CON: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

A whole slew of cast and crew from producer Judd Apatow’s latest, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, came down Friday for WonderCon to share entertaining stories and anecdotes with the audience, as well as a lengthy collection of clips from the film. Among the talent were Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Jack McBrayer, director Nicholas Stoller, and producer Shauna Robertson.

Funny bones were tickled almost instantly with the presentation of this trailer-ish barrage of movie clips (rounding out around 6 minutes), which showed many of the same sequences from the already released trailer, except longer and more fully fleshed-out.

Extended Clips – A depressed Jason Segel is deleting images of his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Marshall, from his computer. “I need to get rid of anything that reminds me of her.” His friend (Bill Hader) comments, “You know, you’re not really deleting them.” Segel: “I want to save a few in case we get back to together.” Hader wrestles with Segel to officially delete the pics while Segel fights back and whines manically.

Skipping forward, there are some hilarious moments with the guys Segel meets in Hawaii, primarily Paul Rudd. When witnessing Segel’s ex, he comments, “I like her hair. I wonder if the carpet matches her pubes.” In another scene, he offers Segel some helpful advice: “When life hands you lemons, you say, ‘fuck the lemons,’ and bail.”

Then there’s Jack McBrayer, who plays the NBC page on 30 Rock. Here he’s a similarly awkward guy, experiencing some troubles in the sack on his honeymoon. We see a clip of his wife going under the covers to please him, and he resists. “No, no! God put our mouths on our heads for a reason.” He explains to the guys at the hotel bar, “If God was a city planner, he would not put a playground next to a sewage system.”

Additionally there are some key moments between Segel and Mila Kunis, such as an extended bit where Segel falls off the cliff (part of which was seen in the trailer).

Other funny moments include Segel weeping hysterically and being questioned by the hotel about a crying woman on his floor, playing an overly emotional romance song on the piano in front of a live audience, and being asked if the used tissues on his bed are “sad tissues or happy tissues.”

• The panel was more comedy-oriented than info-oriented, with a surprising amount of humor coming courtesy of Russell Brand, who plays Kristen Bell’s new British boyfriend in the film. Apparently he’s a fairly popular comedian overseas.
• When asked what it was like to be in Hawaii and not be recognized, Brand responded, “It wasn’t very nice to be in any country where you’re not famous, because it’s very difficult to have sex with people. You have to talk to them first. It’s a very laborious process… unless it’s with Jason Segel, of course, when the sex is almost immediate.” Then he continued by playing off an earlier question originally geared toward Kristen Bell: “I found my sex scenes with Jason Segel very challenging as well, but I was disappointed to find there were no cameras present. None-the-less, I feel like a natural woman now.”
• Kristen Bell mentioned that there’s talk of a Veronica Mars movie, but they would have to do it soon before getting too old for the parts.
• Segel took advantage of the 5-minute window where he had to shoot his big nude scene, so he made sure the room was warm. “You don’t wanna go out looking like you’ve been in a freezing cold room, but you also don’t wanna go out looking like you’re… you know, ready to go.”
• Jack McBrayer wore flesh-colored panties for sex scenes that made him “smooth like a ken doll.” And by the way, he really does talk in the same manner as his character on 30 Rock.
• Producer Shauna Robertson focused a lot of attention on hiding Segel’s nipples during takes whenever he was shirtless.
• When some ghetto tool in the audience asked the worthless question, “Isn’t WonderCon in San Francisco better than WonderCon [sic] in San Diego?” and got boo’d, Russell Brand stepped in and answered quite sincerely, “It’s about togetherness. We must learn to bond with the crips and the bloods, and for all the cons to unite under one plan.”
• Somebody in the audience pointed out that Jack McBrayer looks like a young Tom Cruise, and he responded, “Tom Cruise has filed a cease-and-desist against me… but Katie’s already pregnant again, y’all!”
• Segel showed his willingness to show his penis onscreen by mentioning to the audience, “If any of you guys have any movies you want me for, I’ll show it. Even if it’s just home movies.”

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL probably won’t be the next SUPERBAD, but it still looks hilarious enough to warrant a trip to the theaters this coming April. If nothing else, the WonderCon panel proved that the film definitely has a funny cast to back it up.