Jason Segel.Photo:Emma McIntyre/Getty
Emma McIntyre/Getty
With credentials that includeHow I Met Your Mother, The Muppets,andForgetting Sarah Marshall,Jason Segel’s comedy chops are well-established.
“Comedy found me first and I turned out to be good at it,” he said, admitting, “I’ve been through some tough stuff in my life, and I laughed my way through it. Some of the funniest moments were the times I was the most miserable, weirdly enough.
“I just take the view that that’s what life is.”
Jason Segel and Ali Wong.Randy Shropshire/Deadline; Michael Loccisano/Getty
Randy Shropshire/Deadline; Michael Loccisano/Getty
Segeltold Wongthat his motivation forShrinking— where he plays a therapist trying to grapple with his wife’s death — “was grief.”
“It was just trying to think of this idea that I think is kind of universal, beyond just losing a loved one,” he explains. “We filmed right after the pandemic. Everything was so weird. Culturally, we couldn’t quite name it, but we all had this sense that something was taken from us that we’ll never get back.”
As he looks back on his career, Segeltells Wong, ‘I wish I had zigged where I zagged.”
He started acting after high school, but it wasn’t long before he found his niche in comedy. “I worked a lot in my twenties and thirties, and at some point, couldn’t quite figure out why I was doing any of it. I basically had an existential crisis. So I started only taking movies where I would be around somebody I really admired just so I could ask them questions."
He’s also been frankabout his own mental health journey, saying he’s “struggled a bit with anxiety and some sense that something is wrong and a sense of impending doom.”
But Segel told Wong that an interview betweenKobe BryantandMichael Jacksoninspired him to make those different career choices.
”Michael invited Kobe to Neverland Ranch when Kobe was a rookie and gave him all this advice. And one of the pieces of advice he gave Kobe was when you’re around someone you admire, don’t be a fan. And ask them every question that you think will be helpful to you on your journey.”
But now, at 43, Segel tells Wong he’s finding some balance. “I’m only just now starting to believe that everything’s OK,” he said. “But that has not been my experience of how I feel during any of it. I’m always a little bit scared of, ‘How do I keep it up?’ ”
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source: people.com
