{"id":929552,"date":"2026-07-12T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/929552\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T09:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:03:15","slug":"michael-j-fox-saw-harrison-fords-parkinsons-acting-on-shrinking-and-immediately-reached-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/929552\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael J. Fox saw Harrison Ford’s Parkinson’s acting on ‘Shrinking,’ and immediately reached out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Apple series Shrinking centers around actor Jason Segel, who plays a therapist<\/a> juggling grief<\/a>, fatherhood<\/a>, and experimenting with unconventional therapy practices with his patients. It also stars Harrison Ford<\/a>, who plays Segel\u2019s mentor and boss and happens to be in the first chapters of living with Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Actor Michael J. Fox<\/a>, who notably has Parkinson\u2019s in real life, was so moved by Ford\u2019s \u201chuman\u201d and \u201caccessible\u201d portrayal of the condition that he called up Bill Lawrence, his former Spin City boss, who also co-created Shrinking.<\/p>\n

And, as he shared in an interview with the LA Times<\/a>, Fox didn\u2019t mince words:<\/p>\n

\u201cBill, why the f*** am I not on the show?\u201d<\/p>\n

Truly, only Fox could deliver such a line in a way that immediately feels charming and friendly. Pretty soon, plans were set in motion to have Fox guest star, marking his first return to acting since 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reunion nobody expected to see<\/p>\n

In the Season 3 premiere, which aired on January 28<\/a>, Ford\u2019s character comes in for a doctor\u2019s visit. While waiting to be seen, he encounters a fellow patient with Parkinson\u2019s, played by Fox. It\u2019s clear that Fox\u2019s character will serve as a mentor and friend throughout the season.<\/p>\n

As to be expected, the Back to the Future star does not fall short on comedic expectations. For instance, during the scene (which you can see in the video above), Fox asks Ford what he\u2019s in for. Ford responds, \u201cParkinson\u2019s. You?\u201d Without missing a beat, Fox replies, \u201cJust a haircut.\u201d<\/p>\n

He follows with the quip, \u201cI fall three times a day. I\u2019m thinking of taking up stunt work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the whole cast was buzzing<\/p>\n

Castmates instantly knew that seeing two icons, Marty McFly and Indiana Jones, acting together for the first time was something special. As Shrinking co-star Michael Urie noted, \u201cEveryone\u2019s hearts grew\u201d in anticipation and nostalgia once Fox showed up to set.<\/p>\n

How the scene hit Fox the hardest<\/p>\n

But perhaps no one was more affected than Fox himself. Speaking with Vanity Fair,<\/a> he shared, \u201cI wasn\u2019t prepared for how much of [Ford\u2019s] own understanding of the disease he brought to it. I mean, I recognized Parkinson\u2019s in his eyes. The things I was feeling, I recognized in the way he was expressing himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was such a powerful performance that Fox told the outlet, \u201cI was just brought to tears by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI should say he\u2019s an underrated actor because everybody knows how great he is, but the subtlety of his work, so brilliant and so fun to work with,\u201d Fox continued.<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s sentiment, it seems, was the same. In the same interview, he called Fox \u201can extraordinarily powerful person.\u201d<\/p>\n

New episodes of Shrinking drop Wednesdays on Apple TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in February. It has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Apple series Shrinking centers around actor Jason Segel, who plays a therapist juggling grief, fatherhood, and experimenting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":929553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[374897,4964,226882,185,435,171,26206,58570,148870,54932,907,137790,58571,374898,399,6718,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-929552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-apple-series-shrinking","tag-apple-tv","tag-bill-lawrence","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-entertainment","tag-harrison-ford","tag-jason-segel","tag-la-times","tag-michael-j-fox","tag-parkinsons-disease","tag-showrunner","tag-shrinking","tag-shrinking-season-3","tag-television","tag-therapist","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116906204209414080","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}