Image via Apple TV
Published Apr 9, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT
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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 of Shrinking.]
Summary
- In Season 3 of the Apple TV series 'Shrinking,' Brian grows from selfish friend to selfless dad, agreeing to go to Tennessee for Charlie and their baby.
- The tight ensemble and sharp writing let the cast play, blending heartfelt moments with big, funny beats.
- The season honors Tia with reverent, funny moments, as Harrison Ford brings warmth and gravitas.
In Season 3 of the Apple TV series Shrinking, the character that took the largest journey of growth may very well have been Brian (Michael Urie), who not only stepped up as a father when he and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) adopted a baby girl, but also made the selfless decision of going with his husband to Tennessee. It may very well be the first time he considered someone other than himself, and he ultimately stepped up in a very big way. Previously, the comic relief in moments when it’s really needed, the chaos of becoming a father and having his life disrupted in a variety of new and unexpected ways seems to have given Brian a new perspective on what’s most important.
Collider recently got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Urie about Brian’s journey in Season 3 and how his character has grown. During the interview, he discussed what made him most proud of Brian, how much he loves his Shrinking castmates, what Ugly Betty and Shrinking have in common, his favorite Harrison Ford movies, one of his favorite lines in Season 3, the fun of finding the comedic beats with his co-stars, his love of a monologue, and what life might be like for Brian in Tennessee.
Michael Urie Is Proud That Brian Learned To Be a Bit Less Selfish in ‘Shrinking’ Season 3
"He so rarely thinks of others."
Collider: Brian went through a lot this season with his journey to becoming a father and navigating parenthood. How are you most proud of him in Season 3?
MICHAEL URIE: That’s a great question. I think I’m most proud of the ways in which he, specifically with his husband Charlie, thinks of others because he so rarely does. He so rarely thinks of others. Charlie has been such an afterthought for Brian, in many and many ways. He has acquiesced to what Charlie wants – getting married, having a baby, and all that stuff. But what we get to see in the latter half of the season is that he realizes that his best quality is Charlie, so he does some stuff for him. I was really proud of the scene where he agrees to go to Tennessee and even bring along their nanny and do something for someone else for once.
I feel like he would bring everyone along if he could.
URIE: Definitely. For his own enjoyment, he would bring everyone.
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Many of us really became aware of you and your work and how funny you are across all the seasons and episodes of Ugly Betty, which was another show that really did a great job with sweet and heartfelt moments and had this great ensemble cast. How did working on that show and having that experience with that ensemble compare to working on this show with this ensemble for three seasons now?
URIE: There are quite a few similarities, actually. I didn’t think there would be because the shows are very different. Shrinking is such an adult show. I always think of it as my big boy show. Ugly Betty was so camp and so colorful and so stylistic. But the ensemble of it is very similar in a lot of ways. Lightning has struck twice for me, to have a job that is this great. It’s not just that the work is good and the audience likes it and I can be proud of it because we’re saying something about the world and the human condition, but because I’m working with people at the top of their game who are also great, grateful, proud, and decent people. Everyone is so happy to be there. That was true on Ugly Betty too.
On Ugly Betty, there were a lot of us who were very young and brand new. It was our first real gig. And then, there were a few veterans. We had Vanessa Williams and Judith Light and Tony Plana, who were there to make sure that the young cast knew how special what we had was, and I am forever grateful for that. Not only did I learn from them how to work in front of the camera as an actor, how to walk a red carpet, and how to sit and do interviews like this, but I learned how to be decent to the people around you, how to treat your crew, and how to treat your fans.
On [Shrinking], everyone’s a little further along, except for Lukita [Maxwell] and Luke [Tennie], who are both very young. And obviously we have legends on this show, like Harrison Ford and Ted McGinley and Christa Miller, who have been on TV and who I’ve been watching for many, many years. It’s that same feeling of, “I’ve got your back. We know how special this is. We know how lucky we are.” I’ll never forget finishing a day when I was in the car with Jason [Segel] and Harrison in Season 1. We were in the car for several hours, and it was so fun. We got out, and we were walking back to our trailers and I said to Jason, “I don’t want it to be over.”
