Jason Segel Talks Muppets!
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By George 'El Guapo' Roush on
June 05, 2008
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Jason Segel and Paul Rudd’s comedy coming out next year called I Love You, Man is about Paul Rudd’s character (Greg Moton) getting married who realizes he has no male friends, and thus, no best man for his wedding. So he goes out on a series of man dates to try and find a best man for his wedding and ends up with Jason Segel. We got to see a scene being shot for the film. It’s at the wedding reception and is one of the final scenes in the movie.
Inside the soundstage they built a large white wedding tent complete with tables, a dance floor, a bar and a stage. It looked exactly like a wedding reception should look. We saw the wedding band (actual band Ok Go, famous for their treadmill video) playing a song called ‘Do the Chicken’ and the extras dancing to the music. In the scene, Jason walks up to Paul and hugs him before they get on stage and start playing. The band starts playing a song dedicated to Lou Ferrigno.
The next couple of scenes have Paul on Bass and Jason playing Guitar singing Rush’s Limelight song while the dance crowd goes nuts. During Jason’s solo, he starts flicking his tongue out at the ladies and says, “Sorry if I dripped my mojo on the ladies in the front row.” He even cracks about how they’re now all pregnant.
We had a chance to chat with Jason about I Love You, Man and also try and get some dirt on the Muppet movie he just finished writing.
The guitar playing looked pretty good.
Jason Segel: Thanks, I was fakin' it. Don't tell [laughing]. Though by the end I was pretty convinced that I was playing it correctly, however, I think, had you plugged in my guitar, it would have sounded like total nonsense.
Andy Samberg: When are you gonna get into wardrobe?
Jason Segel: I like this T-shirt.
Andy Samberg: When you gonna get into wardrobe?
Jason Segel: In a minute Andy.
Andy Samberg: Eric Cartman called, he wants his shirt back.
Jason Segel: I am way too young to understand that reference. [laughter]
Andy Samberg: Hey Segel, I bet you smell like potpourri! [laughter]
While you were playing I think I noticed a bruise.
Jason Segel: Yeah, a war wound. Also, my guitar is splattered with my own blood. You haven't rocked until you've splattered a guitar with blood. I had another bruise here from practicing too. That's the extent of my bruising.
Is this the best movie to meet chicks on?
Jason Segel: All those bridesmaids are engaged - every single one of them. It's a total let down. And then the rest of the movie I spend with Paul Rudd. What are you gonna do? Yeah, it's tough.
Congrats on getting the show [How I Met Your Mother] renewed.
Jason Segel: Thank you, that's exciting, we go back in mid-August for a fourth season, four out of seven.
Were you guys excited?
Jason Segel: Yeah, everyone is super excited. They are all in New York right now doing some syndication deal-e-o, I got to miss it. Have to miss it.
We were talking to John [Hamburg] about who's the fan of Rush on this movie and he said you weren't a fan which I thought was odd since you did the scene with...
Jason Segel: Yeah, I like Rush, and we get to meet them and hang out with them. They're the coolest ever. Thing is I'm like 10 years younger than everybody else that I'm hanging out with. [John] Hamburg and Paul Rudd are in their late 40's, I think, they are very close to 50 [laughing]. So, it was a little bit before my time. My era was more like Guns ‘N’ Roses and stuff like that, Sweet Child O' Mine.
No DIO or anything like that?
Jason Segel: No, I don't even know who that is. [Is he serious???? –Ed.]
Paul said you are creating a real interesting character...
Jason Segel: Yeah, I've never gotten to play someone, kinda, you don't know where he's coming from before, I unusually play the really nice guy. So, I've incorporated like, 50% Russell Brand and 50% my brother. He's sort of a continental kind of guy, who gestures oddly and slightly effeminate but also a real raging womanizer.
Like a lead singer.
Jason Segel: Yeah! A little bit. So that's been fun. I get to wear scarves and shit, that's cool. [laughing]
But your character has guy friends.
Jason Segel: Yeah, I have a great group of guy friends. My character doesn't have any deep relationships with women, for various reasons. So, he's cultivated these relationships with his really close male friends which have served to fill in that gap.
You keep talking about your mojo, you're offering your mojo to the ladies up front.
Jason Segel: I give my mojo, that's how the kids talk nowadays, 'Did you give her your mojo?' [laughing] I give my mojo to cougars in this movie, to recently divorced women because my feeling is all they are looking for is sex and they don't want anything more. So, all I have to offer them is sex, it's a perfect arrangement. Seems logical.
So is Kermit going to have mojo in the Muppets film?
