Nearly two decades after “Ugly Betty” put him on the Hollywood map, Michael Urie is continuing to find new ways to showcase LGBTQ+ life through his work on stage and on screen.
The Texas-born actor has built a career out of embodying complex queer characters, from a 1970s drag performer navigating his relationship with an intolerant mother in the Broadway drama “Torch Song” to a hapless Angeleno who finds love in small-town New England in Netflix’s “Single All the Way.”
As for his current role on the Apple TV+ series “Shrinking,” Urie says it’s given him the chance to spotlight a dynamic he believes will resonate with many LGBTQ+ people, yet has rarely been seen on mainstream television. The show, which launched its second season this month, follows Jimmy Laird (played by Jason Segel), a Los Angeles therapist who opts for a tough-love approach with his clientele while grieving the tragic death of his wife.
Urie portrays Brian, a lawyer and longtime pal from whom Jimmy had become estranged. The two men reconnected and smoothed things over in the first season, with Brian eventually enlisting Jimmy to officiate his wedding to his husband, Charlie (Devin Kawaoka).
Wednesday’s episode, “Made You Look,” finds Brian turning to Jimmy for advice as he contemplates the prospect of becoming a first-time father. By the episode’s conclusion, however, it’s apparent that Brian and Jimmy will soon navigate some unexpected twists in their friendship.
“When someone comes out of the closet, they begin their life as their true self,” Urie told HuffPost in an interview. “The person they were before is still part of them, but that closeted [part] who was lying to whoever ― that’s no longer who they are. So when you have friendships from your days in the closet, they have to adapt to what it’s like now.”
He added: “At one point, Brian says to Jimmy, ‘If we met today, would we even be friends?’ I felt that sentiment, as a person who was in the closet at one point in his life and has straight male friends who bridged the gap. But I’ve never seen anyone explore it. So to do it on ‘Shrinking,’ which is so good at pinpointing mental health issues … I’m very proud and excited.”
The second season of “Shrinking” is airing as Urie is delivering a delightfully daffy performance in the Broadway revival of “Once Upon a Mattress,” starring Sutton Foster.
First staged on Broadway in 1959, “Once Upon a Mattress” is a comedic retelling of “The Princess and the Pea,” with a few grown-up jokes thrown in for good measure.
Urie portrays Prince Dauntless the Drab, who lives under the watch of his overbearing mother, Queen Aggravain (Ana Gasteyer), and has all but given up hope of marrying until a “strangely energetic swamp girl,” Princess Winnifred the Woebegone (Foster), turns up at his castle.
In the 65 years since its premiere, “Once Upon a Mattress” has become a staple of high school and community theater groups. Interestingly, Urie wasn’t familiar with the musical ― which has been given a contemporary update by “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino ― when he was approached for the role. Still, he was eager to reunite with Foster after the two worked together on the TV Land series “Younger.”
“As somebody who’s not a trained singer or dancer, I’ve been chasing all the musicals I thought I was capable of, and this one was not on my radar,” said Urie, who wrapped a run in Broadway’s “Spamalot” in January. “I was just game to be Sutton’s prince. She’s the most alive person I’ve ever been onstage with.”
As for the character of Prince Dauntless, he noted, “He’s still a kid, a grown man with arrested development and maybe a little Munchausen [syndrome] by proxy, who falls in completely earnest love and grows up before your eyes. By the end of the show, he’s become a man.”
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Between “Shrinking,” “Mattress” and the release of a new big-screen comedy, “Goodrich,” Urie acknowledges that he’s a bit sleep-deprived as of late. Still, he took a moment to reflect on his achievements last week when he joined the ranks of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Barbra Streisand by receiving a caricature at New York’s famed Sardi’s restaurant ― which, for many actors, is an honor that’s second only to receiving a Tony nomination.
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“I’m willing to bust my butt, which I think helps get jobs,” he said. “In the theater, if you show people that you’re game and you’re tireless and always ready for a challenge, they’ll keep presenting you with them. TV and film is a bit more about being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes you get rewarded for your tenacity.”