It was just so special getting to spend all that time with them, and for Jason and I to really get to ask some questions that we would normally be too nervous to ask. Jason, who is a movie star in his own right, said, “Aren’t we lucky?” It meant so much to me because I feel lucky every day, but that he knows it and he feels it too, and Harrison feels it too. We all feel it. How many movies has Harrison made? He treats this like it’s the first one, or the last one. It’s that special to him and the material means that much to him and doing a great job. The ensemble is the common thread between Ugly Betty and Shrinking for me. It’s the people around us, the company of actors that I get to keep.
Because we all love Harrison Ford, and this series really has made me love him even more, what is your favorite Harrison Ford movie and why?
URIE: Oh my gosh, I love this question. I think it would be Working Girl. Working Girl was very important to me when I was growing up. I think it’s a perfect movie. He is incredible in it. Of course, Melanie Griffith is incredible in it. It’s this brilliant Mike Nichols film with Sigourney Weaver as this fabulous villain and this terrific Carly Simon music playing throughout. It’s the seedy world of the 1980s, but it’s also beautiful and glamorous. Joan Cusack gives an outstanding performance. That would probably be my number one. But Harrison has been in a few perfect films. That’s one of them. Another is The Fugitive. I think that’s a completely perfect film, from beginning to end. I could watch it right now without even looking at my phone once. I would watch every frame. It’s so, so incredible. And then, another guilty pleasure Harrison Ford movie is Air Force One, which is super popcorn, super cheesy, but he is incredible. Gary Oldman is incredible. Glenn Close as the vice president blew my mind when it happened. That’s another fantastic movie. And then, of course, the Indiana Jones films.
I remember when we first started doing this show and people knew it was a comedy from the maker of Scrubs. They were like, “From the mind that brought you Scrubs and Ted Lasso.” And people were like, “What do you think about Harrison Ford doing comedy?” Harrison Ford has been doing comedy. You might not realize that Han Solo is a comedy, and Indiana Jones is a comedy, but those are comedies. Yeah, they’re action movies, and they might be sci-fi/space opera, or whatever you want to call those movies, but when he’s on-screen, you are laughing. Yes, he can play the stakes and go to the dark places. Sure, he did all those Jack Ryan movies, which are not comedies. He makes some very serious films, like Witness and Mosquito Coast. But he can do comedy. Oh yes, he can do comedy.
And he can make you cry in Shrinking.
URIE: Another film of his that I really love is Regarding Henry, which is another Mike Nichols movie, where he played a guy who was afflicted with a condition that made him seem like a kid. He was so lovely in that and so different. He was not the cool guy or the hero, but this really fragile individual. I see notes of that when we do Shrinking. I’m so happy that he has this opportunity. His character wasn’t supposed to be such a massive part of the show. They didn’t think they’d get Harrison. They made an offer and he accepted. I think his work in Season 3 is so beautiful.
Michael Urie Loves the Way They Keep Tia’s Memory Alive in ‘Shrinking’
"The further we get into this show, the further away we get from the inciting event, which was the death of Tia."
Image via Apple TVI love the scene in episode seven when Brian, Alice, Jimmy, and Summer are hanging out at Tia’s gravesite in the problematic t-shirts. What did you think of your shirt? What was it like to share that moment with the four of you together?
URIE: It was so fun. I love any chance I get to work with Lukita and Rachel Stubington, who plays Summer. Lukita is the youngest member of the cast, but in some ways the oldest. She is 20-something, going on 80-something. She is wise beyond her years, and I learn as much from her as I do from Harrison. And I think Rachel is a total star and a genius. And of course, any chance I get to be on set with Jason, I love that. I love that that’s the way we revisit this tragedy. The further we get into this show, the further away we get from the inciting event, which was the death of Tia – the tragic, horrible death of Tia that rocked everyone’s world. I love the ways that they can find to go back and approach the memory of her with respect and tragedy, but also comedy, with these wacky shirts. That was a fun day. Those were really wonderful, fun scenes to play.
I have to admit that I am not a fan of marshmallows, so I cringed watching you all have to stuff them in your mouth. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to try to talk like that. How did you even get through that scene? I also just loved the moment you have when you say, “She almost got you back,” to Louis.
URIE: It was great. It was very funny. As I recall, they were sugar-free marshmallows. It didn’t help. It helped that we weren’t on a sugar high. It was so funny. It’s very hard to try to talk. Brett Goldstein, who is actually quite a silly person, but playing such a serious character as he does on Shrinking, and how his persona is from Ted Lasso, I loved getting to do that with him. I was like, “If this is my only line in the episode, I will be happy.” Saying, “She almost got you back,” was so hilarious.
