Jason Segel Wants This Oscar Winning Actor on ‘Shrinking’: "I Would Love to Therapize His Dracula"

[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Shrinking Season 3, Episode 1]

From creators Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel, Season 3 of the Apple TV series Shrinking, finds Jimmy (Segel) having to deal with the fact that Alice (Lukita Maxwell) will be leaving home and going off to college. At the same time, Paul (Harrison Ford) is coming to terms with the reality of Parkinson’s, spending more time with family and loved ones, and Brian (Michael Urie) and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) are navigating new parenthood. And with the theme for the season being “moving forward,” Jimmy is thinking about exploring the spark that’s clearly there with Sofi (Cobie Smulders).

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Segel, who discussed how he’d be happy to keep the story going past their initial three-season plan, if they can figure out the right direction to take things, the Jimmy and Alice dynamic in Season 3, shooting the soccer game scenes, Jimmy’s reaction to learning that he would be the officiant for Paul and Julie’s (Wendie Malick) wedding, and that cantaloupe joke. He also shared his favorite Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg movies, the Michael J. Fox movies that have inspired him the most, a particularly memorable moment seeing Superman 2 with his brother in a theater, and the character he’d like to get into therapy with Jimmy on an episode of Shrinking.

Jason Segel Is a Fan of Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg

"I would love to work with him someday, in any capacity."

Collider: Before we get into talking about Shrinking, we’ve been asking everyone what their favorite Christopher Nolan movie is. So, what is yours?

SEGEL: It’s a really hard question. I’ve just been watching all of them, thinking about the way he plays with time. Inception is darn near perfect. But I also compulsively watch his first Batman. It’s so good. I could watch them all, over and over again. He’s a genius. I would love to work with him someday, in any capacity.

I get that. I’m old school. I love Memento.

SEGEL: Memento is incredible. It’s really cool to be inspired by somebody who is so singular and to watch someone not try to be anybody else. I don’t know who his influences would be, but everything feels so singularly his that you watch.

Yeah, definitely. On a very different side of the filmmaking spectrum, do you have a favorite Steven Spielberg movie?

SEGEL: Yeah, of course. Some things imprint on you in childhood. E.T., which I just watched at an outdoor movie theater with a big group of people. To this day, I don’t know how many years it is later, when that bike kicks off and the music swells, the entire audience stood up and cheered because it harkens us back to our childhood when we saw that moment.

That was the first movie that I saw in a theater repeatedly. As a kid, I saw it 10 times at a movie theater.

SEGEL: Oh, my God, how cool. An early movie I saw in a theater was Superman with my older brother, who’s a little bit older than me. I think it was Superman 2, when he gives up his powers and Lois said, “Do you want me to be your girlfriend?,” my brother, I still remember, stood up in the theater and screamed at the screen, “He’s Superman! He doesn’t need a girlfriend, Lois!”

The rest of the theater probably loved that.

SEGEL: Yeah. (Laughs) That’s one of my favorite memories.

Jason Segel Is Game to Keep Doing More Seasons of ‘Shrinking’

"We only want to tell a story that is demanding to be told."

When you guys developed and pitched Shrinking, you had this three-season arc. How are you feeling about that now? Do you see Season 3 as the end? Will the show continue beyond that? Please tell me we’ll get another three-season arc.

SEGEL: Well, I think that we’re trying to let the story be in charge. If we can think of what the show is, then we’d all be happy to keep going. We only want to tell a story that is demanding to be told.

Is it something that you always think about? Is it something you try not to think about? Do you try to just think about the season you’re working on at the moment?

SEGEL: (Co-creator) Bill Lawrence is more of a galaxy brain kind of thinker. You know where he is. He’s a proper genius at constructing these long-term arcs, both within a season and over many seasons. He’s been doing it such a long time. I’m a little bit more, what’s in front of me? What’s in front of me today? That’s also my job, as an actor, not to get too far ahead of it all. It’s all a really good balance.

With Michael J. Fox joining the show, he’s played so many fantastic roles. What is your favorite role of his?

SEGEL: I think Back to the Future is a perfect movie. When I was learning how to write, we would be told, “Watch Back to the Future. It’s a perfect movie.” It’s perfectly structured. The callbacks are perfectly in place. And I think it’s true. I still watch it sometimes if I’m trying to plan something out, to see if it winds up right. So, I think I’d have to say Back to the Future. I also loved Teen Wolf.

There are certain movies that, when you pass them on TV, you always have to stop and watch them, no matter where it’s at in the movie and just keep watching.

SEGEL: Yeah.

Back to the Future definitely feels like one of those movies.

SEGEL: For sure.

