🎧 Jason Segel's Midlife Comedy Crisis (On Purpose)
The former ‘How I Met Your Mother’ star says 'Shrinking' is ‘what the whole search has been about.’ Plus: Christopher Rosen joins me to survey the Emmy race
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“You know, I’m 45 all of a sudden,” says Jason Segel, with the air of surprise that feels familiar for anyone who may have recently hit a milestone birthday. A TV star since he was 19 and part of the banner cast of the short-lived Freaks and Geeks, Segel has grown up onscreen, even though he spent the nearly 10-year run of How I Met Your Mother as a character who didn’t get a chance to change all that much. Now starring on Shrinking, the Apple TV+ hit currently filming its third season, he sees an opportunity for a whole lot of growth.
“I think it’s really cool to watch somebody actually try to rebuild their life and start fresh at 45 years old,” Segel says of his Shrinking character, a therapist named Jimmy who begins the series grieving his wife. The show’s blend of comedy and drama, Segel says, turned out to be everything he’s been looking for in the years since How I Met Your Mother ended, when he pivoted toward more sober features like The End of the Tour and The Friend. On Shrinking, he gets to do it all.
“One day you’re gonna go in and do a broad comedy piece where you throw up at the piano,” he says, describing a memorable scene from Shrinking’s first season. “The next day, you’re going to rip your guts out and tell your daughter how sorry you are. All of a sudden, I was like, oh, this is what this whole search has been about. I can do all this stuff, and I’m not afraid.”
Segel co-created Shrinking with Brett Goldstein, who plays a supporting role in season two, as well as Bill Lawrence, the veteran TV creator who told me more in yesterday’s newsletter about how he keeps the many different tones of Shrinking going at once. It’s a genuine ensemble show, but also difficult to imagine without Segel at the center — once an icon of comfort-watch sitcoms, now going for something that’s just as funny but much, much bolder.
Hear much more from Segel on today’s new episode of the podcast, which also includes a conversation between me and The Ankler’s new deputy editor, Christopher Rosen, about the finish line of Emmy season and which new shows have the best chance of standing out. You’ll hear more from Chris on the podcast going forward; we’ve been talking and arguing with each other for years about awards season, and now we’re bringing it on the air at last. Let me know what you’d like to hear us dig into: katey@theankler.com
