EXCLUSIVE: Five-time Emmy winner Michael J. Fox is returning to acting with a major guest-starring role on the upcoming third season of Apple TV+’s hit comedy comedy series Shrinking, toplined by Jason Segel and Harrison Ford.
Details around the role are being kept under wraps but it may be connected to the character arc of Ford’s therapist Paul Rhoades. It was revealed at the end of Season 1 that Paul has Parkinson’s, a disease Fox has been battling for three and a half decades.
This marks a reunion for Fox and Shrinking co-creator/executive producer Bill Lawrence. Fox headlined Lawrence’s first series as a creator, Spin City, for four seasons before leaving when his symptoms became more serious. The ABC comedy landed Fox his fifth Emmy award; he had won four for Family Ties.
Since then, Fox was the star of The Michael J. Fox Show and has recurred on such series as The Good Wife, Lawrence’s Scrubs, Rescue Me and Boston Legal, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Designated Survivor, earning him eight more Emmy nominations. This marks his first acting role since reprising his Good Wife character on spinoff The Good Fight in 2020.
It also marks Fox’s return to Apple following their partnership on the award-winning documentary STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
Co-created by Jason Segel, Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, Shrinking follows grieving therapist Jimmy (Segel) who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives … including his own. In addition to Segel and Ford, Shrinking stars Christa Miller, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Ted McGinley.
Fox joins fellow Shrinking Season 3 cast additions Jeff Daniels, who will guest star as Jimmy’s father, Sherry Cola and Isabella Gomez.
The Emmy and SAG Award-nominated Shrinking is produced for Apple TV+ by Warner Bros. Television, where Lawrence and Goldstein are under overall deals, and Lawrence’s Doozer Productions. Lawrence, Segel, Goldstein, Neil Goldman, James Ponsoldt, Jeff Ingold, Liza Katzer, Randall Winston, Annie Mebane, Rachna Fruchbom and Brian Gallivan serve as executive producers on Season 2. Ashley Nicole Black and Bill Posley are executive producers on Season 3.
Fox recently received an honorary Academy Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2000, he launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which has become the leading Parkinson’s organization in the world, with over $2.5 billion raised to date for better treatments and a pathway to the cure. Fox, who is also the author of four bestselling books, is repped by UTA.
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