Steven Prusakowski
Apple TV+’s comedy-drama Shrinking is not an easy show to describe while it is a comedy it also tackles grief, sadness and healing from numerous perspectives. As tough it is to describe, it is easy to enjoy. While the series, created by the powerhouse team of Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein and Jason Segel (who also stars as Jimmy) brings together a unique group of people all dealing with their own issues, it still finds a way to be hopeful and funny as hell.
In the series where several characters are working through their own challenges, there is one whose journey really connects – Jimmy’s daughter, Alice, played by Lukita Maxwell. Not only has Alice lost her mother, she faces the added anguish of feeling as if she lost her father. The pair struggles to comfort each other due to the massive wall between created by the inability to process their own grief. Among a cast of heavy hitters including Segel, Christa Miller, Jessica Williams, and even Harrison Ford, Maxwell not only hold her own, she is a standout – a vital part of show’s emotional core that makes it so affecting.
Maxwell spoke with Awards Radar about her work on the series in an interview covering Segel’s generosity as an actor, working with the legend Harrison Ford, the energy on set and much more. Watch our entire conversation at the bottom of the article. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.
On Alice and Sean’s relationship:
“I feel like it had a good resolution. Alice helped him out with the business. They’re rebuilding their friendship in a way that it’s not awkward for Sean (Luke Tennie). There’s that moment when they’re dancing together at the at the wedding at the end of episode 10 and Jimmy kind of swoops in but there’s, there’s good vibes – we’re definitely friends. I don’t know if they’re wanting to kind of venture off into romance land. I think that Alice learned her lesson. What I’m trying to say, it is was a message for her to focus on herself, because she hasn’t dealt with grief yet. She hasn’t dealt with the loss of her mother yet. She’s watched her dad, try and grieve and she’s had to be the one to keep her shit together. But I don’t think she’s fully had a chance to grieve. She’s trying to get it out in these 15 minute sessions, but it’s not… She doesn’t have closure, is what I’m trying to say. I think that she’s gonna focus on herself – I hope that she focused on herself. I hope that as writers are listening, right now. I’m on Team Alice – I’m not on Team Allison Sean, at the moment. I think, for season two, I want my girl to focus on herself. But we’ll see.”
On how tough it is to be mean to Jason Segel:
“I’ll say that I’m different from Alice because I would not ever in a million years talk to my parents the way she talks to Jimmy. I think that she’s really harsh with the guy honestly. But I mean, maybe for good reason. I don’t know. But I do remember there’s that one scene where Jimmy groans Alice, and the scene ends with me saying, ‘I fucking hate you!’ Just screaming at his face. ‘I fucking hate you,’ and him responding with ‘Well, I fucking love you,’ as I’m like running upstairs to my bedroom. It broke my heart every single time we did take of that, because it felt like I just had to hug Jason after every take it, because it felt so wrong by shouting that in his direction for the for the character. Yes, of course as like a teenage convoluted mind I couldn’t see how that’s coming out, but just for me and my relationship with Jason personally, at the end of the day, I was like, ‘I hate you. I love you so much.’
On working with Harrison Ford:
“The first day I met him was at the table read, we were all in the room with all the execs like, sitting around this giant table. I didn’t say hi to him before, I don’t think I got it. I think I met almost everybody before we sat down to read except for Harrison, because I think he walked in from whatever. I remember he walked in kind of later. and he just sat down and then we began. But I remember the that day, after the table read, he walks over to me, like across the room is looking at me walks over to me, no words. This man just puts one arm on my shoulder and goes like this (nods) and then walks away. Pass out – last thing that he could have done. The first time we actually, like spoke and had a conversation was our first thing shooting together, which was the first park bench scene that we have. And he’s lovely. He’s just the coolest, he’s just so cool. He’s just so cool.”
Be sure to watch the full interview below.
Shrinking season one is airing in its entirety exclusively in Apple TV+.
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