On ‘Shrinking,’ Christa Miller pulls double duty in front of and behind the camera, a balancing act that has proven both creatively fulfilling and personally transformative.
“I feel like I live in ‘Shrinking,’ which is such a positive place to live,” Miller says. “It’s the most hopeful, filled-with-gratitude place to live.”
Christa Miller opens the conversation with warmth and gratitude, reflecting on the rare alchemy that makes ‘Shrinking’ resonate—from its writing and ensemble to the deeply personal creative fulfillment it’s brought her. She describes the role of Liz as both a professional and emotional breakthrough, allowing her to explore new dimensions as an actor while also reigniting her passion for storytelling. At the same time, Miller emphasizes how the series has expanded her world beyond her previous work-life balance, crediting the show with inspiring personal growth, new relationships, and a renewed openness to risk-taking in both her career and life.
‘Shrinking’ started as a comedy series where a grieving therapist, Jimmy (Jason Segel) breaks the rules and tells the blunt truth to his clients. In ignoring his own training and ethics, Jimmy starts changing people’s lives as well as his own. The series has certainly grown into a true ensemble comedy series where the writers have found the right balance between work and home life.
Created by Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel, ‘Shrinking’ stars Segel, Harrison Ford, Christa Miller, Jessica Williams, Michael Urie, Luke Tennie, Lukita Maxwell, and Ted McGinley. Season 3 guest stars include Brett Goldstein, Damon Wayans Jr., Cobie Smulders, and Candice Bergen while Michael J. Fox and Jeff Daniels make special appearances.
All episodes of ‘Shrinking’ are streaming on Apple TV+.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?
Christa Miller: I’m well. It’s so nice to meet you.
AF: ‘Shrinking’ recently concluded its third season. How special does it feel to be part of one of the best shows on TV right now?
Christa Miller: Thank you so much. I have to say I feel really grateful. There’s so many magical things about this show. It seems to have all come together in terms of cast, writing, and how the crew is. The material is incredible. I get to do things that I’ve never done before, lean into them, play a character that I haven’t ever played before, and work on hidden parts of myself that are slowly coming out. It’s also changed my life personally.
AF: In what way?
Christa Miller: I definitely feel—I had three kids. I was working. My world was small in terms of just socially and just doing the kid thing. I feel like I have expanded in terms of work. It brought my passion for acting back, my passion for doing drama, to dare to take risks, and to be open to more new things in my life, and new friendships and relationships.
AF: I love how the series has been able to find the right balance between work and home life.
Christa Miller: Yeah. You’re definitely going between the two and the work life, especially in terms of Jason and the psychiatrist and the therapist in that office. It’s all done from two psychiatrists that really tell them exactly what the right thing is in the writing.
Harrison’s character is based on my psychiatrist, actually, Phil Stutz. He’s written a few books and he’s got tools and Harrison will say the tools exactly as they’re written. It’s fun for me, actually, because some of the scenes I’m not in—I’ve been seeing my psychiatrist for 26 years, and then I’ll watch the show and I’ll go, oh, right, I should be doing that tool. I forgot about that tool. That tool needs to come back in my life.
AF: Given the character development during the first two seasons, how did you approach the role of Liz going into season 3?
Christa Miller: We get the scripts a week in advance. I was hoping that she was going to loosen up and also trust her relationships in her life that she has now—I don’t think she had a lot of friends before—and trust that people care about her and she’s enough, that Liz was enough. I think she thought she was only having value because she was a mom. I think a lot of people can relate to that. I can relate to that. You think your value is only if you do have this going on in your life.
She’s learning she has value—just being herself, she’s enough. I don’t think she’s earned it yet. I think she’s hopefully going in that direction.
AF: Do you have any input in Liz’s story?
Christa Miller: Not really. I can make suggestions. Sometimes my husband and I will go over the script and I’ll have joke suggestions. And mostly, my husband goes, “Lateral move. No.” But no, really, the writing staff is so incredible. I think my husband’s brilliant. Really, he’s like no other. I really trust in what they’re going to bring and it’s also fun not knowing.
Harrison mentioned it the other night on a panel—because he’s never worked on a television show—when he gets a movie, he knows what the whole movie is going to be, right? So he can work on that. And this show, you don’t know what’s coming up next week. I lock myself in my office and I get to work and I figure out the puzzle. And that’s fun. It’s one of the reasons I love being an actor. You don’t know what’s going to be happening from week to week.
AF: What’s it been like getting to act with this cast throughout the past few years?
Christa Miller: It’s been really fun. The writers write every character so specifically and all of us have a different acting style. It’s not like sometimes on other shows, you’ll see that everybody’s funny or everyone talks the same—everyone’s different. Also, week to week, you don’t know who you’re going to have scenes with. This year, I got to work a lot with Michael Urie and we laughed so much that we got in trouble.
I love working with Harrison because I seem to—Liz seems to be the only person in the cast that is not scared of him or doesn’t need him for a job so she just goes and gives him shit. I just think that’s the most fun ever.
