It turns out, Paul talks to Jimmy about more than just potatoes. Harrison Ford may wear his personal fedora on Shrinking, but it was Jason Segel‘s love for a jumpsuit that piqued his interest off set.
“Jason would show up in those almost every day,” costume designer Allyson Fanger exclusively told Us Weekly. “Harrison was just like, ‘What’s happening? Like, what are you wearing?’ Because Harrison’s kinda like, he’s a traditionalist, he is an older guy. He’s got great style, but he was just like, ‘Why are you wearing [that]?’”
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To surprise both Ford, 80, and Segel, 43, director Randall Keenan Winston asked Fanger if she could find a matching outfit for the Star Wars actor.
“Because Harrison’s reaction to Jason and the jumpsuits was so funny, Randall came up to me and he was like, ‘Can you get one for Harrison?’ And I was like, ‘What? OK,'” she recalled. “So then Harrison walked by me, I was like, ‘Harrison, you want one of those?’ And he goes, ‘Can you get it in pink?’”
Fanger went on to do just that — without Segel knowing.
“We got one and we dyed it pink. And then I put it in his trailer one morning with a tag on it that said, ‘This is your costume for today.’ I just put it in there and then he came out with it on. He was all excited,” Fanger told Us. “And then got in his golf cart.”
According to Fanger, Ford “would always drive around in his golf cart.” And on this day, he sped away to find where Segel and costar Michael Urie were filming.
“Crazy driving all over,” she joked. “And I was like, ‘They’re over here.’ So we went over to where they were shooting and he just waited for Jason. Jason and Michael were doing a scene where they were walking out of a building. And so Harrison just went out and stood leaning next to a pole, a pillar or whatever. So that when Jason and Michael came out, they just saw him standing there in his pink jumpsuit.”
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Naturally, the prank was a hit. “[Jason] started dying laughing and then Harrison pretended to pull it off and drove away in his golf cart,” she noted. “It was pretty early on [in production].”
The Windfall actor told his own version of the story during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on January 24.
“You change in wardrobe pretty fast. I was wasting a lot of time picking out outfits because I like to look good. And so I decided I was going to start wearing jumpsuits to work. You know, like a real tradesman. But I was kind of chicken about it so I decided I would get there 30 minutes before work so no one would see me. I had to get used to it,” Segel explained at the time. “So I showed up and Harrison Ford was waiting outside my trailer to run lines. He kept eyeing my jumpsuit. I saw it happening. He was side-eying me. And then I said, ‘You looking at my jumpsuit Harrison?’ And he said, ‘I sure am kid.’ And I felt really embarrassed, like I had been a little emasculated or something by Harrison Ford.”
But by the next day, Ford was in his hot pink jumpsuit and the two posed for a photo together. “He was like, ‘You and me, we are in this together,'” Segel recalled. “So now we are best friends.”
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The sweet moment led to the perfect wrap gift for the cast and crew: jumpsuits for all.
“You know Harrison Ford’s character? Paul says ‘woof,'” Fanger told Us. “We got a little gas station [patch], like a little oval where a name tag is on a guest. Like a boiler suit. And it said ‘woof.'”
Shrinking, which has officially been renewed for season 2, also stars Jessica Williams, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller, Luke Tennie, Ted McGinley and Devin Kawaoka. A new episode drops weekly on Apple TV+ and the season 1 finale airs on March 24.