Jason Segel: Let me tell you, anyone who can walk around in life completely naked all the time has got to have some mojo. But, I actually just turned in my first draft of the Muppets and I'm really excited about it. I think we're bringing them back.
Is Sam the Eagle in it?
Jason Segel: Sam the Eagle is definitely in it. Statler and Waldorf - the whole gang!
Have you talked to Kermit?
Jason Segel: No, I haven't.
We interviewed him last week and he was surprised there was a movie coming out, he didn't know.
Jason Segel: Really? We're keeping it under wraps. [laughter]
Can you tell us a little bit about the story, which way you are headed with the Muppets?
Jason Segel: All I can say is that we are trying to bring it back to the early '80s movies where it's not Muppets in the Sahara or Muppets Underwater. It's the Muppets getting back together to put on a show, to save the studio.
No Pigs in Space?
Jason Segel: I can't give that away.
Have you contacted Paul Williams about doing the music?
Jason Segel: No, we're still just doing the script at the moment so as soon as that gets in shape we'll hopefully get it going.
Do you think you will try to get Paul Williams back?
Jason Segel: Oh yeah, absolutely. Those songs were the best. We've written temp songs but we'd like to fill them in with legitimate musician songs.
How is this different from the other movies you've done with Paul Rudd?
Jason Segel: Well, this is the most one-on-one time I've had with Paul. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall we had all of our scenes together, it was pretty brief, he was in three or four scenes. This one, we're spending everyday together for like, 16 or 17 hours a day. So, we've developed bits that are amusing to us and that the crew is completely sick of. One of them is a terrible stand up comic, played by Paul Rudd, who just, like, halfway through his routine - his terrible, terrible routine - I notice from the audience that he has just a little bit of blood trickling from his ear. But, we let his stand up go for a really long time before I finally acknowledge the blood trickling from his ear. [laughing] It's been really fun. Paul and I have a very similar taste in comedy and two very different tones. We're a good duo. I'm also like a foot taller than Paul, which is funny, visually. We're having a good time.
Do you think you are going to be involved at all in Judd Apatow’s new stand up movie that they're now starting to talk about?
Jason Segel: I don't think I am because I am limited by my TV show, I get to do one movie a year basically, so, this is it. Nick [Stoller] and I have another movie with Judd called The Five Year Engagement that we're trying to scrape together now.
So, you think that will be next off-season?
Jason Segel: Either that or the Muppets, or both, who knows. We'll see what happens.
And the hope is to stay 100% traditional with the Muppets right?
Jason Segel: Oh yeah, absolutely.
No CGI Muppets or some horseshit.
Jason Segel: No, no, no. Hopefully it will fall right in the pantheon of The Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppet Movie, you know, we're trying to make one of those.
You said you had written something for Charles Grodin?
Jason Segel: Yeah, a brief cameo. We'll see if he wants to do it. There are some great cameos in there.
What your favorite original Muppets episode?
Jason Segel: There's a Muppets episode where Peter Sellers sings Whiskey Wine and Wild Women that is just - Peter Sellers on the Muppet show, I remember even as a kid, it was the coolest thing ever. That's my favorite.
Thought you were gonna say Alice Cooper.
Jason Segel: No, you don't know me very well. [laughter] How dare you! God!
How many scenes do you have with JK Simmons in this?
Jason Segel: I have two major scenes, one where I give a really awkward toast the first time I meet him and then this one here.
Is that why he doesn't let you do a final toast, a final word?
Jason Segel: Yeah, at one point in the movie I give a really, really terrible speech. That's all I can tell you. [laughing] But it is wildly awkward. I felt uncomfortable giving it, even as an actor.
Even after walking around naked in Forgetting Sarah Marshall?
Jason Segel: This was way worse.
What's your favorite "Man-Date" in this movie?
Jason Segel: I didn't get to see any of Paul Rudd's "Man-Dates" but we had a fun one where I took Paul out for fish tacos and get him really drunk and he hasn't really hung out with a proper, regular dude in a long, long time and watching Paul Rudd play a guy who desperately wants to connect with me and is getting drunk is hilarious. Paul is really good at being really, really charming while being just kind of like, 'Ew, gross.' He's like, 'All is good in the hood.' Ew, gross but it's still so charming coming from Paul Rudd.
I Love You, Man hits theaters in 2009.
Who is your favorite Muppet? E-mail: george@latinoreview.com
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Tags: I Love You, Man, News |
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hi jason
Commented By: scott tallon on 2009-02-10 20:16:50
what is the name of the scientist with glasses on in the middle of the photo
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