Harrison Ford has over 80 titles to his name, and his career spans nearly seven decades. There are a ton of projects he could name as the ones that make him feel the most “comfortable” and “confident.” Plus, there are a bunch of films that he’ll be remembered for forever. However, the actor recently revealed that he’s “never felt as comfortable, as confident” as he does working on one project in particular, and that series is called Shrinking. And let me tell you, it makes so much sense why this show means so much to him.
When Ford joined the Shrinking cast, I remember there being a lot of chatter about him doing TV, because he’d never been a regular on a television show until he signed up to play the therapist Paul on the incredible Apple TV+ series.
However, there’s clearly a deep reason why he keeps coming back to Shrinking (which is currently airing Season 2 on the 2024 TV schedule). He explained it eloquently too after Brett Goldstein recalled the story of how they hired the Star Wars actor during a panel for The Paley Center. Rather than Ford telling his side of the story behind why he said yes to the comedy, he explained why he valued the experience so much, saying:
Look, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. I never thought I would end up doing this, but I already said how much I love it. But telling you how much I love it is not the same as telling you how much I value it as an experience. For me, as a creative person, if I may dare to say so, I have never felt as comfortable, as confident in the company that I’m in and in the confidence that I gain – we’re all saying the same thing, the confidence we gain from the material we’re doing and our combined experience together.
Throughout the panel, the cast – which includes Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Brett Goldstein and more – spoke about their chemistry and how much they all genuinely love working on the show. That translates into the series too, and knowing they all love this work makes the project even better. It also adds more reasons why Ford likes working on the show so much.
Plus, the story they’re working on is about therapists who are working to help heal their clients, themselves and each other. With that in mind, a lot of good “emotional exercise” goes into this show, which Ford said is “redeeming.” It’s clear as day that he really loves playing Paul, as he said:
We have a lot of fucking emotional exercise at work, and it is redeeming. It’s a good place to go to practice your humanity and to see it reflect a person that you have not been before appears before you out of this material. And that’s the joy of the job we do. We live many lives, and it’s a joy. Thank you for this.
This would be high praise if anyone said it, but the fact that Harrison Ford is the man behind these words honestly adds even more meaning to them. As he said, he’s been working for a very long time, he knows the good and the bad of the business, and he’s made countless legendary projects. For him to say that Shrinking is the one that made him feel so “comfortable” and “confident” is a seriously high compliment.
So, considering all this, I think it’s safe to assume that he’ll be back as Paul for Season 3 of Shrinking, which I can’t wait for. In the meantime, he’ll be staying busy as Captain America: Brave New World will be released in February and Season 2 of the Yellowstone spinoff 1923 is also slated to come out the same month on the 2025 TV schedule.
However, if you are looking to go back and see the actor in this role that he clearly adores so much, you can watch the first two seasons of Shrinking with an Apple TV+ subscription.
