Many have come to know actor Jason Segel for his childish humor on shows like “How I Met Your Mother” and in films like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” but with his Apple TV+ series “Shrinking,” Segel aims to expand people’s perception of him. Speaking in a recent interview on “Today” with Hoda Kotb, Segel shared how he values getting to take on more serious and nuanced subject matter with “Shrinking,” especially in relation to his early days in show business.
“I appreciate being 44 years-old all of a sudden,” Segel said. “When I made ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall,’ for example, the rawest form of vulnerability I could think of was full frontal nudity. That’s a 25-year-old guy. And this is, I think, a more sophisticated version of vulnerability that you only achieve from life stuff. You know, saying I’m scared or realizing you let your daughter down and trying to earn back that trust, these are new to me and exciting to explore.”
Segel went on to credit the work of filmmaker James Brooks as an influence on the tone of “Shrinking” in that movies like “Broadcast News” and “Terms of Endearment” aim to have you “laughing your way through grief and crying your way through funny moments,” an experience he felt was true of life. It took Segel a few years of growing up for him to realize this was the kind of work he wanted to explore and views “Shrinking” as a “culmination” of that emotional process, but it wouldn’t have come without a lot of soul-searching.
In looking back on his life while making “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” he said, “I was working pretty much every day of the year, doing ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ writing a movie and shooting it during the break, going back to ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ and I realized, art is supposed to be a reflection of what you are going through, and I wasn’t going through much life-wise. At 30 years old, why am I still making movies about being afraid of girls? I’m a successful man. I’m not afraid of meeting girls anymore.”
Watch Segel’s full “Today” interview below.
Season 2 of “Shrinking” is now streaming on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping Wednesdays.
