“Shrinking” star Luke Tennie on Sean's brutal approach to facing his demons: 'He was always hoping to get beat up'

The actor takes us behind the scenes of Sean's explosive response in episode 5 of season 2.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about season 2, episode 5 of Shrinking, "Honesty Era."

Since Sean (Luke Tennie) started therapy on Shrinking, he's been pretty beat down by life.

But things seemed to be looking up in season 2, as he started a food truck business with Liz (Christa Miller) and continued to try to work through his PTSD and anger issues. That is, until he decided to take the notion of being beaten down to a literal extreme.

After Liz sells her stake in the food truck to Sean's dad, Tim (Kenajuan Bentley), without asking Sean, Sean is furious. He still has many unresolved issues with his father after his dad kicked him out of the house, offering "tough love" instead of understanding what Sean was going through or being able to offer the support he needed.

But despite an outburst at Liz (and a subsequent apology), Sean tries to make the best of working with his dad. Still, things are tense in the food truck, as Sean tries to tamp down his anger every time his father says something that triggers him. Until Sean attempts to talk to his dad about their past, being honest about why he felt let down, and his dad blows up, claiming that Sean's therapist is just telling him to blame his parents for all his issues. "Save the bulls--- for someone else," his dad tells him before storming off.

Related: Kelly Bishop joins Shrinking as Harrison Ford's ex-wife in exclusive first look

As a means of dealing with this, Sean picks a fight with a group of drunk guys at a bar later that night, then lets the posse beat him up without raising a single finger against them to defend himself. Sean's been quick to anger and violence since we first met him (it's why he ended up in therapy), but this is the first time we've seen him refuse to fight back. Still, Tennie thinks this is what Sean craved all along.

"That's actually been his hope through all of the violence that he's had in his past," the actor tells Entertainment Weekly. "I don't know that he's ever actually wanted to beat someone up. He's a big guy. He trained in military basic training, and he's got combat experience. So if he were to ever pick a fight, he's not really trying to beat someone up. He was always hoping to get beat up."

Tennie chatted with us about Sean's breakdown, what may lay ahead in his relationship with his father, and what he really thinks about Liz selling her stake in the food truck.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What do you think Sean would've done or his response would've been if Liz had actually approached him about bringing his dad on and they'd had a conversation about it as opposed to her just doing it? 

LUKE TENNIE: If Sean had been primed, he might've initially said no. But if he had been primed rather than surprised, he might've been into it. He might've tried to accept something that would be a challenge, knowing it would make him better. But his whole issue is that you can't really be aware of every single person's intention at all times. So any surprise is going to set off that hair trigger that he's been trying to cover up instead of working on being slower to anger. He's been working on avoiding situations that make him angry, which would build the muscle that Jimmy and Paul are trying to get him to build.

In terms of his relationship with his dad, how hard is it going to be for him to get over this sense of abandonment in his hour of need? 

The toughest thing for Sean is trying to reconcile what it's like loving someone and being angry with them at the same time. He doesn't quite know or understand how both things can be true. He's trying to reconcile this anger, this disappointment he feels, but also this sense of gratitude. He knows his father provided him what looks, on the surface, to be a great life. A life so many people would be blessed and fortunate to have. Sean's issue lies in that cognitive dissonance where he has so much love and respect for his father, but he's also angry with him. That's the true source of his issue. And as soon as he can reconcile that dissonance, he'll begin to make forward motion.

Related: Here's who Brett Goldstein is playing on Shrinking season 2

A lot of that anger is obviously rooted in his PTSD. How much is the PTSD something he needs to focus on with Paul (Harrison Ford)? What do you think is a bigger obstacle right now, that PTSD or his relationship with his dad? 

They're both connected, and it's hard to separate that. Because the PTSD alone isn't really what his anger stems from. It's the fact that he had this trauma serving overseas, and it stewed for so long before he got help. It's one thing if you get a really severe gash injury to your leg; it's another thing when it becomes gangrenous and it's infected. It's a totally different issue. Then you start talking about amputation. It's the injury plus the infection; it's the PTSD plus the neglect that he's facing. They're both connected. So, I'm not really sure which one is a greater issue. I just know both of them together is pretty tough to conquer.

