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Jason Segel opened up in a new interview about how he had to balance his starring role on How I Met Your Mother with his burgeoning movie career
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Segel explained that after he wrote and filmed 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he was so tired and busy that he stopped being able to ‘enjoy’ things like 2011’s The Muppets and 2012’s The Five-Year Engagement
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Segel also explained how Freaks and Geeks producer Judd Apatow inspired him to become a writer
For Jason Segel, starring in a hit TV series came with some serious downsides.
Segel, 45, spoke on the May 5 episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, recorded April 26 at Napa Valley StreamFest in Napa, Calif. Looking back on his career, he noted how in 2005, he was cast as Marshall in How I Met Your Mother, which became a smash hit sitcom for CBS and ultimately ran for nine seasons. But that turn came just as his movie career was also kicking off.
CBS via Getty
The cast of ‘How I Met Your Mother.’ From left: Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan in 2005
Segel appeared in 2007’s Knocked Up, directed by his friend Judd Apatow, who had also executive-produced his first TV series, 1999 cult classic Freaks and Geeks.
“Judd had instilled this thing in us during Freaks and Geeks, where he said, if you can improv the way that you can, then you can write. I just need to teach you how to write,” Segel remembered, calling it a “life-changing moment.” Apatow told him and his castmates that “if you can write something good enough,” you can always “get back on the wheel.”
Related: Jason Segel Reveals How Both He and James Franco Landed Roles in Freaks and Geeks Despite Initially Competing Against Each Other
Segel said Apatow also told him personally, “You’re a weird dude, and the only way you’re going to make it is if you write your own material.”
When Segel and Apatow attended a Lakers game together, Segel “pitched him lightly” on a script he’d been working on: Forgetting Sarah Marshall. “And I went to Hawaii, and I rented a little house in Hawaii. And I wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall in two months, and then we made it. And then I was kind of off to the races,” Segel said. That writing period was during his hiatus from the first season of HIMYM.
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Host Scott Feinberg pointed out the difficulties this situation brought. Though HIMYM brought recognition and “financial security,” he said, Segel was also “locked into playing a guy for a long, long time” and then having to decide if he was going to work or rest during hiatuses.
Apatow Productions/Kobal/Shutterstock
Jason Segel in 2008’s ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’
“Listen, it’s like the best problem you could ever have, for sure, especially when you’re scared you might never work,” Segel said. Forgetting Sarah Marshall “did so well” — making more than $100 million at the box office when it was released in 2008 — that Segel had enough “juice” to keep getting movies made, and he wanted to keep writing his own scripts.
But balancing his TV and movie careers was an enormous undertaking. “The way my life was for about six years was I would be shooting How I Met Your Mother. And during that time, I would be writing a movie that we would then shoot on the four months off and get done in time to get back to How I Met Your Mother,” the Shrinking star remembered.
Alamy
From left: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Walter, Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear in 2011’s ‘The Muppets’
“And it was an amazing time. It was an electric time. But I also was getting a little tired and I was starting to not enjoy myself so much,” he confessed. “And that was a bummer because I was doing such cool things.”
Related: Jason Segel Reveals Why He Left Hollywood for a ‘Little Country Town’ After How I Met Your Mother Success
Segel shared that when they made 2011’s The Muppets — which he starred in and also co-wrote — he shot HIMYM during the day and Muppets at night. Then that summer, he filmed 2012’s The Five-Year Engagement, which he also wrote.
“So I was a tired dude,” he said. Segel also wrote and starred in 2014’s Sex Tape.
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