Zach Braff, photographed by Emilio Madrid.
Harrison Ford knows a thing or two about reboots. In 2023, at the age of 80, the man who originated characters as seminal as Han Solo and Rick Deckard revisited what was perhaps his true starmaking turn in the fifth and final installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. “Somebody once asked me if I was going to make every movie I ever made over again,” said Ford on a call last month with his pal Zach Braff. “I said, Sure, why not?” Braff, with whom Ford worked on Apple TV’s Shrinking, can understand the allure of running it back. 16 years after his hit medical sitcom Scrubs first concluded, the 50-year-old actor is headed back to Sacred Heart Hospital for the show’s long-awaited revival, airing weekly on Hulu and ABC. Except this time, J.D. Dorian isn’t a lowly intern—he’s the new Chief of Medicine. “It went on for nine years, and we were the students,” Braff explains. “So the idea is to come back and see what it would be like if we’re the teachers.” Who better to confide in than Braff’s own mentor? With his emotional support pit bull in his lap, Braff got on a call with Mr. Ford to talk comebacks, happy accidents, and the unrelenting enthusiasm that’s propelled both of their careers.
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ZACH BRAFF: Hello.
HARRISON FORD: Hello, sir. Oh, you brought your dog?
BRAFF: Yeah, this is Penny, my emotional support animal.
FORD: Well, I should have brought mine because I feel unsupported.
BRAFF: [Laughs] It’s pouring rain and my giant pit bull will not go outside. So we’re trying to figure out how to solve that.
FORD: You’re in your kitchen.
BRAFF: I am.
FORD: I’m in my bathroom.
BRAFF: [Laughs] Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. I never thought you’d say yes, so when you did, it made me smile.
FORD: I thought you were interviewing me, because that’s how dumb I am.
BRAFF: We can interview each other because I could ask you lots of questions.
FORD: But I know you’ve got a new thing coming out, so we are directing our attention to that. I’m just old news. Anyway, I really enjoyed the energy of it. The density is amazing.
BRAFF: Thank you so much.
FORD: I really enjoyed seeing the two episodes that I did. But as I said, I was unfamiliar with the show when it came out. What year was it?
BRAFF: We started in 2000. Our mutual friend, Bill Lawrence, had only created the show starring Michael J. Fox, Spin City, which he had done with a partner, Gary [David] Goldberg. So this was his first outing on his own. One of his best friends in college who he partied with and drank like crazy with became a doctor. He just thought that was so funny, the idea of this guy he used to rage with being a doctor. And he wanted to mix comedy and drama for the first time in a way that we both know he does so well.
FORD: Well, he hit it out of the park. What was the impulse to bring it back now? Somebody once asked me if I was going to make every movie I ever made over again, and I said, “Yeah, sure, why not?” [Laughs] But I’m sure there must’ve been a better excuse.
BRAFF: Well, for us, this show was really informative for a lot of doctors, people that went into the medical field. I mean, it went on for nine years, and we were the students. So the idea is to come back and see what it would be like if we’re the teachers. What’s so amazing about the concept of a teaching hospital is that you’re teaching while saving lives. You have to both be present for the patient whilst simultaneously passing on your knowledge. It felt like an interesting thing to do, coming back 17 years later.
FORD: Yeah. I love the characters. I love the complexity. I love the urgency of it all. It’s a very neat concept.
BRAFF: Thank you.
FORD: But as I said, densely funny, and that’s something I’ve noticed about you. You really never fucking give up, do you? You just pack it in and pack it in, as far as character and comedy. And now I’m scared to be directed by you again, because you’re too fucking good.
BRAFF: [Laughs] Oh, I can’t tell you how much that means to me coming from you. We have such a good connection on set. I feel like the stuff we’ve been making on Shrinking is really special. That episode that just aired, I thought that was such a special thing we made together.
FORD: I forget everything. I mean, when I’m sitting here watching something we did a year ago, it’s a complete surprise to me.
BRAFF: Is it fun though, to watch it now that you kind of forgot about it?
FORD: Oh, it’s great fun. I don’t have any problem watching myself. I’m guessing you don’t either? I think it’s important to watch yourself and not let it freak you out. And it’s fun to see the accidents as well as what was planned.
BRAFF: Absolutely. And there’s a moment in Shrinking, for example, where you were so funny. You were trying to get Luke’s character to go into therapy and in one take, you just improvised, “Oh, fuck it!” And it was just so funny and so real. Our mutual showrunner, Bill Lawrence, loves that stuff. He loves those little moments where you riff something weird and you may have thought, “Oh, they’ll never use this.” But he uses it. That happened over and over again in Scrubs.
FORD: It’s amazing, the little things. I was watching this episode where you’re on the phone with the insurance company, and you’re waiting for some robot, and all of the sudden, you fall asleep and hit your head against the desk. I love that kind of shit. I also looked at your biography and, Jesus, man, you have had several lives. One in theater, one as a very successful actor on Broadway, and you’re a director, a writer, a producer… Fuck you!
BRAFF: [Laughs] You have the greatest career of all time and you’re mad at me?
FORD: But is that going to make me happy? [Laughs] Well, you are incredibly ambitious, and if I had any idea how accomplished you were, I never would’ve listened to you direct me.
BRAFF: You really do let me direct you, though, and I like that. Obviously, it’s intimidating coming in and directing someone of your status and career, but–
FORD: Oh, bullshit. Come on.
BRAFF: No, it is!
FORD: You’re an actor. Don’t tell me that. You relate to me as an actor. You didn’t have any, “I have to treat him differently,” thing, did you?
