Jason Segel Video Interview On ‘Shrinking’ Season 4 Move Past Acute Grief

They’re already shooting Season 4, but the Shrinking cast — co-creator/co-writer Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams and Michael Urie — took a break to chat about their Emmy-nominated third season at Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio.

Segel, who stars as Jimmy and serves as executive producer and writer alongside Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, teased a little about the upcoming season of the Apple TV comedy series, after Season 3 scored 10 Emmy nominations including for Outstanding Comedy Series.

“We knew that we wanted to get out of the acute stage of grief as a show because it will run out of steam eventually,” Segel said. “So we had a lot of talks about what another cycle could look like. What was interesting to me is what does it look like when you then decide, ‘OK, I’m ready to take it for a spin now. I’ve reached the end of the acute stage. I’m going to walk out this front door and try to have a good day.’ Sounds great, but it turns out it’s its own set of clumsiness and hilarity, and it almost feels like a bit of a rom-com to me, to try again at 45 years old. I think there is a lot of fun in there.”

RELATED: Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio – Deadline’s Complete Coverage

The show follows Jimmy, a grief-stricken therapist who decides to try radical honesty with his patients, with mixed results — helped and hindered by his fellow shrinks, Paul (Ford) and Gaby (Williams), along with his best friend and lawyer Brian (Urie).

Watch the Contenders conversation below with the cast (all also Emmy-nominated this year), and scroll down for photos from the event.

In Season 3, Jeff Daniels appeared as Jimmy’s father, and Segel said that had been a great revelation in what drives Jimmy and his perception of Paul as a kind of father figure. “You are given the reason that somebody is lacking or defective or yearning for something, and you see it really literally when Jeff Daniels arrives. It makes his obsession with Paul suddenly make sense. This guy has never had somebody tell him that he did a good job. He’s never had someone put his arm around and say, ‘It’s going to be OK, kid.’ All of these things that we suddenly understand, like, ‘Oh, this is what it’s all been about for Jimmy, and through Paul, he’s just looking for somebody he admires and respects to tell him he’s doing OK.’”

Ford spoke about his enjoyment of the Paul-Jimmy dynamic, which deepened in Season 3 as Paul’s Parkinson’s symptoms advanced. “I think the relationship is complicated,” Ford said. “I think there’s the surface relationship which is pretty clear, but then there’s something else between these two guys, and I think it’s each of them finding themselves through their relationship with each other. There’s something that he touches in me that I have not found in my character’s life. There’s something in my character that he has not found in his character’s life. And there’s something about the casting as well. This big guy and this old man are kind of a usual combination. … And the writing is so good. The people that I’m working with are so talented and free and happy to be doing what they’re doing. It’s just been a joy for me to be involved in the show.”

Jason Segel

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Michael Urie

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Jessica Williams

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

For Williams, Gaby and Jimmy’s no-holds-barred back and forth is like a “volley” she said, with Segel always returning the serve. “There’s nothing really you can give him that he’s not going to show up and be excited about and ready to do. I think we all want to do this show to the best of our ability, and have it succeed. And a big part of that is when No. 1 on the call sheet is down to clown … it trickles from the top down.”

Urie’s character Brian has become a parent this season. What was it like for Urie to play a narcissistic guy forced to put someone else first?

“It’s awesome to get to play a guy that’s evolving,” he said. “I didn’t even know if the character was a narcissist until a literal therapist told me halfway through Season 2, and I was like, ‘Have I been doing that?’ But now because the show is so mature we get to see him change. We don’t just leave him there to face adventures that way. And all the characters have their flaws. They’re in this beautiful chosen family of yes, a bunch of therapists, but also a bunch of empathetic people that love each other.”