Fresh Air
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- Fresh Air
- Producing Organization
- WHYY Public Media
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- cpb-aacip/215-95w6mnc9
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- Description
- Description
- Jason Segel Explains The Mysteries Of Guydom Jonze's Wild Things, A Splendidly Different Animal Fresh Air Says Goodbye To Producer
- Description
- *** TRANSCRIPTION COMPANY BOUNDARY *** ..DATE: 20091016 ..PGRM: Fresh Air ..TIME: 12:00-13:00 PM ..NIEL: N/A ..NTWK: NPR ..SGMT: Jason Segel Explains The Mysteries Of Guydom TERRY GROSS, host: This is FRESH AIR. Im Terry Gross. My guest, actor Jason Segel, got his start with Seth Rogan and James Franco in the Judd Apatow high school series Freaks and Geeks. Segel was in Apatows film Knocked Up, then wrote himself a starring role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a romantic comedy that includes a Dracula musical performed with puppets. Hes not done with puppets. He signed on to write the screenplay for a Muppets movie. He also co-stars in the CBS series How I Met Your Mother. Last spring, Segel starred opposite Paul Rudd in the bromance I Love You, Man, which is now out on DVD. Paul Rudd plays a real estate agent in L.A. whos just proposed to his girlfriend. As they plan the wedding, he realizes he has no close friend to serve as his best man. So he starts looking for a man-friend. Thats where Jason Segel enters the picture, as the ultimate dude with his own man-cave, no apparent means of support and with a penchant for hanging out, talking endlessly about sex, avoiding long-term relationships, getting high and playing heavy-metal guitar. This is a new world for the mild-mannered Paul Rudd character, but as he becomes a little more adventurous, it begins to complicate things with his fiance, especially after he takes to heart Segels question: Why are you even getting married? (Soundbite of film, I Love You, Man) Mr.PAUL RUDD (Actor): (As Peter Klaven) Zooey walked out on me because I asked her why we were getting married. Mr.JASON SEGEL (Actor): (As Sydney Fife) Why would you ask her that? That conversation was between you and me. You cant have that talk with her. I just look, I assumed you understood that. Mr.RUDD: (As Peter) God, I am so sick of your ridiculous rules. I like it that I can share things with Zooey. I like that if I cant sleep at night, shes there to talk to. I do you know the best night Ive had in the last five years is a night that Zooey and I split a bottle of wine, we made a summer salad and watched Chocolat together? Mr.SEGEL: (As Sydney) You mean Chocolate? Mr.RUDD: (As Peter) Chocolat. Mr.SEGEL: (As Sydney) Chocolate, with Johnny Depp. Mr.RUDD: (As Peter) Chocolat. Mr.SEGEL: (As Sydney) Youre not (bleep) French, Pete. Its called Chocolate. Mr.RUDD: (As Peter) Chocolates got an E on it. Mr.SEGEL: (As Sydney) That was your favorite night? Mr.RUDD: (As Peter) Yes. Mr.SEGEL: (As Sydney) Your best night in five years is watching Chocolate with Johnny Depp? You should be ashamed of yourself. Mr.RUDD: (As Peter) Well, the combination of wine and summer salad and Chocolat, yeah. Mr.SEGEL: (As Sydney) You should be embarrassed. GROSS: Jason Segel, welcome to FRESH AIR. Describe your character, Sydney Fife, in "I Love You, Man." Mr. SEGEL: Sure. Sydney was a late bloomer, and so he's kind of terrified of monogamy, and you know, he's a bit of a womanizer and really values his guy friends. He's a little bit mysterious. I don't want to give too much away, but he - you know, he's got this attitude that I don't possess in life, which is this is who I am, take it or leave it, which is what really drew me to playing that part. It sort of reminded me of my friend, Russell Brand, who I did "Sarah Marshall" with. GROSS: Oh, he's terrific in your film, yeah. Mr. SEGEL: Oh, thank you. Well, he has that quality in real life as well, of this is who I am, you know, accept it. And I've never had that. I'm the kind of guy who, like, stays up till midnight thinking I wish I hadn't said that thing to that guy, I hope I didn't hurt his feelings. And then I'll call the next day and apologize, and they'll have no idea what I'm talking about. That's sort of how I'm bent, and it was nice to sort of play the opposite. GROSS: Do you agree with the films basic premise that its sometimes easier to find a girlfriend than to find a good platonic male friend? Mr.SEGEL: No, I do. You know, I was sort of surprised this movie hadn't been made before. But as you get older, it's very tricky for men to make friends with strangers. You know, normally I guess your friends are sort of grandfathered in. They're friends of other friends, or you know, your girlfriend's friends, one way or another, and to try to make friends with a stranger is tricky for grown men. I think women have it a lot easier. You guys can, like, walk into a woman's restroom and come out