‘Shrinking’ star Jason Segel on his ‘electric’ reunion with Cobie Smulders: ‘We spent formative years together’

An exclusive look inside how the Apple TV+ comedy staged a surprise “How I Met Your Mother” meet-up. 

Season 2 of “Shrinking” saved one of its best casting reveals for last. In “Changing Patterns” — the antepenultimate episode of the Apple TV+ comedy’s strong second season — Jason Segel’s Jimmy has a charged meet-cute with a fellow single parent named Sofi, played by Segel’s former “How I Met Your Mother” co-star Cobie Smulders. It’s the first time Segel and Smulders have appeared together onscreen since the CBS comedy’s finale in 2014.

“We wrote the part and then we were like, ‘Who do we put in this?’ And I said, ‘What about Cobie?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great,’” Segel tells Gold Derby about getting his former co-star onto the show. “It’s a pretty small world, and everybody kind of knows everybody one way or another. So it was just a phone call.”

In interviews about her appearance, Smulders has shared how she was a huge fan of “Shrinking” and would love to appear in future episodes, particularly if the apparent spark between Jimmy and Sofi is given room to grow larger in later seasons. It’s obvious in speaking with Segel that the admiration between the actors is mutual. 

“There is something really special [about our bond],” he says. “We spent formative years together on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ with the entire cast. I was 24 when I started on the show and I was 33 when it ended. That’s when you’re becoming who you are and also being a mess and getting things right and getting them wrong. So we did all of that in front of each other. And I think there was something electric about the dynamic of the scene with Cobie because it’s two people looking at each other 10 years later. It was like, ‘Look at us now.’ Like, ‘Look at what you’ve been through, look at what I’ve been through. And here we are still standing, acting with each other.’ So there was a built-in intimacy to the way those characters looked at each other, too.”

Co-created by Segel, Brett Goldstein, and Bill Lawrence, “Shrinking” is about how Jimmy rebuilds his life following the death of his wife, Tia (Lilan Bowden). She was killed by a drunk driver named Louis (played by Goldstein in Season 2), who seeks to make amends for his mistake by connecting with Jimmy’s daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), and Jimmy himself. Through 10 episodes, any reconciliation between Jimmy and Louis has been impossible.

“We’ve given a word that was the true north for each season. Season 1 was grief and Season 2 was forgiveness,” Segel explains. His brief scenes with Goldstein thus far have been charged with emotion, especially a face-to-face the pair share in the show’s eighth episode, “Last Drink,” when Jimmy tells Louis to leave Alice alone. That threat, previously unknown to Alice, reveals itself in the 10th episode, leaving Jimmy and Alice with a large rift in their relationship.

“I have found with time that for me, my best strategy acting-wise, is to know my sh– really well. To know it so well that I like to think of it as if I’m planning a river rafting trip and then I step into the river, and all of a sudden, the river is in charge,” Segel says when asked about acting opposite Goldstein, a two-time Emmy Award winner. “And these plans you have, they’re helpful but moot. So when Brett’s doing something, my job is just to be there for it. My job on the show is to be there for all these people doing their thing. And that may be part of the function of being the main guy with all these people orbiting you and it’s your job to let them reflect off of you.”

Before it premiered, “Shrinking” made headlines for casting Harrison Ford in a lead role opposite Segel, the first time the “Star Wars” legend had appeared on a series television show in his career. According to Segel, the thought back then was that he and co-star Jessica Williams would “be funny around Harrison” and Ford would respond with his trademark gruff grumpiness. 

“So that’s how we wrote him at first. And then we got to episode six of Season 1, where there’s this party that Harrison’s character Paul shows up at stoned out of his mind, and you’re like, ‘Oh, no, he can do moves. He’s doing Peter Sellers-style comedy right now,’” Segel says. “So when you get exposed to all the strengths of a cast like this, and you start wanting to see more of what you weren’t able to imagine going in.”

Outside of actors like Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher, who worked with Ford on the “Star Wars” films, few performers have been afforded a front-row seat opposite the acting giant for such a long period. Segel says that while he doesn’t want to speak for Ford, what he has gathered about his relationship with “Shrinking” is that Ford appreciates being on a show where “everybody really f–king cares.”

“I think that’s increasingly rare, especially as budgets inflate and things become about different criteria,” Segel says. “Harrison doesn’t have to work anymore. I don’t think I’m speaking out of school when I say that. So I think the ‘why’ is a really good question. And it’s because you love it and you care maybe being around an energy like that is why you do this in the first place.”

“Shrinking” was quickly renewed for Season 3 after the second season debuted. The show will start production of its third season early next year, and Segel says the true-north phrase for what’s to come is already decided.

“Season 3 we’re calling ‘moving forward,’” he reveals. “What is the next stage of trying to get through when the worst thing happens to you? What do you do? And so the next part is like trying to get your life back together.”

“Shrinking” episodes debut on Wednesdays on Apple TV+. The second season finale starts streaming on Dec. 25.