Harrison Ford has carved out an incredible career playing numerous pop culture icons, but he's never been more grateful for his complicated character on Shrinking and the difficult storyline he's facing.
The 83-year-old may be best known for Hans Solo and Indiana Jones, however, he now stars as a therapist with Parkinson's disease on the Apple TV show.
Harrison opened up about his feelings towards the storyline during a recent Shrinking panel when he told co-creator, Bill Lawrence: "I'm very grateful to you for introducing that complication to the character."
© Getty ImagesHe elaborated further when he said: "Because that makes the difference between what I've done my whole career and the change now that doing this work means in people's sense of who I am. And I am glad to come to the point where this is who I am, and that was who I was."
Harrison's character, Dr. Paul Rhoades, deals with his diagnosis and how he will move on with it in the third season of the show.
It's had an impact on his real life too as Harrison confessed: "This is nurturing for me as an actor. And I feel the effect; it's changed the way people relate to me on the street. And that feels like the roundness of a life."
Friendship with Michael J Fox
© AppleTV Via Getty ImagesHarrison thanked Michael J Fox, for helping guide his character. The Back to the Future star suffers from the disease and guest-starred in season 3 as Gerry, a fellow Parkinson's patient.
"He is an incredibly thoughtful, compassionate, wise, gentle person, with great power," Harrison said of Michael.
"He's been very generous in extending friendship to me. I really didn't know him, so I was a little nervous about meeting him. But he was so generous and kind to me that it gave me a degree of confidence, which is all you have to work with."
Battle with depression
© Getty ImagesHarrison recently opened up about a deeply personal chapter of his life, opening up about a quiet battle with depression during his college years.
Speaking candidly on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Harrison reflected on a time when he believes he was not just struggling, but seriously unwell.
"I was more than depressed," he shared. "I think I was ill. I was socially ill, psychologically not well."
He confessed to becoming withdrawn during his time at college and he would hide away in his dorm room eating pizza and sleeping.
© Getty Images"On the rare occasion I did go to the classroom, I would often touch the door on the outside of the building, and turn around and walk back," he recalled.
Fans thanked him for his speech as he offered a reminder that those who appear larger than life can be struggling internally.
Harrison said the turning point came "accidentally" when he enrolled in a drama lass. "I simply found my place amongst storytellers," he explained. "It really changed my world, changed my life."
