Philadelphia Weekly

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Jason Segel’s role in the Judd Apatow Machine has usually been as the volcanically emotional guy: lovesick, “Lady”-crooning burnout Nick Andopolis on Freaks and Geeks; dementedly dedicated high school boyfriend Eric on Undeclared; and the ritualistically crying, sometimes nude fresh dumpee in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which he wrote. With I Love You, Man, made outside the Apatow-verse (though still featuring similar themes and cast members), Segel tries on a different facade: self-assured, extroverted, happy. Segel, who spends most of his time on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother and is in the works on an actual, honest-to-god Muppet movie, sat down with PW.

Sydney in I Love You, Man is a different character from what you usually play. Was that a conscious move?

Yeah, absolutely. Because of the TV show I’m only able to do one movie a year. Which at first I resented, but I’ve come to appreciate the idea of having to chose very carefully and make sure everything I do is of good quality. One of the things I always make sure is that everything I do is a little different, especially because I do a TV show for eight months of the year. So with this I basically just stole Russell Brand’s persona and made him American.

What interested you in the character?

I’ve played characters who, in general, are a bit self-conscious. And this guy is the opposite. He couldn’t care less what other people think about him. I liked that. He’s a bit of a womanizer, too, which I hadn’t played since Knocked Up.

Which character that you’ve played is the real you?

I’m a bit of an amalgam. The way I think to think of it is, do you know what a mandala is? It’s an Indian symbol where the you is in the middle and around you are the facets of your personality. I think my characters are around me. I’m a bit of the Sarah Marshall guy over there, and a bit of the stalker from Undeclared somewhere. I’m a little bit of all that stuff.

Though I Love You, Man director John Hamburg directed a couple episodes of Undeclared, his style seems more scripted than with the Apatow’s. Was there still room for improv?

There was. A little bit less than on the Judd movies. Hamburg’s honed the script. What we would do is for the month before we started shooting we would go to Hamburg’s office and do all the scenes and improv the scenes, and the best of our improvs found their way into the script.

I figured including Rush was your idea.

It wasn’t, actually. Hamburg was in a Rush cover band in high school. I was supposed to play a drummer in this, and there was this whole scene where Sydney plays “Spirit of the Radio” on the drums. I had to tell Hamburg, that I did that in Freaks and Geeks. Literally the exact scene. So we made me a guitarist instead.

How did you get the gig making a Muppet movie?

I went in on a blind pitch. Henson’s studio designed the puppets for Sarah Marshall, and while I was there I asked if I could see Kermit and Miss Piggy. And they looked at me sadly and said, ‘We don’t own those anymore, we sold them to Disney.’ It just made me sad. And then I understood why all the movies had changed, why they had suddenly become these weird theme movies: Muppets Underwater, Muppets Do Dickens. I was having this weird moment of mojo when Sarah Marshall had just been made. And Disney was pitching me a bunch of stuff and I stopped them and said, ‘This is all very flattering, but the one thing I’d really like to do is try to bring back the Muppets properly.’ There was a spattering of laughter, like I was making a joke. And I said, ‘No. Here’s my pitch.’ And I pitched them my idea for a Muppet movie. And they bought it right there in the room. Pretty crazy.

What direction will you be taking it in? Is it retro? Updated?

I’d like to bring it back to the early ‘80s Muppet movies, where it was just about putting on a show and friendship and heart and laughter. I don’t think you need gimmicks with the Muppets. Muppet movies were just beautiful.

You figure an Apatow guy making a Muppet movie, it’s going to be R -rated.

Of course. Well, Kermit will be doing full-frontal. He’s always doing full-frontal. Have you ever seen him with pants on?

What can you tell me about the movie?