Jason Segel admits feeling awed working with Harrison Ford on 'Shrinking'

How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel, who plays widowed therapist in the series, admits he was intimidated by Harrison Ford. Segel, who is also a co-creator of the show, spoke about his experience with Collider.

“Well, to be totally honest, Harrison is a pretty intimidating present. This guy you’ve idolized forever shows up on set and you’re acting with him, your initial thought actually isn’t, “God, I’d love to hang out with this guy.”

“It’s more, “I hope that I’m pleasing to him.” I felt awe. But one of the things he does that is really generous is that he tries to burst through that awe and make you feel like a peer and a contemporary. I think that my relationship to Harrison very much mirrored Jimmy and Paul’s relationship. I wanted his approval. I wanted him to tell me I was doing a good job, and he did. He was very kind to me.”

“One of the things that I realized about myself, after How I Met Your Mother, is that part of the reason I’m doing this job is to learn. With each job, you get to take a little master class on whatever subject it is that you’re exploring, and not just the subject, but your relationship to it.”

“It’s a really amazing gift of the job. One of the things I really enjoy is tackling new projects constantly knowing that streaming has changed the landscape, so that you can do a project like this while you do other things, and not have to do 24 episodes a year. It was a whole different era of television, when we did How I Met Your Mother.”

Shrinking is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein. It premiered on January 27, 2023, on Apple TV+. It was renewed for a second season in March 2023.

The show follows a therapist, Jimmy Laird, dealing with severe grief, who begins to trespass ethical boundaries by telling his patients what he really thinks, resulting in drastic changes to their lives.