Michael Urie is buzzing with excitement over his first Emmy nomination for season 2 of ‘Shrinking,’ where Brian’s story featured an emotional arc. Urie joins cast member Harrison Ford in earning Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
“I am all honored, entirely honored, all the way honored, and I guess all the way nominated,” Urie tells Awards Focus about being nominated. “I’m so excited. It’s so cool.”
Urie reflects on how season two of ‘Shrinking’ gave Brian surprising depth and memorable moments, including his journey toward parenthood. He shares the thrill and nerves of acting alongside Harrison Ford, the camaraderie of a cast that has become a chosen family, and the surreal joy of earning his first Emmy nomination. Urie also discusses balancing his TV role with Broadway performances in ‘Oh, Mary!’ and teases the continued growth of Brian’s story in season three.
‘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. Co-creator Brett Goldstein joined the cast in a recurring role for season 2.
Seasons 1-2 of ‘Shrinking’ are streaming on Apple TV+.
It’s so nice to meet you today.
Michael Urie: You, too. What a pleasure. Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it.
You’re welcome. I’ve already had the chance to talk with a few of your colleagues back in December: Jessica and Brett (Ted, too).
Urie: Oh, excellent. I love those two.I see you have an ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ poster in the background. I’m working with Kumail Nanjiani right now.
Yeah, I met Kumail back in 2017 when he and Emily were here for ‘The Big Sick.‘
Urie: Oh yeah, so cool. What an amazing movie. Yeah, we’re opening tonight in Oh, Mary! He’s playing the president. Should be fun.
‘Shrinking’ is one of the best shows on TV right now. I felt that season 2 really improved on the first season because it really was able to find the right balance between how much time we spend at the therapy office and how much at home and with friends.
Urie: That’s great. I’m so happy to hear that. I definitely felt like we got to learn more about Brian in season two in a major, major way, which I was so happy about. When we get the scripts, it’s like Christmas morning. That’s our opportunity to experience the show the way that a viewer will experience it. I don’t ask the writers what’s coming. I don’t like to know. I like to be surprised.
When I opened that script and in season two—I mean, season one, I was just pinching myself. I think by season two, my imposter syndrome wore off and I was like, Okay, so I guess I’m part of this and I guess I’m going to be in all these episodes. They just kept upping the ante with my character and I was so, so lucky.
I’ll never forget when I got to the end of episode four, which is the episode where my character meets Brett’s character and I confront him. He’s dropping off Alice’s wallet that she left at the coffee shop. I confront him and I saw that and I saw that scene. I thought, my gosh, they’re inserting Brian into the middle of this story. It was so exciting, so unexpected, and it ended up being this incredible arc.
How honored are you to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards?
Urie: I am all honored, entirely honored, all the way honored, and I guess all the way nominated. I’m so excited. It’s so cool. There are so many supporting actors. Every show has two or three or four or five of them. That I was able to squeak one out and that they noticed what we were doing this season and to be nominated alongside Harrison and some of my favorite queer actors like Colman, Bowen, and Jeff, and then those other guys who are also brilliant. What an amazing season. I feel very privileged, honored, and very happy to be invited to the party. It’s not lost on me how special it is to get this recognition.
I’ve been around for a little while. I’ve been on shows that got nominated for a bit of the Emmys before, I’ve been to the Emmys before, but my first time getting nominated and it really means a lot. I think that if I was younger and this was happening, I might not realize how special it is and be able to appreciate it quite as much. I’m glad that it’s happening now and with this show and when I least expected it. I just didn’t know people were smelling what I stepped in—smelling what I stepped in is the silly metaphor that I use, but I guess whatever it is that we’ve got going on on the show seems to be working.
I’m so happy the show got nominated. I’m so happy for Harrison and of course, Jessica and Jason, our casting department, and our sound mixers. Very cool that the show is being recognized and it’s a testament to everybody who works on the show who are all not only terrific, but super chill and easygoing. It’s a really cool, chill place to work. That starts with Bill Lawrence and Jason Segel who really set the tone for just an easygoing, chill place to work. Yes, we take it seriously and yes, we are passionate about the work and we work really, really hard, but it’s a stress-free zone, which is really nice, really lucky.
