Jason Segel on What’s Coming for ‘Shrinking’ As Michael J. Fox and Jeff Daniels Join, Where to See His Dracula Puppets and the Thriller He Films Next
“Shrinking” star Jason Segel remembers how much he was juggling in his 20s: The hit sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” along with films like “Knocked Up,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “The Muppets.”
“It was actually very overwhelming, and I was very tired,” he says. But he kept his eye on the prize by thinking about what Michael J. Fox pulled off in the 1980s while starring in “Family Ties.” “You would hear these stories about Michael J Fox doing his show while he’s doing ‘Back to the Future’ and going from one set to another and sleeping in his trailer,” Segel says. “We used to talk about like, ‘hey, if Michael J Fox can do this, we can do this!'”
Cut to this upcoming Season 3 of “Shrinking,” which just wrapped production. and features Fox as a guest star. Segel says he isn’t in a lot of scenes with Fox, but he still got to share “what an idol he is to me and to a lot of the guys who I came up with… I got to tell him, ‘hey, I think you got me through a lot of these experiences.”
“Shrinking” Season 2 is also currently nominated for an Emmy in outstanding comedy, while Segel is up for comedy lead actor. Segel stopped by Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast to talk about this most recent season of “Shrinking” — including the scenes that helped earn co-star Harrison Ford his first ever Emmy nomination (in supporting comedy actor) — and what’s to come in Season 3 with guests like Fox and Jeff Daniels, who will be playing the father to Segel’s character, Jimmy. We also discussed whether he’d do a Muppet movie with fellow “Shrinking” exec producer Brett Goldstein (of course), and what he has on his plate next.
We began by talking about why Segel doesn’t have his own podcast — but if he did, what it would be about. Listen below!
When “Shrinking” returns later this year for Season 3, new additions will include Jeff Daniels. “That was the most brilliant casting for my dad,” Segel says. “Because, we’re doing very similar stuff. There were moments where in my head I was gonna try to mimic his movements. So I was kind of spying on him during scenes, and I realized we’re already doing the same thing… He’s one of those guys like Peter Sellers, who can’t really be put into a box. You can do drama, you can do comedy. And guys like Jeff Daniels kind of broke my brain open about not letting yourself be limited about the kind of material you can do.”
Segel says he finds that he has embraced “Shrinking” as it gives him even meatier material to play with in his 40s than perhaps what he was doing as a younger actor. “I really thought my 20s were my prime. So in my 20s, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is it.’ And then in my 30s, I had a little sense of mourning, like, the best part happened. And then my 40s have arrived, and I’m like a grown adult who’s learned all the lessons from his 20s — and now, all of a sudden, the parts are richer. They’re like man parts of people who have life experience. On ‘Shrinking,’ [his character, Jimmy] has gone through the biggest tragedy you can go through. And I’m like, ‘oh, my 20s were rehearsal. And now I get to play parts where you get to really express something.'”
Segel also says he’s learning a lot from Ford about career longevity and always finding new ways to grow as an actor. “Harrison Ford gives this speech in the finale about, ‘I’m not sure how much longer I get to do this,’ because his character is suffering from Parkinson’s,” Segel says. “It’s the best acting I’ve ever seen, certainly in person, sitting there watching him give this monologue. It was sort of the bullseye of my ethos about what art is, which is somebody performing an act of self exploration for an audience. Everything he’s saying in that speech is a 1:1 ratio for what I’m sure you’re thinking about at 83 years old, at the end of any career. ‘I don’t know how much longer I get to do this, what an honor it is to get to do it with all of you. How much this career has meant to me’ and all that. You’re watching him just say these words, and we’re all crying disproportionate to the occasion — like it’s not totally right for the scene — but it works.”
Segel says he gave his career a hard look in his 30s, “when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to do the rest of this job. I was looking ahead like, ‘man, you have 50 years left of this, if you’re lucky. What are you going to do with it?'” he says. “And I realized that surrounding myself, just getting near people I admired who seemed to have a better idea about why we’re doing this stuff than I do, and asking them a ton of questions, was going to be like the mentorship of a lifetime. Like, I have a chance to be an apprentice over and over again with people I admire.”
In recent years that’s included parts in series like “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” writing a series of novels and creating and starring in the series “Dispatches From Elsewhere,” alongside Sally Field, Andre Benjamin, