Note: This story contains spoilers from “Shrinking” Season 3, Episode 2: “Happiness Mission.”
“Shrinking” star Jessica Williams unpacked how Gaby’s tearful monologue in Season 3, Episode 2 came to life, saying the heated exchange with Louis (Brett Goldstein) was one she fought for behind the scenes.
While Jimmy (Jason Segel) and his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) have overcome their resentment towards Louis, the man who drunkenly killed Jimmy’s wife Tia (Lilan Bowden) in a car accident, Williams said Gaby never has. And it’s an issue Williams said Gaby needed to address on the Apple comedy series.
“It’s something that I really fought for last season,” Williams told TheWrap. “I spoke to [“Shrinking” co-creator] Bill [Lawrence] and I was like, ‘Every time I sit and think about Gaby and this Alice, Louis and Jimmy situation, she would not be having it. And Bill was like, ‘Actually, you’re right.’” He opted to include it into Episode 2, as it marked the first time Gaby was seen hearing about her friends hanging out with Louis in the first place.
The showdown between the two takes place toward the end of the episode when Gaby runs into Louis at Jimmy’s house. The two first eyed one another in a stare down until Louis could no longer withstand Gaby’s “radiator”-hot rage. And that’s when she let him have it.
“Look man, they really care about you, and I’m trying to be a good person. I really am,” Gaby tells Louis as she becomes emotional. “I’ve had to listen to Jimmy say, ‘How do I help Louis,’ or Alice say, ‘Do you think Louis is going to be OK?’ And all I want to say is, ‘Who gives a shit? He killed my best friend. F—k that guy; he should be in jail forever.’ But you’re not. Why are you still in our lives?”
As tears filled her eyes, she reflected on the fun times she used to have with her beloved friend, growing even more angry at the thought that Louis still gets to enjoy his life.
“They may have forgiven you, but I never will, ever. Tia doesn’t get to be here dancing like an idiot and living her life just because of you,” Gaby said. “So the fact that you could be living your life and you’re choosing not to, oh, I f—king hate it. So much. It’s disrespectful to her and it’s disrespectful to me. Man, go live your f—kin’ life. You got it?”
Williams joked: “Basically, I had to tell Brett to go do ‘Ted Lasso’ again. I’d be like, ‘You need to go do ‘Ted Lasso.’ That’s basically what’s happening.”
While Williams, who noted that the scene was initially supposed to happen at the end of Season 2, acknowledged that everyone deals with grief differently, including befriending the person responsible for a loved one’s death, she said Gaby isn’t as forgiving.
“I know that the relationship Jimmy and Alice have with Louis happens a lot [in real life] actually … For me, I was like, I don’t think that’s Gaby. I just don’t,” Williams said. She praised Lawrence for being a creative who listens to his actors’ storyline ideas.
“Ceators, especially white male creators, they’re not like that where they’re like, ‘OK,’ and he did it,” Williams said. “He did not get to it at the end of Season 2 — I think Season 2 ended beautifully. And he said, ‘I’m sorry I did not get it in Season 2, but I will give it to you at the beginning of Season 3. That’s one of the first things we’re going to have Gaby do.”
Not only was Lawrence supportive, Williams said the entire production crew made sure she was set up for success the day of her monologue.
“Brett, I think, wrote that scene. Zach Braff directed that scene, and everybody set me up to succeed,” Williams said. “I told the crew, because normally those are my homies, I was like, ‘Look, I’m not going to be y’all’s friend for the first part, I got to be ready. I just got to be ready for the scene because I fought for it. And they were like, ‘Let’s do it.’ They had a really quiet, respectful room when I came in, and it was just easy, because everything was there for me to succeed. Everybody set me up for that.”
She added: “The editing, they set me up. They got everything, and the scene became what it was. I just saw it a few days ago and I’m really happy with it, but that is the product of people being like, ‘Yes, you can do that. Yes, you can do that. Yes, you want to do it like this? Yes.’ “
“Shrinking” Season 3 releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV.
