Michael Urie Says Therapy Is a Part of His 'Forever Journey' Thanks to His Role on Shrinking (Exclusive)

Michael Urie has his role Shrinkage thank you for helping him start therapy.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE about the upcoming second season of the Apple TV+ hit, the 44-year-old actor candidly shared how Shrinkage began his own mental health journey. The show stars Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a grieving therapist who starts breaking the rules by telling his clients exactly what he thinks.

“It was really fun,” jokes Urie, talking about his journey to starting therapy. “I know, it’s so funny… But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed going to therapy and deepening my relationship with my own mental health.”

“The show, I think, is so careful and yet reckless with mental health,” he continues. “And it’s like, I think that’s the right attitude. I mean right now, yeah, we should all be looking into it, we should all be open about it. We shouldn’t be ashamed of our mental health care.”

Michael Urie, Jason Segel and Christa Miller in ‘Downsizing’.

Apple TV+

As the Broadway star says, he’s also learned that mental health is both scientific and very emotional at the same time — something those who go to therapy have to learn the hard way.

“It’s science, there’s science about mental health, but feelings and emotions are, I don’t think it’s scientific. I think we come in our own ways. And as much as I like to think that my therapist can give I got all the answers, the truth is that it’s just part of it,” he adds.

For Urie – who plays Jimmy’s best friend Brian on the show – the therapy was just “one part” of his longer journey to learn about himself and take care of himself.

“It’s just one part of my eternal journey of understanding my own heart and mind,” he says. “So it’s been a journey. Sometimes it’s been frustrating, sometimes it’s been fun, sometimes it’s been confusing, just like the show, in the same way that…the show continues to deal with new mental health issues.”

“We get into Brian’s narcissism this season, which is really complicated,” Urie continues. “It’s interesting and difficult, especially playing someone who’s called a narcissist, because you can’t really tell a narcissist they’re a narcissist.”

Elsewhere in his chat with PEOPLE, Urie talks about what’s in store for Brian, along with the rest of Shrinkage crew — for Season 2. Normalizing discussions about mental health remains a major theme, he says, but the cast also gets a chance to explore their roles in this big “chosen family.”

“The chosen family thing is a big thing in season two, and I love the chosen family aspect of the show and life,” he says. “… Certainly for me, as a queer person and as someone who moved away from their hometown, anyone who leaves their hometown will eventually find their new chosen family.”

Michael Urie in November 2023.

Cindy Ord/Getty

“And we find new chosen families for a variety of reasons, not only because our real family is not there for us, for whatever reason, but it can be closeness, it can be some kind of split, it can be that they are no longer with us, and this the show has all of those things,” Urie continues. “We find ourselves as a chosen family for various reasons, because of which we cannot go to our real family.

“I love that we’re normalizing it and showing, for better or worse, what a chosen family can look like,” he concludes.

Shrinkage Season 2 gets a premiere date as Jason Segel, Harrison Ford return for more therapy and adventure

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Along with Urie and Segel, Harrison Ford, Luke Tennie, Luke Maxwell, Christa Miller and Ted McGinley are set to return for a second season of the show, according to an Apple TV+ announcement in August.

On August 5, Apple TV+ revealed the first look at the second season of the series Shrinkageand announced that the comedy series starring Segel, Ford and Jessica Williams will return with its first two episodes on Wednesday, October 16.

“Disregarding his training and ethics, [Segel] finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes in people’s lives… including his own,” writes streamer u Shrinkage‘s logline.

The second season will consist of a total of 12 episodes. After the first two episodes are released on October 16th, one new episode will be released each week until Wednesday, December 25th.

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Source: HIS Education