Every episode of Apple TV+‘s critically-acclaimed comedy Shrinking is legendary in its own way, but thanks to special guest star Cobie Smulders, Season 2, Episode 10 is legen — wait for it — dary.
The sophomore season of Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel’s series featured a steady lineup of top-notch guest stars, including Goldstein, Damon Wayans Jr., Kelly Bishop, and more familiar faces. But for many fans, the biggest guest star gasps will come when Segel and his How I Met Your Mother co-star Smulders reunite in Episode 10, “Changing Patterns.”
From 2005 to 2014, Segel and Smulders played Marshall Eriksen and Robin Scherbatsky, two core members of How I Met Your Mother‘s friend group, which also included Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan).
Ten years after the sitcom’s series finale aired on CBS, Shrinking is bringing the stars back together again in their first on-screen reunion. Jimmy (Segel) goes to Sofi’s (Smulders) home to buy her yellow MINI Cooper for his daughter’s birthday. His pal Derek (Ted McGinley) tags along to help negotiate, but upon learning that Sofi is a “very cute” single mom who’s vibing with Jimmy, he ditches, leaving Jimmy and Sofi to develop some serious chemistry and a charming back-and-forth. (Good man, Derek!)
“It was just like the good old times,” Smulders told Decider over Zoom ahead of Episode 10’s premiere. “Jason and I grew up together. We worked together for nine years. We know each other so well. We have so many shared experiences. We already have such a history. So to play another type of dynamic and to play other people doesn’t feel weird to us… Our hope is that we can take our [Robin and Marshall] hats off for a couple scenes.”
Read on to hear Smulders reflect more on her Shrinking experience, reminisce over How I Met Your Mother, talk How I Met Your Father, celebrate Robin Sparkles, and more.
DECIDER: Obviously we have to start by hearing how this delightful How I Met Your Mother reunion came about.
COBIE SMULDERS: I just lucked out. I don’t know why or how they lasered in on me, but Bill Lawrence called me and he said, “Are you free to do this thing?” And I said, “Absolutely.” He laid out the character and what the tone of it was. And he didn’t need to. He could have just given me a date and I would have shown up. I got to speak to Jason about it a little bit before, but I really just showed up on set. [Shrinking is] such a beautifully written show. It’s such a grounded human story always, in every scene. So it was very easy for me to show up on set, which is always hard when you’re the guest star and you just have a couple of scenes to do and don’t have any impact on anything. Obviously I know Jason quite well, and I was able to to do these two scenes and play around. It was just like the good old times.
I know he’s said he’d been wanting to work with you again for years, so I’m so glad you got to share the screen again.
I know. It makes me feel very special. I feel very grateful for the whole experience. It’s also such a wonderful crew, and obviously all the other cast members. I only got to work with him and Ted [McGinley] but I’m such a fan of the show. I’m so happy for Jason.
I was a little surprised to see the two of you had such great chemistry romance-wise. Very quickly I was like Robin and Marshall who?! This is Jimmy and Sofi and I ship them. That new dynamic worked so well. Was that surprising to you both or did you feel so comfortable with each other that you instantly knew it was going to work?
I totally get people watching Shrinking and being fans of How I Met Your Mother and knowing us as those characters that we played, who were just platonic friends. But Jason and I grew up together. We worked together for nine years. We know each other so well. We have so many shared experiences. We already have such a history. So to play another type of dynamic and to play other people doesn’t feel weird to us I don’t think. I do think it’ll be interesting to see [the reaction]. Our hope is obviously that we can take our [Robin and Marshall] hats off for a couple scenes.
I had the pleasure of chatting with your new Ted, Ted McGinley, who got to third wheel you and Jason in this episode. He said it was lovely watching you two reunite in the morning and have an instant shorthand. And he also said he felt like he was part of “TV history” shooting the scene.
Wow. Wow. That’s nice. I don’t know if I can handle that mentally myself, because I was just hanging out with my buddy for the day. [Laughs] The cool thing about it is that it all felt very fun and very natural. For us it was like, “Let’s try some things, and try to make people laugh, and play up the awkwardness as much as possible.”
You succeeded! I’m not sure what, if anything, the future holds for Jimmy and Sofi, but would you be open to returning again down the line?
Yes, of course. I don’t know what they have planned for Season 3. I don’t know anything about it. But, of course, I would always jump at the opportunity to work with Jason and the entire cast again for sure.
It’s been 10 years since How I Met Your Mother‘s finale aired and Jason has opened up a bit about his struggles with not wanting to be seen as one thing when the show ended. You’ve had a very a wide-ranging career with Broadway, the MCU, voice acting, and all sorts of stuff. You just had that role on Accused. Did you experience a similar fear of being typecast coming off of How I Met Your Mother?
