that we are helping people talk about mental health, which is very cool," Urie says of the show's impact. The show "is ultimately about mental health. The linchpin of the show is therapy, because our main characters are therapists. I think it's given people the permission to talk about their mental health because we are talking about it so openly. Jimmy breaks the rules. I think that has taken the stigma off of mental health."