with a new best friend. But for men, it's just, it's not the same thing. GROSS: Do you still have old friends, like friends from your high school days, and Mr. SEGEL: Yeah. My best friend in the world is a guy called Brian Lind, who I met when I was 12 years old, and he lived with me for the past couple of years, and then six months ago he moved to New York to go to med school. And I just gave him kind of a bro goodbye. I said, all right, man, go get them out there, I'm proud of you. And he left, and I woke up at 2:00 in the morning, out of a dream, crying hysterically, and I had to call my mother to calm me down. (Soundbite of laughter) GROSS: That's funny. Mr. SEGEL: It was horrible. GROSS: You know, these bromance movies, where it's about the platonic relationship between two or more men Mr. SEGEL: Sure. GROSS: why do you think they're so popular now? Mr. SEGEL: Boy, I don't know. You know, I think maybe these kind of buddy movies are allowing men to open up a little bit about, you know, it's okay to let this guard down and let the machismo down and just be who you are. GROSS: Yeah, but so many of the bromance movies are so much about the machismo. Like, your character is really macho in his own way, is a real womanizer, and - you know, living in what used to be called the classic bachelor pad, like living in this, like, mass of, you know, boy stuff. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. SEGEL: Yeah. GROSS: These are the guys who can't really grow up. Mr. SEGEL: Yeah. My character certainly is stunted, and that's what I learn from Paul Rudd's character. I think the slight difference in the way our movie turns it on its head is you never hear in the movie, you don't see Paul Rudd and I sitting around, like, talking dirty talk. It's - we have very emotional discussions, and I try to delve into why he wants to marry his wife, and I think sometimes conversations like that are what get cut out of the buddy movie because it seems too sentimental. In our movie, we actually do the opposite, and we expose that we know the secret, that it's really women who do the locker-room talk more than men do. I've never been around guys who sit around and talk about, you know, their girlfriend this or their girlfriend that, but I have met friends of my ex- girlfriend who clearly know everything about my anatomy, and you know (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. SEGEL: It's like you women, I think, are some dirty talkers. (Soundbite of laughter) GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Jason Segel, and he stars with Paul Rudd in the new film "I Love You, Man." Let's talk a little bit about a film that you wrote and star in, and that's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which I missed in the movies, but I watched it on DVD - it's out on DVD - and it's really good and it's really funny. Mr. SEGEL: Oh, thanks. GROSS: Let's hear what I know is your most famous scene in the movie, and this is from the beginning of the film. And like you play a guy who writes music for a crime scene kind of TV show. Mr. SEGEL: Exactly. It's basically a "CSI" spoof. I was a guest star on "CSI" for a while, and I just always found how serious, how serious it all is very funny. You know? GROSS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mr. SEGEL: So yeah, I play a guy who composes the music and is sort of just dying inside because he wants to be a proper musician, and his girlfriend is the star of the show. And so one day she comes over to the house, and I think she's there to have sex with me. So I'm waiting there naked for her, and she pr
- Description
- Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Each week, nearly 4.5 million people listen to the show's intimate conversations broadcast on more than 450 National Public Radio (NPR) stations across the country, as well as in Europe on the World Radio Network. Though Fresh Air has been categorized as a "talk show," it hardly fits the mold. Its 1994 Peabody Award citation credits Fresh Air with "probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights." And a variety of top publications count Gross among the country's leading interviewers. The show gives interviews as much time as needed, and complements them with comments from well-known critics and commentators. Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR.
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Distributor: NPR
Producing Organization: WHYY Public Media
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Fresh Air,” American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 16, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-215-95w6mnc9.
- MLA: “Fresh Air.” American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 16, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-215-95w6mnc9>.
- APA: Fresh Air. Boston, MA: American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-215-95w6mnc9