Lukita Maxwell, star of the upcoming Apple TV+ comedy series Shrinking and known for her role in Generation, reflects with The Hollywood Reporter on working with Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Harrison Ford (Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones franchise). Shrinking follows the story of a grieving therapist, played by Segel, who starts to tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge changes to people’s lives – including his own.
Maxwell plays Alice, the strong and independent daughter to Segel’s character, via The Hollywood Reporter. The Indonesian-born actress expressed to The Hollywood Reporter that she wanted to pursue acting, but was worried it was not possible without personal connections. She tells The Hollywood Reporter, “I thought that actors were just all nepotism babies. If you were born into acting, you were born into royalty, and I couldn’t act because I wasn’t born into family of actors.” When reflecting upon her audition process, Maxwell tells The Hollywood Reporter, “I didn’t think I was ever going to get the role. I didn’t think that I had the chops to do that.”
However, when working with Segel, Maxwell tells The Hollywood Reporter he “really responded” to how she plays the role of Alice. “The character of Alice brings this groundedness and humanity to the show little bit. She is kind of an anchor in that sense. It was very apparent from Alice’s character off the page that it came naturally to me because, not too long ago, I went through the bulk of my adolescence,” Maxwell tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Maxwell shares many one-on-one scenes with Ford, who plays blunt down-to-earth therapist Phil Rhodes, via The Hollywood Reporter. Maxwell tells The Hollywood Reporter that Ford is “the most incredible scene partner,” and their scenes required little to no preparation. “The energy was constantly oscillating between us. We would go into this improv that sometimes lasted five minutes after take,” Maxwell tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Alongside Maxwell, Segel, and Ford, Shrinking stars Jessica Williams (Love Life, Booksmart), Luke Tennie (Players, Deadly Class), Michael Urie (Ugly Betty, The Decoy Bride), Christa Miller (Scrubs, Cougar Town), Ted McGinley (Revenge of the Nerds, Wayne’s World 2), Devin Kawaoka (Chicago Med, Lucifer), Heidi Gardner (Hustle, Life of the Party), and Lilan Bowden (Andi Mack, Parks and Recreation).
Shrinking is available to stream on Apple TV+ starting January 27, 2023.