Watch Michael Urie Nail His Self-Taped Audition for ‘SHRINKING’

Michael Urie is a consummate performer, equally comfortable Plying his Craft on Stage, on Camera, or In the Bedroom of His New York Apartment. The Upper West Side Pad Is Where Both He And His Partner, Actor Ryan Spahn, Record Mista Self-Tapd Auditions, Including The One Landed Uries Emmy-Nominated Role as Comedy Shrinking. The Video, Shared Exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter And Shown Below, Reveals Just How DIALED IN URIE WAS TO The Character – Even as His Scene Partner, Spahn, Read Jason Segel’s Lines in A Dry, Affectless Tone to Avoid Drawing Too Much. (“The only in the World We Fight About Is Self Tapes,” Uries Says. “And So Basical Anytime He Has an Audition, I have an Audition, like it gets Tense for that reason.”)

Between Performances of Oh Mary! On Broadway, Uries Spoke with Thr To Describe his self-Tape Process and WHY HE Prefers It to In-Person Auditions.

“I’M A FAN OF SELF TAPES,” SAYS Urie. “I KNOW There’s A Lot of People Who Like to Go in and Audition Film is like.

And Unlike In-Person Try-Outs, WHERE ACTORS OFTEN HAVE SCRIPTS IN HAND, SELF-TTHING ADOWS AUDITINERS TO BETTER Prepare and Go Off Book, Freeing Them Up To Perform.

The Scenes Urie Recorded and Sent to Shrinking ‘S PRODUCERS – Ted lasso ‘S Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein – Were Mostly from the Second Episode of the Show’s First Season. “IT WAS RELALLY Easy to Memorize,“ Urie Says. “IT WAS SUCH A GOOD Script-and It Was ALREADY PICKED UP. IT WASN’T JUST A PILOT. IT WAS A REAL-DEAL TV Show With A Big Ol ‘Star, Jason Segel.” (Urie Did Not Yet Know That Harrison Ford Wuld Be Joering The Cast.) “This Felt Like A Job I Could Get. And that’s So All Those Make It Easier.”

WHEN URIE AND SPAHN Shot the Tape, They Were Both Starring in Jane Anger, An Off-Broadway Comedy Written for Them by the Friend Talene Monahon, About William Shakespeare’s Getting Writer’s Block While on Lockdown Durying the Play. (Parallels with Covid Confinement Were Very Much the Point.) Urie Grew a Bard for the Play The Bard, WHICH IS WHY HE SPORTS ONE IN THE AUDIZ Shrinking.

Unlike Monhohon’s FICTIONAL Version of Shakespeare, Urie Didn’t Let The Lockdown Keep Him Down. Early in the pandemic, he lifestreamed a solo performance from his apartment of Buyer and Cellar, The Critical ACCLAIMIMED ONE-MAN SHOW DE PREMIEED IN 2013, ABOUT An Aspiration Actor Who Takes A Job As An Employee in the Entirely non-Fiction Mini Theme Park Barbra Bustisand. “I THINK I DID OVER SIX HUNDRED PERFORMANCESS, AND that WAS The ONLY TIME I EVER DID IT WITHOUT Anyone Laughing,“ Recalls Urie.

The Experience May Have Prepared Him for His Shrinking Audition A Few Years Later, in Whoth He Delivered A Finely Tuned Comedic Performance To An All Butty Room (And IF SPAHN WAS LAUGING, IT WASN’T AUDIBLE).

With that, he learned that he’d Gotten Booked for 10 episodes of Shrinking. And there was one more things: “They let me know that also hiped Harrison Ford,” Urie Says with a laugh, “SO Don’t Expect Much Money.”