For three seasons of Shrinking now, Lukita Maxwell has been brilliantly holding her own among veteran actors like Harrison Ford. She has consistently imbued the character of Alice Laird with so many layers that her journey as a grieving daughter has made both Seasons 1 and 2 hugely impactful. In 2024, she was one of the Best of the Year Performers, taking us through one relatable journey after another with the kind of performance that was utterly sensational.
As someone who also lost a parent in High School (my dad), Alice’s journey always spoke to me on a profoundly personal level. It’s been real and raw, and the writing has done such a fantastic job of allowing her to fully go through the processes of grief, all while giving her character grounded material where she gets to be a teenager. In Season 3, however, Alice’s journey is a little lighter. She’s forgiven Louis, she’s still playing soccer, and in “My Bad,” she even accepts the scholarship to play in Connecticut. Alice is understandably leaving, and with a number of characters stuck in the past, she’s now looking forward.
In our interview, Lukita Maxwell describes Alice’s arc as “Everything’s cyclical. You kind of have to be forward-facing and future-oriented. There’s kind of like this, ‘fake it till you make it energy.’ I’m going in this direction. I can’t look back. I’m already imagining myself in the future, to like manifest it into existence. There’s a levity to it. It’s bright and exciting. She’s kind of living in that future of what’s next.”
But, of course, Jimmy comes into play here as well, and as he describes it to Louis, he basically wants Alice to live with him until she’s 70. Maxwell acknowledges that the only thing that’s holding back Alice is worrying about her dad. “Making sure that he’s going to be okay and that he has a solid foundation. But other than that, there’s definitely a lightness to her in Season 3, which I think is attributed to the movement as well that she’s no longer stuck in the past.”
A large part of the reason Shrinking is such a brilliantly compelling and grounded series is ultimately because of the writing as well. The characters not only feel relatable, but their arcs do, too. When asked what she’s going to take away from Alice and her journey, Lukita Maxwell says, “I share this personally with Alice. She’s going to look back at this period in time. I think that me, as Lukita, is going to look back at this period of Shrinking and understand more clearly how much it changed us. I’m so presently grateful I get to work with these people, see these people, and learn from these geniuses every day. We’re on Season 3, and I’m looking back at Season 1, thinking that was so much bigger than I was feeling it in that moment. I can’t imagine in like five, ten, twenty-five years, looking back at this conglomerate of time spent shooting the show, and it’s a very beautiful thing.”
Maxwell also acknowledges the importance of community in Alice’s life, stating that it’s because of them that Alice can feel grateful to have that “scaffolding of family and community around her, so she can go out into the world solo.”
Shrinking Season 3 is now airing on Apple TV+. Check out the full interview with Lukita Maxwell below.