Cobie Smulders on reuniting with “How I Met Your Mother” costar Jason Segel on “Shrinking”: 'What an absolute dream'

It's time for another round at the Hoser Hut.

Cobie Smulders and Jason Segel, who starred opposite each other as Robin Scherbatsky and Marshall Eriksen on nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother, are sharing the screen once again on this week's episode of Shrinking, titled "Changing Patterns."

"How lucky am I?" Smulders gushes about appearing on Shrinking to Entertainment Weekly. "I just got a call from [creator] Bill Lawrence about it. I don't know how involved Jason was in putting it together behind the scenes, but I was so happy."

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"First of all, I'm such a huge fan of the show," she continues. "It's such a beautiful show, and it was such an honor to be able to come into this amazing cast and play for a couple of scenes. Like what an absolute dream! And then also, I get to work with Jason again, which I very much miss doing."

Smulders guest stars as Sofi, a recently divorced woman who is selling a car — a yellow Mini Cooper, to be precise — that Jimmy (Segel) comes to buy as an 18th birthday gift for Alice (Lukita Maxwell). They commiserate over their loss of their partners, as Sofi's ex-husband left her for her best friend.

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Though Smulders and Segel haven't shared the screen since HIMYM ended in 2014, she found working with Segal again immensely helpful. "It was immediately one of my buddies [sharing the scene]," she says of the vibe. "The show is so well written, and when anyone comes into a project and the character is already alive from the script, it makes everything so easy."

"I'm such a fan of the show, so I understood the characters," she adds. "But coming in for a guest star is always, it's a tricky thing to jump into an established set and established relationships. I was really lucky that Jason was there. It was nice to be able to fold into something that's already so great."

Though Sofi only appears in two scenes, she and Jimmy find a natural chemistry and easy rapport. So much so that he belatedly realizes that she was leaving the door open for him to ask her out. On HIMYM, their characters were solely platonic, so it was a new flavor for the two actors.

Related: Shrinking season 2 review: Jason Segel's therapy-com makes good progress

"I already have an intimacy with Jason," Smulders explains. "So it was just playing with a different color when on camera. But Jason is just so damn likable that it's very easy to be charmed by him."

"They have a shared brokenness," she says of the instant connection between the characters. "We could say from different catalysts, but these are two grown-ups who are trying to navigate a new life without a partner. It's a really shaky beginning for both of them. She's waiting for him to take the next step, but she's also showing that she is available or open to that, should it come her way."

Smulders is delighted to be the first woman to catch Jimmy's eye in a healthy way (unlike the sexual partners he used as an escape in the depths of his grief). "I feel so lucky because I know that this character is dealing with a heavy amount of grief," she says of Jimmy. "So to be this woman who comes in and makes him feel a different way is a really lovely thing to be playing."

Jimmy realizes that he totally missed his initial opening to ask out Sofi, and he worries that he won't be able to have a normal relationship ever again. But another glimmer of hope comes when Sofi texts him later to ask about how Alice liked the car. He smiles, wanting to seize the moment, until Alice confronts him about Louis (Brett Goldstein), and Sofi's text is forgotten.

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Smulders is uncertain if there's a possibility that Sofi will return. "He's in the driver's seat of that," she reflects. "Jimmy has a very complicated past, and my character came in and went like, 'There are other things out there.' I don't know if we'll build on that. I have no idea what's in store, but it was nice to see this character having a flirtation and being surprised by that."

New episodes of Shrinking drop Wednesdays at midnight on Apple TV+.

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