Steven Prusakowski
Jason Segel is a thinker. Not the kind who worries about what others think, or chases trends or fills every calendar slot, but the kind who can spend three years between projects letting ideas develop until they feel right. And while he can work faster, he enjoys thinking about it. The immense amount he processes every aspect of his life comes through during our fascinating conversation on TV Topics.
Coming up on 30 years in the industry, Segel knows he is not the most prolific artist, but his work has quietly spanned generations while staying true to his creative integrity. From the awkward high-school days of Freaks and Geeks, to the young-adult laughs of How I Met Your Mother, to the selfless revival of the iconic madness of The Muppets, the heartbreak of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and now finding humor in the deeply human grief of Shrinking, Segel has been a meaningful part of shows and films that mean a lot to people.
The through-line is simple and frankly rare these days: he only takes on work that interests him and sticks to his guns. While his work is often light-hearted and comedic, he is passionate about the craft, refuses to take no for an answer when something feels right, and has arrived at a liberating place where the mysterious “they” no longer matter.
“I’ve always felt like I’m a little bit devoid of strategy about my career,” Segel shared with me. “I just do stuff that is interesting to me and stuff I care about, even at the risk of being maybe less prolific than some of my contemporaries or whatever.”
“Now I look back and think, for the most part – there’s a few duds in there – but for the most part, each one of these is reflective of where I was at the time and like what I was thinking about at the time. I think I’ve arrived at a place of realizing that’s sort of the point. To perform an act of self-exploration on camera, and hopefully that’ll be meaningful to people who are going through something similar at the time.”
That philosophy shows up most clearly in his work as Jimmy on Shrinking. The character starts on the page, of course, a product of the great Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Ted Lasso) and a talented writing staff who favor the old Broadcast News model of crying through the funny moments and laughing through the hard ones.
To make Jimmy feel real, Segel builds him from the inside out. He described the process as recentering himself like “a mandala,” shifting the core of who he is toward one particular aspect, in the case of Jimmy, grief. The character has suffered one of the most tragic losses possible: his wife Tia (Lilan Bowden) – the mother of his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) was killed by a drunk driver. Her death leaves him reeling, struggling not only to take care of his daughter and patients but also himself. Over the seasons, Jimmy has made some progress, but right below the surface is a man who is not alright, as he declared in a heartbreaking moment of season two.
Segel explained how he played Jimmy’s pain by comparing it to a twisted ankle. “I remember with Jimmy, one of the things I thought, and it’s true of like depression, too. It’s a little like having a twisted ankle. You got to go on with your life. You got to go to the store, you got to do all these things. And no one can see that your ankle is killing you… And so you are privately walking around with pain. For me, for Jimmy, that was the thing I kind of tried to center him around… privately,” shared Segel. “It’s not even a twisted ankle, it’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to somebody. So that is with him at all times… I wanted you to be able to feel it.”
The private pain Jimmy carries bubbles just beneath the surface, giving him a restless energy of someone one step away from blurting out how much it hurts. It is not method acting for Segel; it is a surrogate experience.
“My type of acting is for the next half hour, for the next hour and a half, I am you. It’s like the Kermit the Frog model or the Jimmy Stewart or the Tom Hanks model. Some of these guys who are like, hey, I’m going to go on this ride on behalf of all of us,” said Segel.
Working opposite pros only sharpens that approach. When Harrison Ford is his scene partner every day on Shrinking, for Segel it is both education and quiet validation. He learns about acting, leadership, and longevity, but more importantly, Ford’s presence silences the internal second-guessing. “When you’re standing across from Harrison Ford doing acting, that wins. That wins the debate… Any place I feel like I might have messed it up, it seems like it worked out OK.”
Not only is Segel’s outlook on his work refreshing and healthy, it is genuinely inspiring. The “They” he once worried about, those often imaginary judges he (and so many of us) feared were constantly assessing him, has simply faded away. “At this point in our lives, who is They?” he asked. “There really is no They. I got nothing to prove. I have stuff to express.”
And express he does, not only through spoken word, but often by showing off his singing chops, something the actor thankfully does frequently. Segel graced us with his beautiful singing several times this season during a rendition of R.E.M.’s Nightswimming that played over the end credits of episode 5, and an impromptu, must-see rendition of a classic Les Misérables duet with Michael Urie (Brian), much to the chagrin of Harrison Ford’s, Paul. (Clip seen here.)
But also for one of the sweetest and most touching scenes of the season, a flashback with Jimmy and his now-deceased wife Tia (Bowden) singing Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years.” The scene, as Segel described it, was meant to capture “one of those moments with a couple that’s like… people alone in their house when they’re being silly,” before the song’s beauty takes over. “A thousand years hit me as being perfect,” he said, “because when I listened to that song, I think it’s one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. But it’s also from Twilight, which is kind of silly… it played as both kind of silly from its origin… but then it is objectively so beautiful and the lyrics are so sad, especially when you’re singing about a loved one who passed.”
Unable to find the actual scene, here’s a BTS with Perri and the cast.
Jason and I covered a lot in our wide-ranging TV Topics conversation, where he happily chatted about the last three decades of his work. How dearly he holds each project shined consistently shined through. We of course dug into his Emmy-nominated work as Jimmy, a performance which for three seasons has had me holding back tears more times than I would like to share, only to turn around and have me laughing until I cried.
Then a big smile crossed his face every time I peppered our conversation with thinly veiled references to his delightful classic, The Muppets. It is a film he not only starred in, he also produced and co-wrote, hoping to make sure upcoming generations experience the joy of Jim Henson’s beloved crew of creatures. He succeeded greatly!
Asked the classic question: Are you a man or are you a Muppet? – Segel smiled and landed on the perfect answer. (You can find the response in the TV Topics episode below – a MUST listen.)
When his cult classic 2002 series Freaks and Geeks came up, Segel recalled the show’s unfortunate demise and how the writing was clearly on the wall. That sense that the series was doomed is why they shot a potential finale halfway through the original season. When craft services quietly shifted from charcuterie to a box of Corn Pops, they knew the end was near.
The series has gave us a long list of today’s top talent including Seth Rogen, TV Topics guest Linda Cardellini, Martin Starr, and many more, including Segel himself. The series was his first television credit. When asked about returning for another season, he quickly revealed he would definitely return for another season of the criminally short-lived Freaks and Geeks. “Of course!,” he said enthusiastically. “That show is like a seminal moment in all of our lives. And it’s where I learned so much about how to do this thing.”
Yet he started to question the decision when he started thinking realistically about the characters’ futures. “I do think it would be very sad. I don’t think that those characters like all went on to thrive,” admitted Segel. “I think the honest version of those characters’ futures is not pretty. The honest version of growing up in that era and in that socioeconomic group is like, life ain’t easy for any of us.”
Whether it is Jimmy’s quiet sadness shrouded in humor or the joyful chaos of a vampire puppet musical no one thought would work (until it did), as seen in his comedy classic Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Segel’s career is a master class in staying true to your vision. It can be heard in his every word, from comedy to musicals to dramas like The End of the Tour. His passion for his work is not isolated to Shrinking; it is simply the latest example of a patient, well-thought-out career.
Listen to the full conversation below. While I only touched on hints of it here, if you are a fan of Segel’s work or just the man himself, there’s tons more to take away. The chat is densely packed with stories, recollections, and insights that paint a fuller picture of the talented man. I was sad it had to end.
It was a wonderful conversation where we covered more than his work, we hit upon a lot of TV Topics, and I even surprised Jason with a question from a special guest. This TV Topics was a long time in the making and well worth the wait – like Jason’s work, it’s a classic.
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