I feel like I would have some sort of stress if I knew I was coming into work every day working with Harrison Ford, or maybe that’s just nerves and anxiety talking.
Urie: I definitely felt that the first day. I mean, no question, I didn’t sleep the night before my first day with him. I was nervous to meet him the first day I met him. But the first day I had a scene with him, I was I was nervous. He said he doesn’t want to be treated like the giant movie star legend that he is. He wants to be treated like an actor.
He really likes acting, he likes actors, and he likes to talk about the scene and talk about the mechanics of a scene. He loves talking to the camera department and knowing what the shots are. He really likes the work and so, very quickly, he becomes a colleague and I really appreciated that. I still occasionally remind myself or I’ll see a picture of him in the wild, especially in LA. He’s sort of everywhere in LA. You can’t really get too far in Los Angeles without seeing a reference to ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Indiana Jones.’
Even the trailers that we use on sets—they put us in trailers instead of dressing rooms. There’s a whole line of trailers that they use for film sets called Star Waggons. You’ve seen them, right?
Yeah, because I’ve done a few of the studio tours so I’ve seen them outside the sound stages.
Urie: Absolutely, okay. There’s a line of them called Star Waggons and it’s wagons with two Gs because Lyle Waggoner started the company. Lyle Waggoner from the Carol Burnett show started Star Waggons, but the Star Waggons logo that’s on the side of every trailer is ‘Star Wars.’ It’s a rip off.
I was literally standing in, on the lot outside base camp with Harrison. I happened to notice over the back of his head was the Star Waggons logo, and I was like, oh my G-d. ‘Star Wars’—he’s right here in front of me. He’s right there and he’s everywhere. It is wild working with a living legend who’s still at the top of his game.
Yeah. His monologue in the finale episode—that episode by far is one of my favorites of the season.
Urie: Yeah, so beautiful. To be in that room, there was a bunch of us there that day because it was almost the entire cast, series regulars and guest cast. To be there, I’ll never forget it. None of us will.
It was very special to be there. There was a lot of young people there that day because a lot of the kids and their boyfriends, girlfriends, friends and stuff. It felt really generational to have Harrison giving this beautiful piece of acting and writing to not just the rest of the cast, but the entire crew, who all—of course, anybody on a film set is going to, in some way, idolize the man.
We got to do it all day. We spent all day doing those scenes. He did it for every angle. He gave the speech like it was the most important take. It was an amazing lesson, definitely one of the top five best days I’ve ever had on the set.
I’m sure I could ask Harrison Ford questions all day, but at some point we’ve got to get the conversation back to your character. Is there anything that you bring to Brian that isn’t on the page?
Urie: That’s an interesting question. There’s so much on the page. They give me so, so much and I treat the text of Shrinking the same way that I would treat Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, or Neil Simon. I mean, some of the great dramatists. I think it’s gospel to me. Unless I just don’t get it for some reason, which has happened maybe once, there’s rarely any reason for me to push back on anything or question anything because the writing is so taut.
I guess if I was to guess what the writers might say that I bring that’s not on the page, is probably an energy, a pace, and transitions. I think that Brian makes a lot of turns because he’s so front-footed and he doesn’t think a lot, he just sort of behaves and acts. It could be that if the writers were to watch me back and say, Oh, we didn’t write that, it would be probably more about the directions in which I go to get to the places that they’ve written, but it’s all from the text.
I mean, it really, really starts with the writing and with what they’ve come up with. I’ve even found that there’s stuff that’s in there that I don’t realize I’m playing. It wasn’t until the end of season two that I realized Brian was a narcissist. They kept mentioning it and I was like, that’s so funny that they keep calling him this or they keep saying that he’s this. Obviously, he’s not. But then I realized that he was.
