‘Shrinking’s’ Michael Urie learns from Jason Segel [Video]

If a line is well-written, it’s easy to memorize, says “Shrinking” star Michael Urie.

“It’s the only way to say it,” he explains.

When it’s not so well-written, good luck. Appearing in a number of television shows and plays over the years, Urie developed a system that seems to work. Although scripts are now emailed to actors, “I need the paper. I just can’t look at a script on a computer screen or my phone. So, I get a paper copy of it, read it cover to cover and then I break up the beats, mark the scenes and highlight the lines and I read it over and over and over and over again. Unless it’s extremely dense, it’s usually pretty simple to get it in my brain.”

Working with “Shrinking” lead Jason Segel, Urie says, was a real lesson in television acting. “I don’t think I’ve ever …