Michael Urie Says His ‘Shrinking’ Episode 8 Monologue Is the ‘Greatest Gift’ He’s Received as an Actor

“Shrinking” star Michael Urie’s Episode 8 monologue explaining his compassion for Louis (Brett Goldstein) was the greatest gift he’s ever been given as an actor, he told TheWrap — though it was also the most challenging task he had to pull off.

“The hardest thing that I had to do was this big monologue where I explain my relationship with [Louis], this relationship that I sort of developed,” Urie said. “A couple of episodes later, I do the exact same monologue again, almost verbatim, like 98% verbatim to Jimmy. That was for me, like, the greatest gift I’ve ever been given as an actor for on television, for sure — and extremely challenging.”

Urie’s role, Brian, is one of the most beloved characters among the strong “Shrinking” ensemble. In the midst of juggling his career and his husband Charlie’s (Devin Kawaoka) passions to be a father, this season he finds himself entangled in some drama with his bestie Jimmy (Jason Segel) after gently befriending his sworn enemy Louis — the drunk driver involved in fatal car crash that killed Jimmy’s wife Tia (Lilan Bowden). After Jimmy spots Louis, Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and Brian chowing down and laughing together at dinner in Episode 7, “Get in the Sea,” the three try to prepare an explanation for Jimmy.

“I really enjoyed our story together, and we kind of knew that was the end of it. We kind of knew, like, ‘Oh, it’s wrapping up and we’re probably not going to really be in scenes together anymore and or as much — maybe not these three people,” Urie says of his time on set filming the dinner scene with Maxwell and Goldstein.

“[Jimmy] seeing us here will change the dynamic. So we really only got to have like a half a scene where we enjoyed one another. And so it was bittersweet,” Urie continued. “It was so fun to get to work together. But like anything in a show that has conflict, eventually the conflict comes back to bite you in the butt and that’s what happened to us there. I remember that day very vividly. It was so many emotions.”

Episode 8, titled “Last Drink,” picks up where Episode 7’s revelation leaves off. Alice and Brian approach a furious Jimmy who at first begins to lash out in rage, but is abruptly stopped by Brian’s “bear clap,” leading Alice to detail how she spied on Louis and eventually began a friendship with him. When Jimmy demands answers for how Brian’s relationship with Louis came about, Urie lets it all out.

The actor said that while he was excited about the opportunity to perform the monologue, it was a bit intimidating. However, because of Urie’s theater background, he used muscle memory to nail the speech.

“Getting a monologue was daunting because I’ve never had one on TV before, but I do know my way around a monologue because I come from theater and we have those,” Urie explained. “Very rarely do you get a monologue on television unless you’re doing a lawyer summation or a political speech or something. You’re not getting big two-page monologues like this — and they gave it to me early.”

He continued: “Long before we had the full script, I had this monologue because they knew they’re like, ‘You’re going to do it and then you’re going to do it again. So you need to really know this.’ I was super excited and so game. It was so well written and so funny.”

Urie went on to say that the writers’ stellar storytelling and the depth of the cast’s acting experience is what made the scene land just right.

“This group of actors is an extremely studied group. We all are always very prepared, so once we start rolling, once we start shooting, we’re playing immediately, as opposed to using the first couple of takes to learn our lines. That’s not a thing on ‘Shrinking,'” Urie said. “But this is such an emotionally rich show that the writing is … I never look at the script and think, ‘I could say this better’ or ‘I wish I could say this in my own words.'”

Urie is currently on Broadway starring as Prince Dauntless in the revival of “Once Upon a Mattress,” which wraps Saturday before coming to Los Angeles in December. Season 2 of “Shrinking” is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

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