Lately, Michael Urie spends most nights scribbling his identify on Playbills after performances of “Oh, Mary!,” Cole Escola’s bawdy comedy about First Woman Mary Todd Lincoln wherein Urie performs her trainer. And every so often, within the bustle of signing and posing for fan selfies, he says, somebody will chirp “Good luck at the Emmys!” and it seems like a whiplash reminder of his different main profession achievement this 12 months.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah! That’s right, I have to go do that, don’t I?” he says, nonetheless very a lot processing his first Emmy nomination.
The 45-year-old is nominated for supporting actor in a comedy sequence for his flip in Apple TV+’s “Shrinking” as Brian, an property lawyer whose friendship together with his widowed therapist bestie Jimmy (Jason Segel) is on the mend after an estrangement. The actor is finest identified for his comedic flare in TV sequence akin to “Ugly Betty” and stage productions akin to “Once Upon a Mattress” or “Buyer & Cellar,” however the second season of “Shrinking” offered Urie a chance to mix humor with coronary heart. Urie’s Brian is working by means of his insecurities about changing into a father or mother whereas additionally inadvertently bringing the drunk driver answerable for Jimmy’s spouse’s dying — a personality named Louis performed by co-creator Brett Goldstein — again into their lives.
“I was like, how on earth are they going to bring this character into this world?” Urie remembers considering. “Turns out, it was my character that brings him in. And yet, it’s sort of inevitable. [Brian] runs into him in a moment where [he] needs to learn how to help somebody, and he [Louis] needs help. I think [Brian’s] walking a dog that he almost killed when I run into him. Here’s a grown man who is busted and broken and needs somebody and I’m there for him. This guy needs forgiveness in a big way and because I’m able to fold him into the group — in a very messy way — he gets that.”
Urie is nominated within the class alongside his co-star Harrison Ford, who performs Paul, a curmudgeon therapist with a smooth spot who finds love once more whereas navigating Parkinson’s illness. (Urie says he acquired a textual content from Ford that morning that learn: “You too? And Jessica. And Big Head.”) Co-created by Segel, Goldstein and Invoice Lawrence, the sequence acquired a complete of seven nominations, together with for comedy sequence and appearing nods for Segel and Jessica Williams.
Urie‘s first and only Emmys until now was in 2007, the year the awards show leaned into host Ryan Seacrest’s gig on “American Idol.” Attendees surrounded a rotating theater-in-the-round stage, an experiment that was extensively criticized and by no means repeated. Urie was there as a part of the solid of “Ugly Betty,” when the then-freshman ABC sequence acquired 11 nominations; that night time, the present’s star America Ferrera took residence the prize for lead actress in a comedy.
“At one point, I went to the bathroom and my friend texted me, ‘Where are you?’ I guess I missed an opportunity to be on camera,” Urie says of the bizarre setup. “I remember America winning and that being really, really exciting.”
Now, he will get to have a good time his achievement with a brand new group of co-stars: “There’s so many cool people that are going to be there and our whole cast gets to be there. I’m so excited for what the night will bring.”
One concern heading into the massive night time? Perspiration. He made an important request to his stylist: an outfit that received’t give him “swamp ass,” as he describes it, after hours of sitting. How’s that for thorough planning?
“I was at more parties last night than I’ve been to all year,” Michael Urie says.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Instances)
12:56 p.m.: The night time earlier than the Emmys is sort of a high-intensity dash of party-hopping as Hollywood toasts the 12 months’s high TV nominees. Urie was contemporary off a flight from New York to Los Angeles Saturday as he made his spin by means of pre-ceremony fêtes placed on by BAFTA, Warner Bros. and Apple TV+, in addition to the annual “Evening Before the Emmys” soirée hosted by the Movement Image and Tv Fund.
“I was at more parties last night than I’ve been to all year,” Urie says. “It was four parties in five hours. I got to see [fellow category nominee] Ike Barinholtz at the Apple party. He was so nice. And I saw Bowen [Yang], Jeff [Hiller] and Colman [Domingo], who I know from the gang mafia.”
We’re in a collection on the West Hollywood Version resort and he’s stationed by the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Los Angeles, eye patches soothing any tiredness away as he will get his hair styled by his groomer, Jenna Nelson. His companion, actor Ryan Spahn, is seated close by, describing their social gathering run-ins as Whitney Houston’s discography performs within the background. They had been up by 9 a.m. to start preparing.
The texts of properly needs have already been flooding in, he says. And we couldn’t assist however ask if his “Ugly Betty” co-stars had been amongst them. Uh, duh.
“I got a video from Vanessa [Williams],” he says. “She’s in London. She was like, “So proud of you!”
He was exchanging texts with Becki Newton. And he noticed America Ferrera just a few days in the past whereas they had been each taping segments on “The View.”
Michael Urie’s outfit for the Emmy Awards.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
1:36 p.m.: With Urie busy with “Oh, Mary!” by means of the top of September, after which making ready to play the title function of a reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Richard II” off-Broadway this fall, the actor has little time to look at TV.
“Except …! ” Spahn rapidly interjects, “‘The Gilded Age.’”
“But we’re behind, so don’t spoil anything,” Urie says. “I just love it because it’s full of all these New York actors and you never know who you’ll meet in real life.”
I ask what sort of function he may see himself taking part in if he had his means. However others weigh in with some good concepts.
“I could see you as an equestrian,” Nelson says.
“I could see you running for city council,” Spahn says.
