(NOTE LANGUAGE) In a chat about their new Apple TV+ comedy Shrinking, co-creators Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel and Ted Lasso Emmy winner Brett Goldstein shared with The Hollywood Reporter how even they were surprised they got Harrison Ford to co-star.
Lawrence, who produces Ted Lasso and was a veteran of shows including Scrubs, noted, “I used to feel so rejected all the time that when you’d reach out to somebody you idolized or admired and it was a no, and sometimes it was a ‘F*** no.’ It hurt.” He added, “Here, the only real thing for me was how ill-prepared I was to get anything but a no from Harrison Ford.”
Goldstein told the trade, “I think it was like a joke. Like, ‘Obviously not Harrison Ford, but someone like Harrison Ford.'”
It was Goldstein who managed to snatch the big-screen idol, famous, of course, for playing an idol-snatching character of his own. “I was in London and he was filming Indiana Jones, and I suddenly get a missed call, ‘Hey, it’s Harrison Ford,'” the actor explains. “I was like, ‘What the f*** is happening?’ I went to his apartment to discuss it. And the discussion was very, very quick because he wanted to do it. I thought I’d be there to convince him. Nope.”
Goldstein admits it was a nerve-wracking moment. “Oh yeah, I’m going to meet Indiana F***ing Jones. And he was so lovely.”
“He wasn’t a diva. And when I met him, he had thoughts about how the character dressed … It wasn’t all just, ‘How do I shine?'”
Segel adds, “He does something really amazing from the moment he arrives, which is he makes you feel like a peer. He breaks down that ‘you’re supposed to be in awe’ thing real fast.”
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