If Shrinking could cross over with another show, what would you vote for?

SEGEL: You know what else I loved? Doc Hollywood. Do you remember Doc Hollywood?

Yes, I do. I also saw that in a theater.

SEGEL: I actually copy Doc Hollywood a lot when I’m writing. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is kind of copying Doc Hollywood in a way. You take someone who thinks they know more and put them in what seems like a more naïve place, and they find out that they’ve actually been missing it all along and that the beauty is in the simplicity. That’s also a perfect movie. [You asked] if I could take Shrinking and do what?

Cross over with another show. What would you vote for?

SEGEL: It’s so funny, I got asked that question yesterday as well, and I had never been asked that question about anything I’ve ever done previously. It’s such a mind game. I would switch it up with something totally counter genre, like a vampire type show to watch these characters really be put through it.

Jason Segel Would Love to Get Gary Oldman on an Episode of ‘Shrinking’

"I would love to therapize his Dracula."

Is there a character from another show that you would love to have sit in your office, or Jimmy’s office, for therapy? When you watch TV shows, do you think, “I would just love to get that character in therapy with Jimmy”?

SEGEL: I don’t watch all that much, but I would kill to be able to act with Gary Oldman. His character from Slow Horses, or any character he’s ever played. I would love to therapize his Dracula.

You could probably have an entire episode of him just playing different characters in therapy. Jimmy and Alice are in a good place this season. What do you love most about their journey in Season 3?

SEGEL: Watching their parent-child dynamic go from being flipped on its head to slowly him earning her trust back to crank it back to, in Season 2, equals. And then, finally for Jimmy to really take the wheel and say, “No, I’m the parent,” and to make this the right size again, it’s been a really amazing thing to play with her.

It’s fun because it seems like she’s now actually open to his advice or some encouragement in a way that she wasn’t before.

SEGEL: We try to be really honest about how it would take a heck of a lot for her to ever trust him again.

It was particularly fun to get to see Jimmy and everyone in the bleachers at Alice’s soccer game. I love that this group of friends has become family to the point where they need a whole section because there are so many of them. How challenging was it to do those scenes during the game? It’s so chaotic with you all sitting there while the game going on. What was all of that like to shoot?

SEGEL: Well, the real challenge is that there’s not really a game going on when you’re doing it. There’s a PA holding a flag, running up and down, and everyone is reacting, but there’s something fun about that. It reminds you that this is what you used to do when you were a kid. You’re playing pretend. There are some scenes that aren’t that, and they require a little more depth and that are more intellectually difficult. But to watch a flag go back and forth like you’re a dog and bark at it, there’s something fun about that too.

I love seeing everybody’s personalities when you are all together, especially with how big the group is now.

SEGEL: Totally. Yeah. It’s quite a found family we’ve put together.

After wanting to rebel, we see how important family and support is to Alice, to the point that she panics at the thought of going away to college. Do you have a favorite moment for the two of you this season that we should watch out for?

SEGEL: Yeah, there’s a moment in the Alice-Jimmy storyline where you find out what she’s afraid of is actually a little deeper than just that she’s going to miss this found family. Lukita [Maxwell] delivers a speech perfectly to me, and I try to reciprocate. That was a great day on set.

Jason Segel Surprised Everyone With Jimmy’s Reaction to Being the Officiant at Paul and Julie’s Wedding in ‘Shrinking’ Season 3

"I got in trouble for it."

I also love Jimmy’s reaction to learning that he’s going to be the officiant at Paul and Julie’s wedding. Did you always know how you were going to react in that moment? Did you do a variety of reactions?

SEGEL: I got in trouble for it when I did it because no one knew I was going to do it. And then, my showrunner came up and said, “Okay, take it easy. Let’s keep the level right. Come on. We know what the right tone of the show is.” And guess what made the show? What ended up in the show, big guy?

I feel like that level is right. That is the level you would have.

SEGEL: (Laughs) I agree.

It’s also really fun that the first episode of the season has a wedding, when weddings tend to get held for later in the season or the finale of a show. Was it easy to decide what Jimmy would say to Paul and Julie, or did that go through a whole process?

SEGEL: Well, my cantaloupe joke, I had thought of the year before, the day after we shot the Michael Urie wedding. I was so mad because I was like, “I thought of a joke last night that would’ve been so funny to put into Michael Urie’s wedding.” And they said, “Save it. You’re going to get to do it next year.” It all started there. And then, Bill Lawrence had this idea that Harrison [Ford] was only going to allow me one sentence, so whatever I said was going to have to be one run-on sentence. It was a great, fun comedy exercise.

Shrinking is available to stream on Apple TV. Check out the Season 3 trailer: