Harrison Ford takes on first major TV role in comedy Shrinking

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood icon Harrison Ford is best known as the action hero of the Indiana Jones (1981 to present), Star Wars (1977 to present) and Blade Runner films (1982 to 2017).

So it was an unexpected coup when the creators of the new television comedy Shrinking convinced the 80-year-old American actor to play a key character – the star’s first major television role.

Now streaming on Apple TV+, it follows grieving psychotherapist Jimmy (Jason Segel, who also co-created the show) as he flirts with a mental breakdown following his wife’s death.

This alarms his friends and his boss (Ford) – especially when Jimmy begins impulsively telling patients what he really thinks of their problems.

At a press event in Los Angeles, Shrinking co-creator Bill Lawrence – who also writes and produces the Emmy-winning comedy series Ted Lasso (2020 to present) – says he offered Ford the part expecting him to turn it down.

“Harrison’s my neighbour and so I knew him a bit. I asked him to read the script (for the first episode) and he said, ‘I like it. Am I going to be in the next one more?’”

Lawrence – the American writer, director and producer who created the medical sitcom Scrubs (2001 to 2010) – then told Ford he could be in the rest of the episodes “as much as you want”.

But when the veteran performer was told who would play Jimmy, he drew a blank.

Lawrence, 54, recalls telling Ford: “It’s a show with Jason Segel, it’s going to be great. And Harrison goes, ‘Who’s Jason Segel?’”

He then sent Ford some of the American actor’s films to watch, and Ford “really loved Jason’s work and thought he was a great comedic actor and writer”.

But Ford could not resist sending his new co-star a teasing text about the latter’s full-front nudity in the comedy film Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) – a message Lawrence and Segel are reluctant to quote verbatim.

Lawrence says: “I’m not going to say it, but the text from Harrison said, basically, ‘Nice nude body’.”

“It didn’t say ‘nude body’,” Segel, 43, clarifies with a grimace, and later reveals, when pressed, that Ford had texted “nice penis”.

But just as Segel had no qualms baring all in that movie, he tries to be as open as possible emotionally too.

“Life is really vulnerable. The best I was able to express vulnerability was literally in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, with full-frontal nudity.

“But there are moments in (Shrinking) that are the same level of emotional vulnerability.

“It’s the same impulse of, ‘Let’s get really honest about what life actually feels like when nobody’s looking,’” Segal says.

Indeed, it was tricky finding humour in profound loss, with Lawrence describing Shrinking as “a bit sad, but mostly funny”.

“We wanted to write a show about grief because right now, the world’s a bit of a dumpster fire and you can’t meet anybody who isn’t at least two or three degrees away from some sad s*** going on in their lives.

“And my family approaches that with humour and comedy.”

Hitting tough times can open up possibilities, adds Segel, star of the long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005 to 2014).

“Rock bottom is interesting because it seems like it’s a sad place, but it’s actually very hopeful because there’s no place to go but up.

“And then watching people scramble in the dark to try to pull themselves out of a hole is, I think, an inherently funny thing.”

Shrinking is showing on Apple TV+.