We know why he picks a fight. We've seen him do it multiple times, but why do you think he refuses to fight back in that moment? 

We're seeing Sean's extreme version of self-harm. It has to be connected to this guilt that he has where it feels like the right thing to feel pain. That's what he's been running from — this trauma that he's been trying to hide from. It's been creating this infection in his heart and his mind and it's now causing him to react in such a creatively violent way. It all goes back to him running from that trauma.

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

How concerned about Sean should we be? It looks like a pretty brutal beating from what we see.

Very. I mean, you saw one of them dudes, that guy's like 6'6". Look, I've actually trained a lot in jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai now. I've been doing it for two years, and I got into it because of my love for Sean and the character I play on Shrinking. I wanted to train the way he trained. One thing you learn is — it doesn't matter how big you are. I'm a big guy myself. You throw more than one person in the mix, and it's over. That sort of anime thing where it's one versus 40, that does not exist. People who are not proficient will clean your clock. So, we should be very worried about Sean.

Presuming that he is able to recover, what does the future of the food truck look like? Might he want to bring Liz back in? Is he going to be able to keep it going with his dad?

At least for me, when I first read the episode, what I had hoped is that Sean and Liz and Sean's father could all work together in some regard with the food truck. As to what happens, y'all got to stay tuned to find out.

Related: Harrison Ford says 'there will be singing' in forgiveness-focused Shrinking season 2

He is working on a lot of stuff in his life right now. There was that weird moment with Alice (Lukita Maxwell) in season 1. Is he going to come to a place in his life where he might be able to seek out a romantic partner, or is he really focused on therapy?

When I was reading Sean in season 1, I saw him as somebody who was scared to get close to anyone in his circle because those were the people he knew would suffer the greatest consequences if he were to hurt them. We see him run from the people he's close to because he's afraid to hurt them. His fear is also connected to getting close with somebody romantically. I think that for him, a relationship requires so much more growth than where he's at now. He needs to break that fear of hurting others.

He does switch to Paul as his therapist instead of Jimmy (Jason Segel). How helpful is that to him?

Paul and Jimmy both have very different approaches. Paul has the very traditional approach, and we've seen how that goes. Sean, he self-harms in a very destructive way because he doesn't feel like he's getting the same amount of support that he had when he was under Jimmy's eye. In season 1, we saw Sean make significant progress in one department, but then backtrack in another. It's one of those two steps forwards, three steps back situations. He's moving in one direction with Jimmy, where that violence is gone, but he has no connection to his family. With Paul, he's facing these things, but then he's engaging in severe self-harm.

Related: Jason Segel says Harrison Ford shook canoe they were in to try to capsize him: 'Sorry, kid'

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In terms of having more screen time and scenes with Harrison Ford, do you have a favorite moment or memory from working with him this season?

Okay. So the line when he's looking at Sean and Liz and he says, "What do you want me to do? Drop my pants and make my ass clap?" That was not in the script. The writers came through and gave him an alt, and then they were like, "Hey guys, be prepared. We gave Harrison a couple of alts." He dropped that one and the camera was on him. I'm wheezing. I can't breathe. But this man just looked straight into our eyes, fully committed and connected. How am I supposed to keep it together? I got Indiana Jones in front of me cussing very creatively.

Bill Lawrence really talks about how the arc of season 2 is this theme of forgiveness. What does that mean for Sean? 

He's somebody who keeps everything behind a locked door or in a vault. Forgiveness requires vulnerability, because you can only forgive someone if you admit that you were hurt. That's extremely challenging for Sean, whether it's to Liz, whether it's to his father, that's a very challenging thing to do. His fear of admitting his own pain is the only thing preventing him from forgiving, despite knowing how beneficial it could be.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.