If you want to talk about inspired casting, look no further than Shrinking bringing on Cobie Smulders to play Jason Segel’s love interest. The two have a long and rich history together, seeing as they played friends on How I Met Your Mother for nine seasons. Now, they’re exploring their chemistry in a totally new way in Season 3 of Shrinking as Jimmy and Sofi, and Smulders told me why the “magic” between them worked again.
In the past, Jason Segel has said that his chemistry with Smulders is impacted greatly by their history on How I Met Your Mother. He explained that the “magic trick” of Jimmy and Sofi’s relationship is that it feels like they’re “meant for each other” even though they “just met” because the actors playing them have known each other for 20 years. When I interviewed Smulders, I brought up these comments and asked what it was like for her to play Segel’s love interest after they played Robin and Marshall for so long. In response, she said:
