Will Jason Segel Be Fired From How I Met Your Mother Because Of This Quote?

SegelJason225.jpgEight years is a long time to be chained to a network sitcom, especially when your career has blown up so much over the past few seasons that you are currently attached to star in big-budget features opposite Jack Black and Cameron Diaz, not to mention co-write The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made (really, that is the title). Just ask Jason Segel, who recently attempted to explain his dead-end How I Met Your Mother obligation to an interviewer and ended up sounding a bit resentful of the CBS series that helped make his name.

In an interview with GQ, the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star and scribe explained how he is still under contract for a sixth, seventh and eighth season of How I Met Your Mother, which is really more than he -- or his character, Marshall -- can handle:

"...When your idol is Peter Sellers, playing one character for eight years isn't what you're trying to do. I don't really feel like I have that much more to offer with this character. Maybe if we got divorced or something -- but that's not gonna happen. It's gonna be some iteration of, like, my TV wife opens the fridge, and she's like, "What happened to the birthday cake?" And I walk in with a little frosting here [points to corner of mouth] like, "What birthday cake?"

So does Segel even care about the eventual How I Met Your Mother conclusion?

"I had two other suggestions [about how the writers should end the series]. One is that they're dead. The two kids and their father -- they're dead, and they're in purgatory, and he's telling the story for eternity. [...] And then my other suggestion, which they never used, which I think would be so funny, is -- it's the future, right? I think in one of those scenes, they should open the window, and it should be, like, a postapocalyptic wasteland outside. It should be like I Am Legend. Horrible mutants."

Maybe CBS is better off just releasing Segel from his contract.

· He's No Dummy [GQ]



Comments

  • adam orth says:

    Has he ever played more than 1 character anywhere?

  • Joe Bua says:

    Lets see what the reaction is from the network. I'm sure Moonves just shook his head and harrumphed somehow.
    Actors often say stupid things about their career arcs early on. And it's a very hard biz in which to retain your larger worldview.
    He's a very funny guy ... now he will realize he's not the be all and end all.

  • Faye says:

    I love Jason Segel Seasons 1-3 of HIMYM, and in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But he's gotten fat and sloppy-looking, and his acting is the same everywhere: the goofy, happy-go-lucky stoner. Still, his comment was more indiscreet than scandalous, and I doubt anyone at CBS will pay attention. Besides, who even knows if the show will go to eight seasons -- it's really gone downhill.

  • How I Met Your Mother helped "make" Segal? Hard to agree with that, Apatow gets all the credit IMO. HIMYM is wedged between Freaks and Geeks and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. HIMYM really brought NPH back into the public eye I feel like.
    If Segal wasn't on HIMYM, I'd have a hard time watching it... but I'd like to see him develop a show. His Dracula puppet is amazing, the muppet movie has everyone excited... I think he and NPH are a little too talented for the kind of constraints the sitcom format hold one down to.
    Love HIMYM as a sitcom, all the actors do a great job, all very likable, but talents like Segal and Harris should have vehicles that allow them to utilize their talent more. I mean, there is room on TV for this stuff when people realize that shows like America's Got Talent or Jersey Shore are horrible ideas with no real staying power, no matter how cheap they are to churn out.

  • el smrtmnky says:

    there's always viceroy of afghanistan, segel

  • Keith says:

    He probably wants to play Jason Segel playing a different Jason Segel.

  • metroville says:

    All I care about the ending of that show is that somebody explains how a grown man's voice turned into a completely different grown man's voice.

  • Chuck says:

    Maybe a talk with David Caruso might change his attitude.

  • castinghag says:

    Who's Jason Segel?

  • DarkKnightShyamalan says:

    I think the comment was more strategic than anything. He wants to be a bankable movie star, not a sitcom guy whose goal is more sitcoms, so he has to seem like he's above the TV world.
    But it came off douchey, especially since the worst episodes of How I Met Your Mother are funnier than his own script for Sarah Marshall.

  • sweetbiscuit says:

    "My TV wife?" Seriously, he couldn't think of the name of either the actress OR the character? Somewhere Peter Sellers is rolling over in his grave.

  • tc says:

    In what world could Jason Segel be the next Peter Sellers? You're reaching, dude.

  • Josh says:

    I'm a huge Jason Segel fan, and it pisses me off how websites have been clipping this interview. He begins by saying how much he loves the show, which is a pretty big detail considering you're accusing him of not being grateful. Every website has left that off and it's quite annoying.

  • Furious K says:

    He's clearly frustrated. The show has been declining ever since they stunt cast Britney Spears back in season 3. Marshall had more depth, and lately, he's either barely in the show or he's just a punching bag for Lily, who also doesn't seem to have much to do anymore.
    This was brought up earlier, but I think he didn't name Alyson Hannigan in the article out of respect. Yes, it is referring to her, but since he's not directly naming her, she can distance herself from the quote, y'know what I mean?

  • Rock90210 says:

    Yeah - seriously what's the big deal here? It's nothing. No one cares about this show anyway. boy, sure a slow news day....

  • Rock90210 says:

    Now THAT's a scandal...

  • Name says:

    He'll be fine. Until it actually starts to affect how he does his job, who cares what he says?

  • Cribbster says:

    Is it me or are Segel's ideas actually pretty hilarious? Audiences would probably be pissed, but that's part of what makes it funny. It's a pretty brilliant way to recontextualize the entire show in as little as one 5-second shot.

  • DB says:

    I quite agree. They seem more talented than doing sitcoms and as much as I love this show they are starting to run out of ideas. Both Segel and Harris have proven to have talent before and on other things that being stuck in a sitcom for a few more seasons would be suffocating. I think if anyone were in the same position where they were successful at something and that something started to become stagnant I believe they would have a hard time staying too. It's just media trying to make a bigger deal because it's an actor and not an average Joe.

  • Ringmaster says:

    Cant blame him though. Marshall's character has gotten so boring. Cant imagine how stupid he must be feeling doing it

  • Hemidemisemiquaver says:

    I think Segel is seriously overestimating his acting ability. I've seen everything he's been in/on, he's a one trick pony. He plays the exact same character in everything he does. And when he tries to do anything dramatic he falls apart.
    HIMYM has definitely been going downhill, and the entire Zoey story arc was just awful. Could they have chosen a less likable actress to play her? Lily and Marshall being serious is just plain boring. They need to get it together within the first episode or two of season 7 or it is coming off my DVR.

  • Christy Andersen says:

    No, he shouldn't leave HIMYM. They should kill off his annoying 'on-screen wife', thus giving his character something to do, satisfying Mr. Segel for the remainder of the show's run and also resolving the main problem with the show - that it's better without Alyson Hannigan. Seriously, when she took time off to have her baby, the show was so much better. I actually groaned when she turned up again.

  • MY NAME IS A SECERT BITCHES! says:

    I think the show would be better without Segel. If they kill him off then Lilly would hang with Barney & become a whore. That would be good. But if the show is succsesful why complain about wanting to leave it? What if you fail at getting into movies? Then no one remembers you.