An actual therapist in real life came up and said—which happens a lot. They come up to me and say they liked the show. She was like, “I’m a real therapist and I love the show.” And I was like, “That’s so cool, thank you.” And she was like, “Your character, he’s such a narcissist.” And I was like, “Okay, well now, I guess it’s true.”
I mean, if an actual psychologist is approaching me on the street to tell me that my character’s a narcissist, I guess I’m doing something right. I didn’t even realize it was happening. I guess that’s good because narcissists don’t know that they’re narcissists. I guess if I’m playing one, then I also can’t know. But then, of course, that makes me spiral and think,Well, if I don’t realize that I’m playing a narcissist, does that mean that I’m a narcissist? But I don’t know, maybe I am, probably not. I don’t know. I don’t know.
But that’s a really fun example to me of something that I didn’t even know was in the part. I was just interpreting what they wrote and it turns out that that’s what I was playing all along. I don’t know if that’s an example of absent-minded acting or subliminal acting. But it definitely, to me, if it wasn’t on the page—I’m not like a huge improv actor. I mean, occasionally, I’ll come up with something on the fly that’s kind of funny, but I don’t have that kind of a brain so I really, really treat the text like it’s gospel and this stuff is good. It’s really, really good.
There was a lengthy break between the first two seasons because of the strikes. How quickly were you able to get back into character.
Urie: There was a little bit of a learning curve. I actually remember thinking, do I remember how this guy ticks? Do I remember what he does and what it is that makes him go?
If I remember correctly, my first scene back was actually—I don’t know if you remember the scene. It’s me, Jessica, and Christa, Gaby and Liz, and we’re hiking and they sort of spill that Jimmy and Gaby are sleeping together and Brian didn’t know. I flip out and I scream at everybody on the mountain. I’m like, “Fuck you, leggings. You too, red shirt.” I’m like, Fuck this whole mountain and I scream and stuff. I don’t think that’s episode two, but we shot it first for some reason.
I’m pretty sure that was my first day back and I was like, Well, let’s see if I still got it. Luckily, it was there. I think it had to do with having such a great rant off the bat. They wrote me this angry tirade and once I was on a literal mountain, running around screaming at strangers, this hilarious material, it was a great way to just settle back into him. By the end of that scene, I was like, Okay, I think this is going to be okay. I don’t think I’m going to forget how to be him.
In addition to television, you also perform on stage. How do you decide which roles to take, especially when you’re a main series regular on a TV series?
Urie: Well, to me, my dream is being realized, getting to be a series regular in a cool show. When I’m not shooting, I get to go be in a Broadway show or an off-Broadway show. Tonight is my first night on Broadway in ‘Oh, Mary!’ The last time, I got to do ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ and the one before that, I got to do ‘Spamalot.’ It’s truly pinch-me time for me these last few years, getting to be both on TV and in the theater. I love the theater so much.
I don’t think I would say I am lucky to be that I am able to be selective. I’m in a lucky position where I can—because of my schedule, because I have this cool TV job, I have to be selective about what I’m able to do in the theater. I’ve been very, very fortunate that these things have come up and that the timing has worked out for me to do it because so much of theater is timing and you gotta be there every night. It’s not like, here’s two scenes in a movie and they need you these four days.
I’m in Oh, Mary! for the next eight weeks so that’s every night I got to be here for the most part and do the show. This is when they wanted me in it and this was great, but I will say this text—Cole Escola’s play—is some of the greatest writing I’ve ever gotten to do. And again, after this and Amy Sherman-Palladino’s script for Once Upon a Mattress and Eric Idle’s script for Spamalot, it’s an embarrassment of riches to be able to go from incredible text to incredible text and trust the words.
The cool thing about the theater is tonight’s my first night in front of a paying audience and I’m already thinking about tomorrow night because I’m sure it’ll go well tonight. I’m sure we’ll do great. But I know that as soon as I’m done, I’m going to be looking to the next night. Do you know what I mean? Looking toward, how do I get to play differently tomorrow night?
