Michael Urie Comes Home to Direct Silver Foxes

Michael Urie is back in Dallas. But just for a bit. This March, the North-Texas-born Hollywood actor will be directing a play in Dallas. Urie is at the helm of LGBTQ+ theater collective Uptown Players’ stage production of Silver Foxes.

The play, written by James Berg and Stan Zimmerman, tells the story of a group of queer male best friends who band together to rescue their other friend from a homophobic assisted living facility. The show runs March 2–12.

Then, on April 1, Urie will emcee a special auction for Resource Center at Empire Room to commemorate its 40th anniversary. The party will coincide with Resource Center’s annual 25th Toast To Life, and will support Resource Center’s mission to provide health services to Dallas-Fort Worth’s local LGBTQ+ community.

In the meantime, you can catch Urie on Apple TV+’s dark comedy series starring Harrison Ford, Shrinking, where he plays a lawyer named Brian, the best friend of a therapist named Jimmy Laird (Jason Segal), who helps Jimmy get his life back in order after the death of his wife, Tia (Lilan Bowden).

We catch up with the Plano native via Zoom, midway through the first season of Shrinking. He’s returned to Dallas, where he is staying in an Airbnb as rehearsals for Silver Foxes are underway.

Dallas Observer: I don’t know if you remember me but I interviewed you when your holiday movie Single All The Way premiered, and I told you I graduated from Plano Senior High School 14 years after you did, and you were like, “Oh my God, I’m hanging up, bye.”

Urie: (Laughs). “Well I’m hanging up again, bye.”

How are you liking being back in Dallas?

“This is the longest chunk of time I’ve been in Dallas, since my parents moved, which was in like, 2001, maybe. Usually, I’m here for a couple of days. You know how smells can sometimes take you back to a very specific place? I think weather does that too. Sometimes I’ll step outside and I’ll feel like I’m in elementary school again, because of the weather. Or I feel like I’m on my lunch break in high school or I’ve just gotten out of work at Barnes and Noble on Preston [Road].”

So tell us about Silver Foxes.

“Silver Foxes is a world-premiere comedy that Uptown Players is producing at Theatre Three. It’s written by Stan Zimmerman and James Berg, who have been writing partners for decades. They were writers on Golden Girls, Roseanne and Gilmore Girls, and a bunch of other shows. They’ve been writing comedy together for many, many years, and this is their first play. They asked me if I would be interested in coming on as a director, and that was a couple of years ago, and we’ve been working on the play off and on. I’ve always wanted to work with Uptown Players, and when they caught wind of this project, they asked if they could read it, and so we we did in Stan’s living room in Los Angeles.”

Silver Foxes tackles some real issues, like, what do you do when you get older and you’re in the queer community. But it’s also hilarious, it’s chock-full of amazing comedy and we have these amazing actors here in Dallas who make me laugh and cry every night in rehearsal.”

What was it about the storyline that drew you to this play?

“I’m mostly an actor. Usually, like, if I read a script, and I’m really drawn to one character, I can say ‘I want to be this person, he is who I relate to.’ In this, I’m in the middle. I’m too old for the young characters and too young for the older characters, but I wanted to play all of them. I’ve always sort of thought if you want to play one character, go for that one character; if you want to play all the characters, maybe you should direct it, and so it just kind of made sense when I read the script [and I] fell in love with all the characters.

But the storyline and the subject matter mean a lot to me, because even though I’m not the age of any of the characters in it, I think about this a lot. ‘What do queer — say, maybe, unmarried queer people, or queer people who aren’t parents, who don’t have a natural built-in future, or a grown child who takes care of you — do?” I think it’s a really interesting conversation.”

It’s hilarious at times, but it’s about a monumental moment in their lives.”

How are you liking being in the director’s chair, instead of in front of the camera?

“I wear so many more hats that I do as an actor, because I’m not only in rehearsal with the actors, I’m navigating, before rehearsal and after rehearsal with the teams — the sound team, the lighting team, the costume team, the design team, the props, people, the producers, the stage managers. I work with so many people that as an actor, I don’t usually work with.”

Let’s talk about the most recent episode of Shrinking. We see your character, Brian, is finally [going to] propose to his longtime partner during a piano performance, and then Jimmy vomits in the middle of it. What was filming that scene like? What were some of the challenges of bringing that moment to life?

“This big scene is sort of a comic centerpiece where you’re going from real pain and sadness, watching Jason’s character, Jimmy, have flashbacks to earlier parties, where his wife is still alive. And then it goes back to this party, and they haven’t had a party since his wife died. Meanwhile, Harrison Ford is stoned, Jason Segel gets drunk and I’m a basket case nervous about proposing. There was so much going on. I mean, we spent we spent days shooting this scene. And it was so fun.

But also, Devin Kawaoka, who plays Charlie, is actually my friend, and I adore him. So getting to work with somebody who you know is always really fun. When you have a history with a person, it just makes being in love onscreen so much easier when you’re already fond of a person.”

Without giving away spoilers, what can we expect from the rest of the season?

“Now that Brian and Charlie are officially engaged, Brian goes into wedding mode. And that’s a really fun color on him. We’ve seen this ‘everything goes my way’ persona sort of crack, and we see that he’s actually got some anxiety issues and neuropathic neuroses. And now we’ve learned a little bit more about his past, and that he’s from Texas, and that he has parents that are cool, but like, not that cool. We’ll see him navigate all of those things, his neuroses, his anxiety, and his upbringing as he plans this wedding.”