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After making people laugh – and occasionally cry – in films and TV shows for just over 25 years now, Shrinking star Jason Segel is finally starting to accept that “he’s good at this”.
And for that, he can thank his co-star Harrison Ford, who has been able to convince Segel what his fans have known for decades. “One of the things that I’ve learned from Harrison is like, ‘Hey, kid, you’ve earned the right to trust knowing that you’re good at this and it’s gonna be good,’” Segel tells WHO.
“And that has been really helpful for me, because I’m holding my breath until the finished product comes out and I like it. I think I would enjoy myself a lot more in this job and in this life if I just had a little more ease about [the fact that] it always seems to work out.”
Segel admits he still hasn’t quite “bought that lesson yet”, but he certainly seems to be enjoying life. He is abuzz about the release of Season 2 of comedy-drama Shrinking, which he created with Brett Goldstein, who also joins the cast this season, and Bill Lawrence, who both worked on Ted Lasso.
In Shrinking, Segel, 44, stars as Jimmy Laird, a father and therapist going through his own personal crisis as he grieves the sudden death of his wife. He begins to use unorthodox methods, which become known as “Jimmying”, on his patients, putting him at odds with his boss, played by Ford. Basically, he gets involved in their lives and tells them what to do.
Segel says the dynamic between his character and Ford’s mirrors their real life relationship which has developed since the Indiana Jones star signed on to the show.
“There’s something that I think is true, both of our character dynamic and our personal dynamic, which is that I’m a little sweaty about wanting Harrison Ford to like me,” he reveals. “And I’m not generally like that. I’m like a nagging younger brother to Harrison, I think, but we’ve developed the most beautiful friendship, and that’s something I really, really cherish.”
Segel says the series, like all his work, draws on his personal life and experience. “Everything that I participate in the writing process of or act in is drawn from my personal life,” he tells WHO. “It’s kind of the only way I know how to make art. I don’t think we manifest it out of nowhere.
There are moments in the exploration of Jimmy getting over losing his wife where I think about break-ups or I think about paths of my life that could have been taken that I didn’t take – things that will never be that I really believed were going to happen. So, yeah, I think it’s all personal – that’s the only way I know how to do it.”
Segel says creating the characters and their ability to laugh about their tragedies and mistakes comes from his belief that life is “clunky” and that “all these mistakes we’re making with the right perspective are pretty funny”.
Forgiveness is a strong theme in the second season and it’s something Segel tries to offer others as well as himself. “I offer a lot of grace for our humanity,” he explains. “I mess up all the time, I do it wrong all the time, I say the wrong thing all the time, but I hope that it’s all taken with [a sense of] ‘Oh, this guy’s a pretty good guy, and he’s trying his best.’
“And if we all have that for each other, I think it would be a lot easier. People can get so mad about people making mistakes, by saying the thing wrong, but my experience of life is that it has been this series of mistakes that have led me to figure out who I am. And so if we rob people of that ability to get it wrong, sometimes, like, what’s going to happen in your life if you don’t get it wrong, sometimes? I don’t know. I’ve been led to a pretty great place because I tried a lot of stuff.”
(Shrinking Season 2 premieres on Wednesday, October 16 on Apple TV+.
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