Damon Wayans Jr. says “Shrinking” creator and showrunner Bill Lawrence gave him the green light to have fun in that comical dildo/vibrator scene with Jessica Williams — which happened to be shot on his first day on set.
“I was very nervous, and I did my first take, and I was by the book — I didn’t improvise at all,” Wayans, who plays new character Derrick/Derrick #2 in Season 2 of “Shrinking” and is now Gaby’s (Jessica Williams) love interest, tells TheWrap. “Then after my first take, Bill Lawrence comes up to me. He’s like, ‘Have fun.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘Do, you know, do what you do.’ And when he gave me the green light to do that, and I did it … He looked at me like, stop saying the lines. I was just like, ‘Oh, OK.’ And then once I stopped saying the lines, I started just messing around.”
That sex toy moment between Wayans’ and Williams’ characters happens in Episode 4, titled “Made You Look.” As Gaby’s walking to her car with a breakup box full of personal items, Derrick offers to hold the box and goes on to check out what’s inside. That’s when he hears her vibrator go off. The scene ends with joke-filled laughter between the pair and a hilarious “Clifford the Big Red Dog” gag.
“She met me where I was at. She was like, ‘Oh, you think you’re the only one that can do this.’ She crushed it. And it was just so much fun. Just to see the light in her eyes, and it was truly like fireworks,” Wayans said. “She’s just ready to go there. I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be in every scene with Jessica. She’s got that fire in her eyes.’ She’s like, ‘Oh, don’t think you’re just going to improvise circles around me, boy, you’re gonna get got.’ It was just great.”
For Williams, working with Wayans was like riding in a fast-speed luxury car.
“Damon’s good. He’s so fast. I love that scene so much,” she said. “Sometimes I say we’re all different cars. Harrison is like this beautiful vintage, I don’t know Chevy. Then Damon’s like, you’re in the front seat and you put your foot on the gas and it’s fast, and you’re like, ‘Whoa.’ This is like a freaking Ferrari. This is insane. I mean, he’s a Wayans, so it was so much fun, and it was so fun to play like a hard rom-com where both people are doing crazy jokes, it’s really cool.”
She continued: “One of the things with Damon is that I feel like when we improvise together, it can just get really crude and get just, a lot of swear words really quickly. So we were learning that about each other in that scene. It’s a great first scene, riffing on vibrators, to get comfortable with each other. But he’s so much fun to work with, and he’s such a joke machine. He’s really giving with jokes.”
While nothing’s confirmed officially, Wayans says he’d be totally down to continue starring in the series in Season 3.
“I truly don’t know,” Wayans said after TheWrap asked if fans could expect to see him in Season 3. “They didn’t tell me, but Bill did say on my last day, he said, ‘Would you be interested in being in Season 3 … if we get the pick up. I was like, ‘Hey, man, you let me know.’ In a heartbeat, I would, but I don’t know.”
“Shrinking” airs new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+. The show has already been renewed for Season 3.
