Christa Miller pulls double duty on Apple TV+’s Shrinking: Not only does she star as Liz, quirky neighbor and friend to Jason Segel’s Jimmy, but she’s also served as one of the music supervisors since the show’s debut.
Miller’s path to music supervision began on shows like Ted Lasso, Cougar Town and Scrubs. “I started doing the pilot of Scrubs, and Bill [Lawrence, creator and Miller’s husband] didn’t like the music, and couldn’t get the music,” Miller tells THR. “I grew up in New York and I used to DJ sometimes; I’ve always been very into music and I knew Bill’s taste, so I said to him, ‘Let me take a stab at it.’ I did, and he was like, ‘You’re doing the music now.’ So I was the uncredited music supervisor on Scrubs.”
Miller’s stint on ABC’s Cougar Town introduced her to Tony Von Pervieux, who would become her music supervision partner for all their future projects. Miller loves her second gig on Shrinking, constantly making playlists and banking songs for potential episodes in her free time, but she admits that she can’t “do it as a full-time thing. It’s a lot of work.”
Miller jokes that getting Lawrence on board with her music choices involves a little subtle brainwashing. “Any time we’re driving to dinner, I will play my superfavorite playlists for him in the car, so by the time he hears it in postproduction, which is maybe 10 months later, he feels like it’s a pop song on the radio,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a much easier sell.”
Miller and Von Pervieux prioritize featuring new artists and up-and-comers on the soundtrack. “I know how important it is to new artists to get placed, because TV is the new radio,” she says. But that’s not to say Miller and Von Pervieux don’t use famous bands or hit songs. In fact, sometimes they use an artist’s music more than once, because it happens to fit the storyline or emotion portrayed in the scene. Some bands Miller and Von Pervieux have featured repeatedly include Arcade Fire, The National and The 1975. “I try to spread the love, but sometimes it just works so well,” she says.
In terms of playing Liz on season two, Miller says she wanted to pay homage to all the moms who have become empty nesters (which is a major plot point for her character in the second season, and a cause of her veiled depression). “I wanted to respect those moms that you think are annoying, that are just organizing and doing everything, because they’re saving your life.”
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
