Weather 
This week, Apple TV’s Shrinking looked to musical theater for a scene featuring one of the most iconic duets in the canon: “The Confrontation” from Les Misérables. And who better to perform the number than Broadway’s own Michael Urie and co-star Jason Segel.
Urie plays Brian in the comedy series, an unapologetic Broadway fan and a natural performer to boot. So it comes as no surprise that he would pick this song to belt while riding in a convertible through the streets of Pasadena.
Writer and showrunner Bill Lawrence devised the idea for the musical moment and briefed Urie on the scene about two weeks before shooting. “Before he could even finish, I said, ‘Just tell me if I’m Valjean or Javert. I’m in. Let’s do it,'” Urie shared with BroadwayWorld during an exclusive interview.
Urie admits he and Segel were “giddy” about the performance during the days leading up to filming. “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been asked to do in my life… to get to sing in an unironic way. These two characters just do this. This is a parlor trick of theirs,” he says of Brian and Segel’s character Jimmy.
It helped that the actors already knew the song. Harrison Ford, however, was not familiar. “We didn’t tell him anything… And so his reactions are pretty much [real],” Urie says of Ford, who is forced to witness the show-stopping rendition from the backseat of the car.
Despite having no lines, Urie shares that he can’t take his eyes off Ford in the scene. “He’s the only thing you watch… You get the entire gamut of human emotions from what he’s doing. He’s moved, he’s delighted, he’s scared of crashing… I think if you want to be a movie star, that’s a great thing to watch because he’s a movie star.”
Learn all about how the musical performance came together by watching our interview with Urie, and check out a clip from the scene in question here. The full episode, titled “Hold Your Horsies,” is now streaming on Apple TV.
Shrinking follows a grieving therapist (Segel) who starts to break the rules of therapy by telling his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives, including his own.
Led by Segel and Ford, Shrinking features an all-star ensemble including Urie, Christa Miller, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Lukita Maxwell, and Ted McGinley. The third season welcomes back guest stars Brett Goldstein, Damon Wayans Jr., Wendie Malick and Cobie Smulders, along with new additions Jeff Daniels and activist Michael J. Fox, as well as Candice Bergen, Sherry Cola, and Isabella Gomez.
Created by Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein alongside Segel, Shrinking has earned multiple Primetime Emmy nominations as well as a Critics’ Choice win for Urie for his performance in the sophomore season.