BRAFF: No, I think that’s why–I’m assuming–you like the way I direct you, because I don’t come in with any–
FORD: Did I say that?
BRAFF: I made it up in my head because you’re willing to let me direct you.
FORD: That’s acting. [Laughs]
BRAFF: [Laughs] Oh, damn. You’re good.
FORD: Yeah.
BRAFF: I’ve directed a couple of people, legends like you, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine–
FORD: Yeah, you have.
BRAFF: What I always say to myself is, “The last thing this person wants me to do is come in like, Oh my god, I can’t believe it’s you!” They want me to relate to them as a fellow actor. So that’s what I do.
FORD: Yeah, exactly. Or micromanaging. But the wonderful thing about these kinds of shows is that you develop this community experience amongst the ensemble, and after a while it’s hard to do anything wrong. The reality is that we’re a tribe, we have a common experience, we have a common goal, and we have become very close to each other. We became emotionally undaunted by anything that came up because we’re in such a comfortable place with each other. I see it in Scrubs there, in those two episodes, you see real people… [Phone rings]
BRAFF: Do you have to get that?
FORD: Yeah. [Picks up the phone] Go fuck yourself.
BRAFF: [Laughs] This is something I see on both Shrinking and Scrubs, we’re reacting so naturally because we know the characters so well. It doesn’t feel scripted, it feels like friends interacting as they would.
FORD: Yeah. I’m having a strange experience with Shrinking. It seems people come up to me more frequently on the street, not with a request, but just with a comment. They just want to say that they appreciate the show and that it’s doing something for them. And you can feel that what you’re doing for them is positive.
BRAFF: Absolutely.
FORD: It’s not just entertainment. I flew into the airport the other day after just being out for a short vacation with my wife, and the guy from the FBO that was dumping the toilet looked at me and he said, “I’m going to get you, man. You did it to me again.” I said, “What did I do to you?” And he said, “Made me cry in front of my wife.”
BRAFF: Oh my god.
FORD: It’s different from the running, jumping, and falling down movies, a lot of which I’ve done.
BRAFF: Also I think it’s the kind of show that both Shrinking and Scrubs are, that they catch you off guard with the humor and then your vulnerabilities are open and then something happens, just as it does in life, where all of a sudden your heart hurts and your eyes are welling up and you don’t know what happened. It’s like a magic trick.
FORD: Yeah. We’re lucky guys.
BRAFF: We are. I feel so lucky to be working with people I love and to be making something that hopefully will make a difference.
FORD: I’m just lucky to be working, man. Look, I’m in danger of the plague of legacy. And on this show, I’m not a legend. I’m a working actor just like everybody else. It’s so much fun to go back to that place.
BRAFF: I love that. When was the last time you felt that?
FORD: Well, I always try and feel that, but I’m not always able to trick myself into it.
BRAFF: What a wonderful thing to be able to do at this point in your career, to be able to feel that way.
FORD: It feels freeing.
BRAFF: I think it shows in your performance because the work you’re turning in is some of the best I’ve ever seen you do.
FORD: I’m not responsible for the whole thing, as you sometimes are in a movie where you have to become an instrument of the plan, help fulfill the obligations of a genre, or be a leading man with those obligations. Hell, our stories don’t even have to have a happy ending because we’re coming back next week. We’re lucky, and the writing is so good in both shows. Exceptional writing.
BRAFF: It all comes down to the script. No matter what you’re doing or what scale it is, if you’re sitting there on the day and it isn’t working, it’s not going to work in the edit room. Everything comes down to the writing.
FORD: Yeah.
BRAFF: I always wanted to ask you, since you’ve worked with some of the greatest directors ever… Why are you shaking your head?
FORD: You know why I just shook my head?
BRAFF: Why?
FORD: Because they’re not with us anymore.
BRAFF: Yeah, a lot of them.
FORD: And you know what they had in common?
BRAFF: That’s what I wanted to ask you.
FORD: They were literate, literary men. The stories that they wanted to tell were more intellectual and less visceral. I’m thinking of [Alan J.] Pakula, Sydney Pollack, even Mike Nichols. Those guys had developed intellectual capacities, so the writing was dense and focused and complex. They were interested in not just retribution, but in why things are the way they are and why people behave the way they do. They were also reflecting a zeitgeist and amplifying it and resonating with it and even participating in it. And that’s what brought culture together in a way that I think helped organize us into positive contemplations of things.
BRAFF: Yeah. In terms of directing, how do you feel a director is actually helpful to you?
FORD: It could be telling me not to do something that I am doing, and just get things out of me. But a lot of times the direction is not apparent. It’s just, when you already have a working relationship, there are subtle ways of negotiating things to each other in context of a scene that we want to get the most out of. And we read each other well. There are directors that I read less well.
BRAFF: I feel like we read each other very well. It’s really some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my whole career.
FORD: Well, me too. I also love the pace and the energy of the way we’re working. It’s a little different from a movie.
BRAFF: I really just loved working with you, and I’m glad you took the time to check out Scrubs because I know that it wasn’t on your radar. But now that you know 2025 Bill Lawrence, it’s cool for you to go back to see what he created back when he was a child.
FORD: There’s nobody that I know that’s like Bill Lawrence. It’s a weird job, but somebody’s got to do it.
BRAFF: He’s so good at it. We were cutting something together on Scrubs and the way he can diagnose why something isn’t quite working yet, it literally is down to minutiae. Like, “Take four frames off the end of that.” And then right before he says that, “Just add six or seven frames.” And then, all of the sudden, you’re laughing.
FORD: Timing.
BRAFF: All right, man. Thank you so much for doing this.
FORD: Hey, you bet. See you around campus.
