The star of Apple TV’s Shrinking revealed how his show is secretly giving straight men permission to cry.
“It was one of those post-pandemic talk about your feelings shows that really tapped into something, especially with—and I hope it’s OK to talk about this—straight men," Michael Urie told Obsessed: The Podcast host Kevin Fallon.
The Emmy-nominated actor, 45, said that the show’s decision to cast iconic Hollywood straight male leads as vulnerable characters—including “every straight boy’s hero,” Harrison Ford—is what gives it staying power among male viewers.
“To watch these guys talk about their feelings was a real permission slip to a bunch of people, of straight dudes, out there that maybe were afraid to talk about their feelings,” Urie said.
Shrinking features a slew of straight male characters, played by Ford, Jason Segel, Ted McGinley, and Brett Goldstein, who vocalize their emotions as therapists, patients, and friends.
“There’s no shortage of straight men on TV, but straight men that are really in touch with their feelings and vulnerable and willing to admit when they’re wrong, I think it’s really special,” the Ugly Betty actor continued.
In Shrinking, Urie plays Brian, the gay best friend to widowed therapist Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel), after a fatal car crash leaves their community devastated.
Urie said one of his favorite storylines involves his character questioning whether he and Jimmy would’ve been friends if Brian had been out of the closet when they met. Urie says that “gay men of a certain age who became friends with their straight best friends when they were straight” all face this problem.
”That is an interesting dynamic because you aren’t your whole self when you’re in the closet. You are a different person," Urie said. “That’s not who you really are, and sometimes it makes you sort of volatile and angry and ugly. And you’re not able to really be at peace until you’re out of the closet.”
“It’s a really valid question, ‘If we met today, would we even be friends?’ because I’m not the person you became friends with when we met,” Urie added.
For Urie, the show’s “secret sauce” is its ability to find humor in every situation, even as its characters navigate grief, infidelity, and illness.
“The secret sauce is we laugh even in the really sad stuff. It’s still OK to find levity,” Urie said, before joking, “I like to think when I die tragically, I want everyone to laugh at that.”
Urie won the Critics’ Choice Award for her performance in Season 2 of Shrinking. Season 3 begins streaming on Apple TV on Jan. 28.
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