The beauty of the theater, and this is what I always think, is that we’re experiencing the same thing at the same time. It’s not like when you watch a movie or a TV show and you’re watching something that was experienced by those people months earlier. This is like, what we feel tonight is the same thing that they’re going to feel.
Some of them will have seen the show before because I think it’s really popular and people are coming back and back over and over again. But most of the people out there do not know what’s about to happen and they get to watch this unfold for the first time tonight. We are the ones who get to show them. That’s why we get addicted to theater because that feeling is so euphoric.
Yeah. I moved to Chicago for improv so just going to IO, Second City, or Annoyance, there are nights where I’m laughing harder than I do in a movie theater, just because that laughter is so contagious.
Urie: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s happening for you. It’s happening right there. Especially with improv, where you know, not only is it happening right there in the moment, but they are making it up right there in the moment. It’s very special. It’s very, very cool. Yeah.
Is there anything you can tell us about season 3 yet, or did they have you side one of those fun NDAs?
Urie: I don’t know what I can say about season three. I know Brian’s quest for a child, which was happening in season two, that continues. Brian as a parent is a big part of his journey in season three. He looks to this chosen family, as this chosen family, this group of friends that have become family, deepens more and more. He will look to them and lean on them to find out what his version of being a parent is like. It’s very funny, of course, but also very touching. He’s growing and it’s very cool to see where he’s come.
It’s also cool because of the ways that it mirrors us in real life, because none of us knew each other when we started the show, for the most part. We’ve all gotten to know each other. The cast have gotten to know each other doing the show and we’ve become this chosen family, just like the characters in the show, who didn’t really know each other.
I mean, we did, but there’d been in a period of estrangement. If Jimmy is our linchpin—my character was totally out of the picture for like a year. They went through this horrible tragedy. Characters like Liz and Gaby didn’t really know each other before. Certainly, a lot of us are now infiltrating the office and meeting Harrison’s character. Our relationships, our lives with the show in some ways are mirroring the real show.
I think that because of that, as our chemistry gets better with each other, you’ll see the characters get better, too.
I think that’s one of the reasons why I’ve enjoyed season 2 more than season 1. For one, you already have the character development.
Urie: Yeah. I think for those reasons, you’re going to enjoy season 3, too. It’s also going to have a lot of surprises like season 2. I said I don’t try to guess because whenever I have, I’m wrong. Whenever I think, Oh, it’s going to be this or, Oh, they’re going to try this. I’m wrong. I’ve stopped trying because they’ll always come up with something that I do not see coming.
At a time when a lot of shows are lucky to finish their first season, how grateful are you to have been a part of ‘Shrinking’ for three seasons so far?
Urie: Very grateful. Very, very, very lucky that that we’re that Apple has given us this chance and that Apple and Warner Brothers have been so supportive. They’re very generous, I think. I’ve been on shows where you really feel the presence of the network or you feel the presence of the studio and it’s like, this show has to work.
I’m sure that we had like a leg up because of Harrison Ford in our show. That’s obviously gonna get easy eyeballs, but there’s a lot of shows out there with major, major stars that do not make it because all the elements have to work. I think that’s such a testament to every, every department of our show that we got nominated for Best Comedy Series because that means every facet has to be working, it has to be working on all levels.
And yeah, so it was definitely a privilege to be able to play a character that grows and changes over seasons. I’ve been in shows that lasted less than a season, and that’s not as fun because you don’t get a chance to really take the character out for a spin. When you get to play a character from season one to two to three, and hopefully more, then you really get a sense of how somebody changes through the years.
Because not only is your character changing, the writers are changing, the writing is changing, and you yourself. I’m changing. I’m a different person now than I was when we shot season one. I think we’re able to reflect that in the show. It’s cool.
It was so nice to meet you.
Urie: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you writing about this. Thank you and see you the next time.