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‘Shrinking’ Creator Explains Why Season 3 Is “The Finale of This Story” Before a Completely New Season 4
"I couldn’t tell you if the last season of the show is going to be Season 5 or Season 6," says showrunner Bill Lawrence about the hit Apple TV series.
I also just love the little throwaway jokes in this show. One of my favorite scenes is in episode 10, with Gaby and Brian sitting at the counter with Derek and Liz, and Derek saying, “I want to eat fruit that smells like butt,” and having that continue to spiral between you all. What is it like to find those comedic beats with this cast?
URIE: We do become like children sometimes when we are rehearsing scenes. I wish you could be a fly on the wall and watch rehearsal. I always think of the script for this show as sacred because the writing is so good. I rarely have any questions. I rarely think, “What does this mean? What is this joke?” I can’t ever remember a time when I thought, “I could say this better,” or “This wording isn’t quite the way I would say it. I can say it better.” It’s always the best way to say it, and it’s always the best usage of words. That’s where we always begin, and the cast is incredibly prepared, always. That starts with Jason. From day one, Jason has been so prepared, and we have all risen to his level. We are prepared. We’re not buried in scripts. I’ve been on lots of shows, as a guest star or on other shows, where we’re buried in the script. Sometimes you don’t get the script until the last minute, so I don’t blame anybody for that. But on this show, it’s a really prepared cast, which is awesome.
And then, in rehearsal, there’s usually a point where we realize we can play, and we mark the moments. That was an example where we were like, “We can’t just let him saying, ‘I want to eat fruit that smells like butt,’ lie. You can’t let something like that just sit there. Everyone had to figure out how they would respond. The greatest part about this job is that, unlike life, when a funny situation happens, I have access to the greatest writers on television to tell me what would be a funny thing to say, and the greatest improviser I’ve ever worked with, in Jessica Williams, to come up with funny things. Here are very, very clever and funny people, and we can come up with these wonderful add-ons. And so, the show is, at once, very scripted, and then also flies off the rails sometimes. That is a really funny example of a moment where we all got to just play.
I love that Brian can give a TED talk in his living room and somehow find positives to being selfish because nobody else could do that in such an endearing way. What was it like to figure that speech out and have it be so charming?
URIE: That was really good writing, like all the writing on this show, but especially when they give me these long monologues, which I am very grateful for. I come from the theater, so I love monologue. I love whenever they give me one. I’m just so honored to get one. They’re so well-written. That one, in particular, came last minute. I think I had 36 hours to learn it, but it was actually quite easy because it was such good writing. Even though it seems like a contradiction, to learn Shakespeare is easy because the writing is so good, and eventually, if you look at it enough times, there’s only one good way to say it. It’s the same with the writing on Shrinking. You read the text and you don’t think, “I could say this better.” You think, “I couldn’t say this better.” And so, it just automatically sticks in your brain. I couldn’t do it right now, but with one or two brush-ups, I could probably do that monologue again. I could certainly do the one from Season 2 again because I had to do it so many times.
Michael Urie Hopes That ’Shrinking’s Brian Embraces the Western Life in Tennessee
"I could see him going all the way in and toddling Sutton around in a little cowgirl outfit."
Image via Apple TVSince we don’t know what’s going to happen with any of these characters after the finale and they each have their own things going on by the end of the season, if we were to catch up with Brian and Charlie in Tennessee, what do you think they'd be doing? What do you think we would see them doing there?
URIE: I could see Brian’s wardrobe going full Dolly, fully wearing denim boots and embracing the cowboy hat. I could see him going all the way in and toddling Sutton around in a little cowgirl outfit and just being full-on, stereotypically Tennessean. But I can’t imagine that that lasts. I can’t imagine that he is happy there, ultimately. There are only so many times you can go visit Dollywood before cholesterol and moonshine poisoning kicks in. I do like the idea that he goes and embraces the life and maybe enjoys it for a little while, in the way that Brian does dive headlong into poor decisions, but he’s going to need to be back in Pasadena soon.
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If you don't want Derek to know what you're doing, then you should make sure he can't see in your window from his balcony.
Release Date January 27, 2023
Network Apple TV
Shrinking is available to stream on Apple TV.
English (US) ·