Brett Goldstein, who co-created Shrinking alongside Jason Segel and Bill Lawrence, will come to the screen this season, thanks to Segel's urging.
The second season of the Apple TV+ comedy – which follows grieving therapist Jimmy (Segel) as he breaks the rules and tells his clients exactly what he thinks – sees Goldstein join the cast in a surprisingly dark role; Lawrence admitted that he initially shot down the Ted Lasso lead for the part, until Segel changed his mind.
“I made a mistake that I think audience members make sometimes when they equate someone with a part they played. He was supposed to be an empathetic, sweet guy and in my head I was thinking, 'No, Brett is more like [Ted Lasso character] Roy Kent. “And then I'm like, 'What am I talking about? He's such a sweetheart and he's such a lovely person,'” Lawrence said The Hollywood journalist Tuesday at the show's Los Angeles premiere. “Jason Segel actually came to his senses and said, 'What are you doing, man? We should just have Brett play this part.” I'm not going to spoil it, but the show would only work if I ended up rooting for this guy, and I think that kills it.
Segel explained that he fought for Goldstein: “I knew, secretly, that he wanted to play that part and I knew he would tear it apart. I have a lot of experience as Marshall Eriksen [in How I Met Your Mother] and then work so that people see me as other characters; I know he's probably dealing with it like Roy Kent, so I just wanted to be the voice to say no, do something completely different, let's stop it now. And he's great on the show.
Lawrence joked that another advantage to casting Goldstein was having him clean-shaven for the role, quipping, “There are very few things that bothered me, but I wanted him to shave his beard, not so much for the character but for how I knew that would have made him a little unhappy.”
Last season also saw the revelation that Harrison Ford's character is battling Parkinson's disease, something that will be explored further this year.
Segel said they approached Ford's storyline “the same way we approach all kinds of tough topics on the show, just with humor,” while Lawrence explained the personal connection, with his grandfather and Goldstein's father to whom he is was diagnosed with Parkinson's, and the writer who had began his career on Rotation city with Michael J. Fox.
“It's really important for us to represent him in an authentic way and honor him and I think Harrison is absolutely overwhelming,” Lawrence emphasized. “It makes me really proud to see what he's doing.”
He also noted the “pushback” they received during the first season, with “people saying, 'A real therapist would never do what Jimmy is doing, there would be consequences.' We were like, 'No, duh, this is going to be what the finale is about!'” Lawrence added, however, “the therapeutic community has been kind and really embracing us because they know it's a fictional story and I think the core of it central is, I think every therapist character is out there trying to be helpful and trying to help people I think they agree on that.
Shrinking the second season, which also stars Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Luke Tennie and Lukita Maxwell, will begin streaming on October 16 on Apple TV+.