00:00Harrison Ford off-set just teases me relentlessly, and in particular, you never want to get into his golf cart.
00:07I don't know, he's somehow managed to take the governor off it or something.
00:10You take your life into your own hands.
00:13On-set, when you're working with someone who's a master and has this illustrious career and is so good at his craft,
00:20you know, I feel like I get better.
00:23Therapy is expensive, but binge-watching Shrinking Season 3 might be the next best thing.
00:29Okay, take that advice with a pinch of salt.
00:31For those who are catching up, Shrinking is a comedy drama from the creator of Scrubs and Ted Lasso.
00:35It follows grieving therapist Jimmy, who, dealing with the death of his wife, starts telling his patients exactly what he thinks.
00:42The show deals with issues like grief, depression, mental health, but in a way that feels optimistic.
00:48You're laughing one minute, and then the next you're staring into the middle distance, quietly contemplating your own unresolved trauma.
00:53I spoke with some of the cast about how fans have connected with the stories in the show and what we can expect going into Season 3.
01:00I'd love to know if fans have sort of reached out to you with any stories of their own struggles with mental health.
01:06And has that changed the way you approach playing Brian or the way you think about the show?
01:11The answer is yes.
01:12People come up to me a lot.
01:15I've had people say, you know, I've had men come up and say, my wife died, and your show has helped me get through it.
01:23And you really get a sense from the show, I think, of what happens when a member of a family, a chosen family, a community, a small community,
01:32what happens when they have to realign without her, without that person.
01:37I feel like I get a lot of reaction from fans saying, they don't talk about themselves.
01:43So they say, I have a friend or a family member, we want to get into therapy, and this allowed us to talk about it.
01:49And also people that were, you know, grieving over something, they felt like watching your show made it feel okay to laugh about things,
01:58you know, because we do laugh when things aren't, bad things happen.
02:03I mean, me, my friends come to me and I'm sometimes like, is it too soon?
02:07And they're like, oh, he's too soon, but they've laughed.
02:09Do you have a therapist?
02:10I did, but he said I didn't need it anymore.
02:13That never happened.
02:14Shrinking was co-created by Jason Segel, Brett Goldstein, and Bill Lawrence,
02:19who also happens to be Krista Miller's husband.
02:21Marriage is a dead institution.
02:24Bill Lawrence is very much in his comfort zone here.
02:27Having previously created Scrubs, he really excels at finding the zany humor in messy, complicated emotions.
02:34How do you make sure that those comedic moments don't overshadow the moments of vulnerability?
02:39That's a conversation we have a lot.
02:41You know, when we're dealing, because we will put a comic line in the middle of a very vulnerable moment,
02:48and sometimes we'll look, is that too far?
02:51Did we go too far?
02:52Is that too much?
02:53And the good thing about, you know, like, because it's a collaboration and there's the writing process,
03:00there's the shooting process, and there's the editing process,
03:02there's lots of checks and balances to make sure we haven't gone too far.
03:06And I'm sure there are lots of things that we wrote or we shot that once they got to editing it,
03:13they realized, ooh, that's a little too far, that's a little too much.
03:16But, like, we have the benefit of the greatest writers on television helping us say it the best way.
03:22Maybe, you know, we're saying it and doing it in ways that real human beings
03:27don't have the faculties to, or don't have the resources to,
03:32but I think it's human.
03:36And because we're doing it with humor, as you said, I think it's an easy pill to swallow.
03:41You want me to pull my pants down and make my ass clap?
03:44Now, I will say this.
03:46The show requires a bit of suspension of disbelief.
03:48I mean, my therapist has never tracked me down in a bar, and I'm not an expert,
03:52but I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to treat half a dozen people in the same friendship group.
03:56But honestly, I don't think it's its job to be realistic.
03:59And the boundary-crossing and oversharing we see in the characters
04:02actually makes it feel really relatable.
04:04You might argue I don't have enough boundaries.
04:06Well, maybe you have too damn many.
04:08So this season, Harrison Ford's character is dealing with worsening Parkinson's,
04:12and we see that mentor-mentee dynamic flip on its head.
04:15Harrison Ford really is the emotional anchor of shrinking.
04:18His deadpan delivery and comic timing is probably my favorite thing about the show,
04:22and crucially stops it from getting overly sweet or sentimental.
04:25My psychiatrist, Phil Stutz, Harrison's character is based after him.
04:30Your therapist, like, in real life?
04:32Yes.
04:33God, I was watching this thinking, I wish Paul was my therapist.
04:36Oh my goodness.
04:37I need that frankness and that, like, noble s***.
04:40I was wondering if any of that wisdom has translated offscreen,
04:43and what you've learned from being on set with Harrison Ford after now three seasons of this show.
04:48Harrison Ford off-set is just teases me relentlessly,
04:53and in particular, you never want to get into his golf cart.
04:57I don't know.
04:57He's somehow managed to take the governor off it or something,
05:00and you just, you take your life into your own hands.
05:04And he was like, all right, let's go.
05:06And then it was like...
05:07On set, when you're working with someone who's a master
05:11and has this illustrious career and is so good at his craft,
05:16you know, I feel like I get better.
05:18Harrison's a great example of someone you can...
05:20I let it all go because I can just be with him in the scene,
05:24and he's so great.
05:26You know, he makes me better, I think.
05:28Ta-da!
05:29The ghost is back.
05:31He's got quite a reputation for being a grump,
05:34but maybe it's my kind of...
05:35He's the opposite of that.
05:37I'm going to break this open.
05:39He's so not grumpy.
05:41He's super funny.
05:42He's not grumpy at all.
05:44He speaks to my British, sarcastic, cynical mind.
05:48For sure.
05:49He's so dry.
05:50You have to be on it.
05:51He's so dry.
05:52If you're not British, I don't think you...
05:55I mean, most Americans, I think, are not going to get Harrison in real life.
05:58He's so dry.
05:59You have to just be on your game.
06:01He's definitely British, like, inside.
06:03Yes, he is.
06:04He's British inside.
06:05It's a lovely day in London.
06:07Let's keep it that way.
06:09Shrinking is sweet without being syrupy.
06:11And it understands that sometimes healing looks like terrible decisions,
06:14oversharing, and laughing at things you probably shouldn't.
06:17My therapist might have a few thoughts on how relatable I found it.
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