Harrison Ford has looked ahead to his retirement, saying that starring in Shrinking had such an impact on him that he’d be happy for it to be his last on-screen outing.
The Apple TV show, created by Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, sees Ford play a behavioural therapist who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The show recently returned to the streaming service for its third run, with episodes set to arrive weekly until the season finale on April 8.
At a press day earlier this week, the cast were asked to shed light on the questions they asked themselves after signing on for such a “thought-provoking series”, and Ford was the first to answer.
“Where do you go from here? The kind of work that we’re able to do is remarkable given the tools we have to work with, and the notion that lies behind this series,” he said. “This has been a different kind of job for me, and I’ve been doing this for a long time.
“This is very special, and it really nurtures me and makes me feel like what we’re doing has value and importance. I look for that in my life, and I’m happy to have found it here.”
He also touched on his absent co-star Michael J. Fox, who appears in three episodes of the new season. The depiction of Parkinson’s in Shrinking was entirely inspired by Fox to begin with. “I found the first mentor in my life and career, Michael J. Fox, to be so inspiring,” the show’s co-creator Lawrence previously stated.
“The way he took it in stride and continues to work harder than anybody I know. And we want to kind of carry that spirit if we can into the show.”
He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age of 29 in 1991 and retired from acting in 2020. He went on to found the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help fund research into finding a cure.
“It was a bit daunting when I thought about it, because I am representing a character that has Parkinson’s, and Michael, of course, has the real thing,” Ford said during the panel.
“I’ve always felt a real sense of responsibility for getting that part of my story right. But Michael is an extraordinary, generous and lovely fellow, who I did not know at all and had a chance to, just working on this show. It was an extraordinary experience to work with him. He is such a powerful presence. Such grace and courage and indomitability, and some of that, I hope, will help me colour my portrayal of a character with Parkinson’s.”
It comes after Ford had only recently praised his resilience, telling Vanity Fair that Fox was “generous, supportive, open, just a wonderful person”, adding: “[And a] pretty goddamn good actor too”.
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