I don’t know if my experience was similar, because I think one of the blessings that our amazing writing staff gave us was that I could have just been a token wife in a sitcom. You can get really pigeonholed in sitcom sometimes, especially doing nine seasons. But I actually feel really lucky for our show and my time on that show as an actor. When I started the show, I didn’t think I was going to be a frickin’ pop star in Canada. That came out of the box. I was a manatee at one point. I dated so many people. So I felt like our writing staff was constantly coming up with unique storylines, and new characters coming in. I never felt like I was hitting the same note and I was so excited to be playing this career-driven single woman who was trying on different relationships and going, “Well, that didn’t work for me. I’m going to get rid of that one and try this one.” I feel nothing but gratitude for the variety of opportunity that was given to me from the show. Certainly it’s something that I’m known for the most. But I didn’t have that same feeling leaving the show, like, “Well, people are always going to see me as that,” because I felt so challenged every day on set.
Definitely. Speaking of being a frickin’ pop star in Canada, I know you’re a mother, so I’m curious if your kids are familiar with Robin Sparkles.
Yeah, they know her. They haven’t seen the show, but they know her, because that G.D. song “Let’s Go to the Mall” is so catchy. There was a pocket of time where that was playing a lot, especially when they were young. That song was written by Carter [Bays] and Craig [Thomas], which I think is kind of assumed, because they wrote a lot of different music for our show. But it was called “Let’s Go Play In The Snow,” and they took it and revamped it, so it has a core of children’s music. It is very catchy. It’s very repetitive. So that was playing for a while. I don’t know if they believe that I sang it, but I did, with a lot of help from the editing team to make me not so pitchy. So they know [Robin Sparkles], but they’ve never watched the show.
Outside of this Shrinking reunion, does the How I Met Your Mother cast still keep in touch?
I see Alyson all the time because we live here and are pretty close to each other. When I was in New York, I got to see Neil a lot more. And now Josh is also in New York. So we try to see and keep in touch. There’s a lot of — as everyone communicates — texts and whatnot these days. There’s a big fundraiser happening in January that Carter and Craig are heading. I’m not able to go to, but I know that Josh will be there with some other cast members. But yes, we try to keep in touch as much as we can. We love each other. It was a magical nine years that we got to spend together. That amount of time doesn’t happen anymore. It was a beautiful time and I miss them all very much.
You’ve said you’d be open to a How I Met Your Mother reunion of some sort. Do you have any dream reboot ideas? Maybe something actually set in 2030 could be cool.
It’s interesting, because we got nine years to tell the stories. And we wrapped it up in a way that Carter and Craig always intended, which made some people mad and a few people happy. So we told this arc of the story. It’s really hard — like, if I was on How I Met Your Father, I’d be like, “Yeah! We could finish this up now. We can pick up the pieces.” But for us, we were so lucky to be able to really tell the story of how how Ted met the mother of his children. So I don’t have any ideas, but I’m open to pitches.
I adored your guest role on How I Met Your Father. RIP. I was crushed over that cancellation. I love Hilary Duff and there were still more OG guest stars to come — we didn’t even get Jason back yet! Crucially, we didn’t find out who the father was! [Laughs] I’m like Sofi. I have so much anger.
[Laughs] Yeah, that’s a big deal.
Did they tell you who the father was?
No. I didn’t know. I don’t know anything. Hopefully they’ll announce that just so people will know.
Jason should just have Hilary Duff and the planned father casually walk through the background of a Shrinking scene, and that’s how we’ll know.
Holding hands. Exactly. [Laughing]
Since you’re about to become a favorite Shrinking guest star for so many people was there someone from How I Met Your Mother‘s iconic guest star roster who you were especially excited about?
Nicole, honey, what a great question. There are so many. Let me think. My husband was a guest. He did a few episodes, and I will say, was one of my favorite guest stars. Even Alyson’s husband, Alexis Denisof. I really did love Sandy Rivers. And I didn’t really get to work with Taran very much, he worked more with Neil, if I remember correctly. But I got to have Alexis Denisof, which was just a joy and a delight. Probably those two were my were my tops, if I can remember. It’s been a minute, though.
Speaking of Taran, his new show High Potential is killing it. He recently said he’d love to work with you again on the series and that you joining might not be out of the realm of possibility. Is that something you’d be open to?
Who knows. Who knows. What is life? What’s the future? Who knows anything? [Laughs]
Oh, interesting. So fingers crossed we’re getting you on all the shows. [Laughs]
This interview was condensed for length and clarity.
New episodes of Shrinking Season 2 premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV+.