In his new movie The End of the Tour,Jason Segel plays the revered, troubled late author David Foster Wallace a casting choice the media intelligentsia scrutinized like Comic-Con attendees fretting over Ben Affleck playing Batman. Tour is based on writer David Lipskys Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, with Jesse Eisenberg playing Lipsky, trailing Wallace on his Infinite Jest book tour for a never-published Rolling Stone profile. The first viewing was scary, says Segel, 35, whos getting Oscar buzz for the role. Coming from comedy into a movie like this just as a body rejects a perfectly good organ no matter how well I did, people could just decide, Nope! Luckily when I watched it, that didnt happen.
Whats it like playing someone whos probably much smarter than you?
Oh, its not probably. David Foster Wallace is definitely smarter than me [laughs]. I think the verdict is in on that one.
Then again, he didnt come up with Miss Piggys doppelgnger, Miss Poogy. That was you.
Yeah, I guess I have a certain bizarre intelligence [laughs]. But the real challenge is that Wallace is constantly aware of what everybody in the room is trying to do, but hes also a guy who wants to feel like everyone else, a guy using whatever mental gymnastics he has at his disposal to feel at one with his fellow man.
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What were you told about why the director, James Ponsoldt, wanted you for this role?
I was surprised and flattered and terrified. I hadnt done anything like this before, but it was a strange kismet I was at a point in my career where this is what I was looking for. James told me that when he looked at my face when I was acting, even in a comedy, there was something sad in my eye. If you look at something like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, theres a lot of sadness in that character.
Or even that tragic failed drum audition in Freaks and Geeks.
Thats like the worst nightmare, right? To find out that youre medium talent.
Why were you seeking a part like this?
There was a natural transition going on. I had arrived in my thirties, and How I Met Your Mother, which I had done for almost a decade, was coming to an end. Theres a scene toward the end of this movie where Wallace says, Its time for me to acknowledge the reality that Im 34 years old, alone in a room with a piece of paper. And I was coming out of a long tunnel of movies and TV shows into the unknown, and so I really related to that.
Mother took up so much of your time for so long did its absence lead to a lot of introspection?
There was a repetitive cycle for about 10 years. I would be doing the TV show and also writing the movie that I would do during the hiatus and then filming that. There wasnt a lot of opportunity to think about doing something different. Then all of a sudden, I had the chance to think about what I wanted the next 50 years of my life to be like.
Bob Odenkirk sometimes gets funny takes out of his system before he gets serious did you try that?
I was too scared to try funny takes! In a movie this size, you really dont have the time or the film literally the film to ease yourself in. And I didnt want it to ever feel like, Now watch Jason Segel try dramatic acting!
How did you incorporate your knowledge of Wallaces eventual suicide into the performance?
Its a good question, because you have some options on how to play it. What really hit me is I dont know whats gonna happen to me, to Jason Segel, tomorrow. So I tried to play it as much in the moment as possible, and not try to indicate the eventuality of it. At the same time, during the movie, things are going as well as they can go for him, and underneath it all is this terrifying moment we can all relate to: What happens when things are going well and it still doesnt satisfy this sort of deep feeling that were not enough?
Do you want to leave comedy behind?
Whats interesting to me right now are things like End of Tour that explore complicated feelings. Theres room to do everything, but Im also aware, after doing this for 17 years, that people want more of what theyre familiar with you doing so I want to spend a little bit of time getting people familiar with this type of performance.
Your friends Paul Rudd and Cobie Smulders are both in Marvel movies. Would you consider that?
Its not something Im seeking out, but there are actually a few comic-book characters that I find incredibly interesting I would never throw the names out because then theyll get snatched away from me.
Are you up for the getting-super-ripped part?
Yeah, of course. But its unbelievable you have, like, really complicated, sensitive artists treating themselves like UFC fighters. [Laughs]You feel like at some point somebody mightphysically snap.
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