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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 31 January 2023

Harrison Ford inspires cast in new comedy ‘Shrinking’

By BROOKE LEFFERTS middle of it going ‘It’s Har-
Associated Press rison Ford!’ It’s crazy.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When Bill Goldstein who isn’t act-
Lawrence was developing ing in this show but serves
his new Apple TV+ comedy as another executive pro-
“Shrinking,” he introduced ducer describes Ford as
one character in the pilot “dream casting” and says
script as a “Harrison Ford- they still don’t know how
type” but never dreamed they got him.
he would get the real deal. “He really loved the scripts
Although the showrunner and related to a lot of the
has had comedy success aspects of the character,”
working with big names Goldstein said. “We talked
and executive-producing to him a lot about charac-
hits like “Scrubs,” “Cougar ter, and it was so easy that
Town” and “Ted Lasso,” … I feel like I should have
nabbing a huge movie star had to complete a series of
like Ford seemed unrealis- Herculean tasks to get him,
tic. But he decided to take you know what I mean?”
a shot and send Ford the Segel appreciated how
script. Ford “breaks through the
He was gobsmacked when awe really quickly so that
the “Indiana Jones” actor you can get down to work.”
liked the story and eventu- “One of the things that’s
ally agreed to play the part really cool about Harri-
of a tough therapist who Harrison Ford, left, a cast member in “Shrinking,” looks over at fellow cast member Jason Segel son Ford is that he consid-
works with star Jason Segel at the premiere of the Apple TV+ series, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, at the Directors Guild of America ers himself a tradesman,
in a mental health prac- in Los Angeles. Associated Press like a craftsman. He was
tice. a carpenter and now he’s
“If he had not shown up rence teamed with Segel a character whose wife with Ford a “career high- an actor,” Segel said. “His
on set, I would not have and writer Brett Goldstein dies suddenly, leaving the light,” and says there’s only job is to come in and build
been shocked,” Lawrence (also Roy Kent in “Ted Las- father of a teen daughter one downside. these scenes and you’re his
told the Associated Press so” ) to help create and lost and willing to ignore his “Everybody’s terrified of partner in that.”
in a recent interview. “But write the show. They had ethics to start telling his pa- … telling him to do any- Williams who plays anoth-
he showed up. He’s lovely, the lofty goal of making a tients what he really thinks. thing,” Lawrence said with er therapist shares witty
he’s inspiring. He’s 80 years comedy about grief, set it Ford’s character is a cur- a laugh. “But he’s so much banter with Ford in many
old and still challenging in an office shared by ther- mudgeonly colleague and fun to work with. scenes and says it was “sur-

himself.” apists and starring Segel, mentor who delivers zingers Every scene gets ruined real” to work with the act-
For “Shrinking” which starts Ford, Jessica Williams, and with restrained glee. at least one take by me ing legend she watched in
streaming Friday Law- Christa Miller. Segel plays Lawrence calls working or one of the actors in the movies as a kid. q

Jesmyn Ward novel ‘Let Us Descend’ to be published Oct. 3

By HILLEL ITALIE perspective. book’s protagonist, Annis, age readers to feel with of her work in the fictional
AP National Writer In a statement issued by and what it meant to “have and for Annis, and to recre- Mississippi town Bois Sau-
NEW YORK (AP) — The next Scribner, Ward said that little to no physical agency ate her experience as vis- vage, won National Book
novel by Jesmyn Ward, the she wanted to explore the over her own body.” cerally as possible. It took Awards for her two most
two-time National Book “hard truth” of her new “I also wanted to encour- years and multiple drafts to recent novels: “Salvage
Award winner, is the story understand how Annis and the Bones,” which takes
of an enslaved teenage girl enslaved people might place around the time of
that the publisher is calling have retained their sense Hurricane Katrina, and the
a blend of magical real- of self, their sense of hope, surreal “Sing, Unburied,
ism, historical narrative and in a time and place that at- Sing,” about the struggles
Dante’s “Inferno.” tempted to negate both, of a Mississippi family. She
Scribner, an imprint of Simon day in and out,” she said. is also a recipient of a Ma-
& Schuster, announced Fri- Ward added that she had cArthur “Genius” grant
day that Ward’s “Let Us De- to take that time to “figure and, in 2022, became the
scend” will come out Oct. out how to look straight at youngest winner of the Li-
3. It’s her first novel since her life and relay the harsh- brary of Congress’s Prize for
“Sing, Unburied, Sing,” win- ness and terror of her days, American Fiction, a lifetime
ner of the National Book but also to recognize her achievement honor.
Award in 2017, and first fic- resistance, her tenderness, Ward’s other books include
tional work set in the distant her imagination, her belief the novel “Where the Line
past. The 45-year-old Ward, in who she is and what she Bleeds” and the memoir
the only Black author to re- is capable of, which she “Men We Reaped,” a final-
ceive two NBAs for fiction, retains, even through the ist for a National Book Crit-
has been widely praised Author Jesmyn Ward speaks during the Celebration of the Life of deepest darkness.” ics Circle Prize in 2014. She
for her striking lyricism and Toni Morrison in New York on Nov. 21, 2019. Ward, who grew up in Mis- currently teaches at Tulane
deep, uncompromising Associated Press sissippi and has set much University.q