Brett Goldstein on joining ‘Shrinking’: ‘If Jason Segel tells you to do something, I suggest you do it’

(SPOILER ALERT) After being a writer on season 1 of the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, former Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein joined the cast for season 2, and he tells ABC Audio it wasn’t something he ever expected to do.

“I was very happy just writing,” he says. He had, however, considered doing a cameo, “just so I can walk past Harrison Ford or something.”

In the end, it was star Jason Segel’s idea to get him in front of the camera, with Goldstein joking, “If Jason Segel tells you to do something, I suggest you do it.”

Goldstein plays Louis in the series, the drunk driver who killed the wife of Segel’s character, Jimmy. The role is certainly a departure from his Ted Lasso character of grumpy Roy Kent, which he says was part of the appeal. His look is a lot different, as well — Goldstein shaved off his beard and mustache for the role â€” something he thinks made sense for the character. 

“He's hanging on. He's an open wound of a man, barely existing and not really knowing what to do,” Goldstein says. “The shaving was kind of like almost like a penitence … like, 'Well, I will at least make the effort to clean up every day.'"

Wednesday’s episode features an important scene in which Louis has a very emotional conversation with Lukita Maxwell, who plays Jimmy’s daughter, Alice, and Michael Urie, who plays family friend Brian. Goldstein says filming the scene “felt very special.”

“We all knew this is the big, like, this is the kind of mid-peak of the season,” he says. “Sometimes it feels very special and like magic to make something, and that was one of those examples where it felt like everyone (was) leaning in and, like, let's get this.” 

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