AF: What’s it been like specifically getting to work with Harrison Ford? He’s a screen legend.
Christa Miller: He’s a screen legend, but he doesn’t act like one. All he does is tease me mercilessly. He’s very, very funny and he has such a dry sense of humor. Some people, if you don’t really tune into that really dry sense of humor, you think he’s fucking with you, and he always is fucking with you. He always is—he’s so dry that you’re alert.
I think working with him—Harrison is the person that I can do all my notes all weekend and I can do all the things and have an attention. And then, when I show up to work with Harrison, which is I do in general, but with Harrison in particular, I just throw it out. If you know your lines, you’re going to be good with Harrison Ford. Better than you should be.
AF: In addition to working in front of the camera, I noticed that you’re also a music supervisor on the series.
Christa Miller: I am. I do the music for ‘Shrinking,’ ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Bad Monkey,’ ‘Scrubs,’ and ‘Cougar Town.’ But ‘Shrinking’ is so near and dear to my heart because when you’re on a show, doing the music is so personal. I feel like I live with Liz and these characters all year round because I’ve been amassing playlists for our fourth season for the past four months. We start in a month and then after the season wraps, I have to edit. I feel like I live in ‘Shrinking,’ which is such a positive place to live. It’s the most hopeful, filled-with-gratitude place to live. It’s given me a lot in my life.
AF: How did you get into music supervision?
Christa Miller: When I was growing up, my mom was a supermodel before they coined the term, and she always played cool music for me. My mom had me when she was really young. I grew up in New York and so I was exposed to cool music since I was little. I was the first iteration of any Walkman situation. I would listen to headphones and walk around New York. I listened to music and think of movies, write movies in my head, put the soundtrack in, and think of myself in movies.
I made mixtapes. I was a big mixtape girl. I used to do the door at nightclubs. When the DJs had to take a break, I would go in and sub for them when they had to go to the bathroom or anything. I would DJ in New York a little bit.
When Bill was doing ‘Scrubs,’ he wasn’t happy with the music. I asked him a couple of times. He said, “No, you can’t do it.” And I said, “I’ve got it.” I put the music in and then he said, “Okay, now you’re the music supervisor.” That’s how it started and then I ended up just doing all of his shows.
I have a partner named Tony Von Pervieux. He was in charge of music at ABC. He did a dare to be great situation and left and came and he’s my partner on all of these projects.
AF: Do you ever think about what your career could have looked like without making those early appearances on ‘Seinfeld’?
Christa Miller: It’s funny because when I studied in New York, I studied for four years at American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Neighborhood Playhouse. I thought I was going to be—I had a little, how do you say it? I would say chaotic childhood. I thought I’m going to be this very dramatic actress. When I was walking around New York, it was all very dramatic and crying and things.
One of my first jobs was on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ and it was the most fun. Will Swift was playing music. They would do speed run-throughs. They kept adding me to scenes. And I was like, Oh, and a casting director said to me, “You are pretty and funny, and you should do this. This is your niche. You’re going to be successful at this.” It kind of changed the trajectory of my life. And then the ‘Seinfeld’s and jobs like that. I did ‘Party of Five’ and ‘Northern Exposure.’
But it was the sitcom that was really making me laugh and then it worked out to be the perfect schedule. If you have kids, to do a sitcom is the best. And then I got ‘Drew Carey.’
AF: I watched ‘Cougar Town’ all the time when it aired on TV what feels like forever ago. With Scrubs having made its comeback recently, could we see ‘Cougar Town’ making a comeback down the road?
Christa Miller: From your lips to G-d’s ears. We had so much fun on that show. I’m not kidding that every day we went over an hour because of laughing. I love everyone on that show. Courtney’s one of my dearest friends. We’ve never laughed as hard as we laughed on ‘Cougar Town’ from the morning till night. I would just drive to work, just couldn’t wait for the day. I hope they do.
I’m begging Bill. Bill did an interview and he was like, “Oh, I’m considering it.” So please, whatever you can do, Danielle, please.
AF: Yeah. They had one of the watch parties in Louisville and Josh was at that one so I went.
Christa Miller: Josh is my favorite. Everyone’s my favorite—Busy. We got it. Danielle, I feel like you could make it happen. If you are to ever interview Bill Lawrence, please tell him that the people want it.
AF: I’ve been doing quite a lot of ‘Shrinking’ interviews during the past few years. So far, I’ve spoken with you, Ted, Jessica, Brett, Michael. I haven’t spoken with Bill yet.
Christa Miller: Well, I feel like he should be the next on your list, and I think you just need to sort that out and get it straight. Can you do that for me, Danielle? I mean, I can only do so much. Bill is like, Oh, would you stop? I’m like, What about this? He’s like (inaudible). He’ll listen to you, maybe.
AF: I’ll see what I can do on this end.
Christa Miller: Thank you.
It’s been a pleasure getting to chat with you, and I can’t wait to see what season four looks like, especially since it’s going to have a reset with a few of the characters now moving across the country.
Christa Miller: Yep, exactly. It’s still going to be great. It was a pleasure talking to you.