JOIN USSometimes, Jason Segel wants to make you laugh, as he did on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother and in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the semi-autobiographical breakup comedy in which he wrote himself an unflattering nude scene. And sometimes, he’s trying to make you think, as in The End of the Tour, in which he played the author David Foster Wallace.
That more cerebral side of Segel is on display in The Discovery, now out on Netflix. Starting with the premise that a scientist (Robert Redford) has proved the existence of an afterlife, this science-fiction film considers the complications of such a breakthrough — particularly for the scientist’s son (Segel) and the woman (Rooney Mara) he has fallen in love with.
As Segel, 37, said in a recent telephone interview, all the roles reflect him in some form — a point the film tries to make, too. In The Discovery, he explained: “They offer you this opportunity to move to another plane of existence. The reality, when you try to do that, is that you find that you always take yourself with you. And that’s what the movie got at for me.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
‘The Discovery’ deals with some weighty themes. What got you interested in it?
The movie is a mind-bender — it takes some effort, and I really liked that. When you watch the movie for the first time, you need to be quiet for a little while and think about what you’ve just seen.
Did the film cause you to reflect on existence and life after death?
I want to leave viewers with their own conclusions. But I think a lot of us are saddled with a feeling that I refer to as ‘anywhere but here’. If I was only in that other city, I’d be happier. If I only had that other job, I’d be happier. What if you can just push the reset button and start fresh? I think the reality is, you can never escape yourself.
You’ve made serious films and silly ones. Which are the truer expressions of yourself?
Yes, from The Muppets to The End of the Tour, that’s about as different as you can get. When I was doing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was about a devastating breakup and trying to learn to stand on your own two feet, that’s what I was thinking about at 24 years old. At 34, I was thinking about the themes we
explored in The End of the Tour. The common thread of all of them is it’s exposing some facet of yourself. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, literally.
Are the cast members from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ still a part of your life?
We all text each other on our birthdays and things like that. We were on that show for nine years. We watched each other get married and have kids and go through health scares and all the things that happen over a decade. I realised at one point, this is the longest I’ve known any group of people besides my family. There’s something that lasts forever about that.
Of all the things you’ve done, does it ever seem strangest that you were on a network sitcom for nine seasons?
My only experience prior to How I Met Your Mother was critically acclaimed failures.
You’re also an author of the young adult book series ‘Nightmares!’ and ‘Otherworld’. Where do you find the time?
I have an amazing writing partner for the books, Kirsten Miller. I live on a farm now. I moved out of LA when the show ended. But my brain is not great at relaxing. And so within a couple weeks, I tend to need to write something.
Like an actual farm, with animals and crops that you tend to?
No animals. I have an orange grove. I tend to it by pointing at stuff. We have an orchard manager. I would like to seem more masculine than I actually am, but I don’t handle any of the equipment or anything like that.
When did you decide it was time to move out of Hollywood?
I went to a small town to get ready for The End of the Tour and read Infinite Jest. I didn’t feel I could do that with the distraction of the big city. In LA, there’s a real quiet ‘what’s next?’ being whispered into your ear, constantly. All of a sudden, with that voice gone, I realised that I felt significantly better.
Do you feel like you’re living the dream?
It’s an impulse I’ve always had, which is, I’m going to move to the mountains, and no one’s ever
going to see me again. I found the healthy version of that.