armando gallo/hfpa
armando gallo/hfpa
Self-exploration has become familiar to Jason Segel. He created the AMC series Dispatches from Elsewhere, about people searching for who they are. “I wanted to create four different characters in different versions of transition in their lives because I think if we’re aware, we’re all transitioning at any given moment. I tried to create four sort of disparate characters who are all trying to figure out who they are, having some version of existential crisis, and use their differences to eventually bring them together and show that we’re all going through the same thing at any given time. Just trying to figure out what’s happening, who we are and what we want to do next,” Segel told HFPA journalist Rocio Ayuso.
The idea of the series came into his mind when he was in his early 30s and realized he has not made a real conscious choice in a long time. “I would say that any crisis is a consequence of letting too much time lapse between your last personal check-in. A lot of people are really good about doing it constantly, how am I feeling now, am I where I want to be, what should I do differently?
He had the possibility to revalue his life after the hit TV show How I Met Your Mother ended. “I started working at 17 years old and was really working constantly. Especially once I got How I Met Your Mother. That show lasted nine years and at every hiatus, I was doing a movie and writing it and didn’t have a lot of time to stop and think. So then finally I had this blank canvas ahead of me of what do I want to do next, not just professionally but with my life. All of a sudden, I didn’t even have to live in Los Angeles anymore if I didn’t want to."
After he re-examined his life he realized he is in a good place. “I feel so lucky with the life that I’ve been given and so lucky with the opportunities that I have and the fact that for my life and for my job I get to express myself creatively. I don’t find too much to complain about. There are sometimes downsides, but they are really outweighed by this magical life I get to live in.
Listen to the podcast and hear why he thinks weird is good; where he keeps the Dracula Muppet from Forgetting Sarah Marshall; which one was more frightening to him: being physically naked in Sarah Marshall or emotionally open on Dispatches from Elsewhere; who has inspired him; how was his audition for Freaks and Geeks; why How I Met Your Mother was important for him; why he started to write, direct and produce his own projects; how his taste of comedy has changed; would he do another Muppet movie and what is his favorite Muppet; what kind of writer he is; is he still composing music?; what he's doing during the Covid-19 lockdown; what books inspired him; and what is art for him.
