Jason Segel says being called “weird” by Judd Apatow changed his life and goals

You could pretty much call any adult who sings with puppets to be strange, but Jason Segel has run with it, once being called “weird” and making a career of it. And judging by Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he’s more man than muppet…

Appearing on Today (with Entertainment Weekly), Jason Segel remembered his time working with Judd Apatow initially on Freaks and Geeks, in which he played Rush-loving drummer Andopolis. It was here that Segel – like so many – was taken in by Apatow, who provided the budding actor with advice that would change his course. “It was a bit of an apprenticeship period, where we literally learned how to write a script. And his parting words to me were, ‘Listen, Jace, you’re a weird dude. The only way you’re going to make it is if you write your own material.’ He was right, and it changed my life. I wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall like a year after that.”

Jason Segel, of course, is one of many alumnus of The Judd Apatow School of Comedy for Stoners. On this collection, Segel remembered the writer/director/producer “systematically started putting us in movies. He put Seth in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and then Seth did Knocked Up as the lead, and he put the rest of us in as the friends. After Knocked Up he took me to a Lakers game and he said, ‘I think you’re at bat. Do you have any ideas?’ I said ‘Yeah, I just started writing this thing called Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Apatow would end up serving as producer and Forgetting Sarah Marshall would take in more than $100 million worldwide.

Jason Segel would go on to resurrect The Muppets in the 2011 namesake movie, following that up by reteaming with Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Nicholas Stoller for The Five-Year Engagement. Surprisingly, Segel has done very little directing, only doing so for his short-lived drama Dispatches from Elsewhere. Season two of Shrinking is currently on Apple TV+, itself a series I could see Segel excelling at directing a few episodes of.

What is your favorite Jason Segel project to date? Do you prefer him as an actor or a writer?