Few shows balance absolute silliness and deep sorrow the way “Shrinking” does. The Apple TV+ series from Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel, and Brett Goldstein continues to explore grief, friendship, and growth with a rhythm that feels both loose and precise. And in Season 3, Jessica Williams’ Gaby gets some of her richest material yet.
For the uninitiated, “Shrinking” follows a grieving therapist (Segel) who starts to tell his clients exactly what he thinks and steps beyond the therapist/patient relationship. Naturally, his daughter, colleagues, and neighbors are swept up in the chaos. The show stars Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley, and more.
Jessica Williams sat down with The Playlist to talk about Gaby’s journey and what it actually feels like to make the show day to day. Filming locally in Pasadena and on the legendary Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, she described the experience as creatively energizing.
“It feels like things are happening,” Williams said of working on the legendary lot. “There’s something as an actress to be able to go and drive on that lot every day that feels like things are happening.”
Yes, Season 3 gives Gaby significant emotional movement, but according to Williams, that process is less formal pitch meeting and more creative whirlwind with creator Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs,” “Ted Lasso,” Bad Monkey”).
“Pitching is really funny. It’s more like Bill Lawrence blows in like a tornado because he’s got like five shows,” Williams said and began doing a speed talking impression of Lawrence: “He’s like, ‘All right, here’s what’s going on with Gaby. She’s going to do this— and then also A and then B and then C and then D and then maybe E. I don’t know. We’ll see.’ Then he leaves. That’s just how he is.”
She noted that Lawrence and head writer Neil Goldman told her Gaby would experience “a lot of compress and release” this season, something she finds creatively thrilling.
“It’s really hard to get on a TV show. It’s really hard to get on a TV show people like, and it’s really hard to do that for a third season,” Williams said. “So I just take it one day at a time. I take it one scene at a time, one line at a time… I feel grateful.”
Part of what makes the show hum is the seamless blend between writing and performance, where the writers write as if they were actors improvising. Williams pointed to a moment in the wedding episode when Gaby makes an entrance that instantly announces the tone.
“Somebody wrote, Gaby walks in and, she just says, ‘Sup sluts?!’” Williams recalled. “Normally, that is maybe something that I would improvise. That is something that Gaby would say… When I read the first episode, I was like, ‘oh, game on.’”
This season also deepens Gaby’s relationship with Derek #2, played by Damon Wayans Jr. Williams credits casting and chemistry for how instantly lived-in their dynamic feels.
“He just knows what he’s doing. He’s funny. He’s like a good dude. He’s like a girl-dad and husband. And that’s tight to me,” she said. “He’s also just down for anything. Like he’ll run a joke down into the ground, and I too will run a joke down into the ground… There’s so much nonsense that’s said that they’ll just use the first version just because we’re two lunatics.”
For WilliaGaby’s humor, something deeply personal.
“I’m 36, and I’ve been thinking about my parents a lot as they get older, and they’re very playful. They’re still very playful people,” she said. “I think Gaby’s a really playful person… There is a real sense of play on this show, but there’s also that really nice sense of grief and complicated feelings that I think we all experience in this modern sort of after-COVID era.”
And then there is the scene that made a lot of viewers smile: Gaby and Paul riding in the car, belting out Sugar Ray. Yes, that scene with Harrison Ford. Her primary concern that day was not hitting the right note.
“I chose the song and I love that song and I feel that song in my bones,” Williams said. “The biggest thing I’m mostly stressed about when I have to drive Harrison in scenes is him looking at me driving. It’s almost like when somebody’s looking at you type… I know how to do it. But when someone’s looking at you do it, it’s like, what do I do with my hands?”
As for the song choice itself, she was fully committed.
“I chose the song and I love that song and I feel that song in my bones.”
Season 3 of “Shrinking” premiered January 28 and runs through April. Apple TV+ has already renewed the show for Season 4. You can watch the whole conversation with Jessica Williams via the YouTube embed below.
