The Big Picture Talks to Jason Segel From 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'

After first getting noticed on the short lived Freaks and Geeks for his mentor Judd Apatow, Jason Segel has gone on to a more steady day job on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

This week, he's set to become Apatow?s third unlikely romantic leading man in the terrific breakup comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Segel wrote, and which co-stars two other TV vets trying their hands at big screen success, Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Mila Kunis (That 70s Show).

In spite of his vociferous and multiple objections to the contrary, The Big Picture recently talked to Segel about his newfound exposure, both in terms of his growing celebrity and his abundant on screen nudity.

Big Picture: You've worked with Judd Apatow for a while.

Jason Segel: Yeah, ten years now.

Is there a weak link in that entire Apatow Empire?

I don't think so. I think if there is, it's that if you make enough movies, eventually there will be some that aren't as good as the others. But that's just a matter of sheer quantity. I think Judd has refined a very cool system.

He told me when I was writing this, "I want you to be comfortable turning in a drama for the first draft. We can add comedy. This movie's gonna be funny, that's what we do. The only way these movies work is that underlying everything, there?s a dramatic story." And I think that's why his movies are different than other comedies.

And this script deal came right after 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, so the notion of being the iceberg that sunk the Titanic was a terrible, looming feeling (laughs).

Among the more memorable moments in Sarah Marshall is the guest appearance of your penis. Was that something that was always going to be in the movie?

Yeah, I had a naked break-up in my mid-20s. I got dumped while I was naked! But (in the movie), it's the context of a pretty dramatic scene, actually. This guy is being dumped, and he's vulnerable and raw and standing there crying naked. I don't know, something about being that close to as vulnerable as you can get, I was pretty proud of it.


This thing's going to be a pretty big hit, you know, as the only comedy with real cred until deep into summer, so are you prepared for that kind of Jonah Hill/Seth Rogen instant star thing to happen?

You know what? I've never taken it to seriously, any of it. Of course, I've never experienced anything like this, so we'll see. Maybe I'll turn into a real prick. But I had a moment on the red carpet when I was, like, 20, and a photographer screamed at me, "Get off the red carpet so we can take pictures of the celebrities!"

And I had this kind of revelatory moment where I said to myself, "You're not going to let this bother you. But if you're not going to let it affect you when they're saying negative things to you, you can't let it affect you when they'e saying great things to you." And so, every time I start to feel arrogant, "Get off the red carpet" pops into my head.