Fresh Air
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- Fresh Air
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- WHYY Public Media
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- cpb-aacip/215-46d25b2b
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- Jason Segel: The Best Man For The Job The Lost Promise Of Buddy Holly
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- *** TRANSCRIPTION COMPANY BOUNDARY *** ..DATE: 20090323 ..PGRM: Fresh Air ..TIME: 12:00-13:00 PM ..NIEL: N/A ..NTWK: NPR ..SGMT: Jason Segel: The Best Man For The Job TERRY GROSS, host: This is FRESH AIR. Im Terry Gross. My guest, actor Jason Segel, got his start with Seth Rogen 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 new Muppets movie. Segel also co-stars in the CBS series How I Met Your Mother. Now Segel stars opposite Paul Rudd in the new bromance I Love You, Man. Paul Rudd plays a real estate agent in L.A. who has 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. He thinks maybe hes found one at an open house hes holding at a mansion hes trying to sell. The potential friend is played by Jason Segel. Segel is helping himself to the fancy sandwiches at the open house, telling Rudd that the guy whos just said hes serious about buying the mansion is really just trying to impress his girlfriend. Then Segel goes a step further in demonstrating how perceptive he is. (Soundbite of film, I Love You, Man) Mr.JASON SEGEL (Actor): (As Sydney Fife) Like, that guy needs to fart. Its pretty clear, but he doesnt know her well enough to do it in front of her, so I assume they havent slept together. Mr. PAUL RUDD (Actor): (As Peter Klaven) He does seem to be clenching. Mr.SEGEL: (As Fife) Yeah, he doesnt want to fart. Watch, when he gets enough space, hes going to let one rip. I guarantee it. Oh, thats a good move. Hey, go check out the kitchen, honey. Ill meet you in there. Now watch. Hes making his move slowly, slowly but surely. Watch the leg. Wait for it, wait for it, fart, boom. Thats a fart. Thats a fart. Mr.RUDD: (As Klaven) Oh my God. Mr.SEGEL: (As Fife) Look at him, crop-dusting across your open house. Its a disgrace. Mr.RUDD: (As Klaven) He farted in my open house. Mr.SEGEL: (As Fife) He sure did. GROSS: Jason Segel, welcome to FRESH AIR. So obviously, youre very observant in the film. Weve just heard you being observant in a more sophisticated take on the ever popular fart scene. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr.SEGEL: Yes. Its one of my more dignified moments on film, I must say. GROSS: Yeah. 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 hadnt been made before. But as you get older, its very tricky for men to make friends with strangers. You know, normally I guess your friends are sort of grandfathered in. Theyre friends of other friends, or you know, your girlfriends 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 womans restroom and come out with a new best friend. But for men, its just, its 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(ph), 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. Im proud of you. And he left, and I woke up at two in the morning, out of a dream, crying hysterically, and I had to call my mother to calm me down. (Soundbite of laughter) GROSS: Thats funny. Mr.SEGEL: It was horrible. GROSS: Describe your character, Sydney Fife, in I Love You, Man. Mr.SEGEL: Sure. Sydney was a late bloomer and so hes kind of terrified of monogamy, and you know, hes a bit of a womanizer and really values his guy friends. Hes a little bit mysterious. I dont want to give too much away, but he you know, hes got this attitude that I dont 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, hes 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 Ive never had that. Im the kind of guy who, like, stays up until midnight thinking I wish I hadnt said that thing to that guy. I hope I didnt hurt his feelings. And then Ill call the next day and apologize, and theyll have no idea what Im talking about. Thats sort of how Im bent, and it was nice to sort of play the opposite. GROSS: You know, these bromance movies, where its about the platonic relationship between two or more men Mr.SEGEL: Sure. GROSS: why do you think theyre so popular now? Mr.SEGEL: Boy, I dont know. You know, I think maybe these kind of buddy movies are allowing men to open up a little bit about, you know, its 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 cant really grow up. Mr.SEGEL: Yeah. My character certainly is stunted, and thats what I learn from Paul Rudds character. I think the slight difference in the way our movie turns it on its head is you never hear in the movie, you dont see Paul Rudd and I sitting around and, like, talking dirty talk. Its 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 its really women who do the locker room talk more than men do. Ive 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: Its like you women, I think, are some dirty talkers. (Soundbite of laughter) GROSS: If youre just joining us, my guest is Jason Segel, and he stars with Paul Rudd in the new film, I Love You, Man. Lets talk a little bit about a film that you wrote and star in, and thats Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I missed in the movies, but I watched it on DVD - its out on DVD - and its really good, and its really funny. Mr.SEGEL: Oh, thanks. GROSS: Lets 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. Its 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. 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 shes there to have sex with me. So Im waiting there naked for her, and she proceeds to dump me while Im naked. GROSS: Yeah, well let me explain it a little bit more. She told you that shes coming over, and you didnt expect her that quickly. So you jump into the shower, and you come out with a towel wrapped around you, surprised to find her there. And as she tells you the news, the towel drops. Mr. SEG
- Description
- HALF: Jason Segel TEN: Segel contd Ed (Buddy Holly)
- 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 June 18, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-215-46d25b2b.
- MLA: “Fresh Air.” American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 18, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-215-46d25b2b>.
- 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-215-46d25b2b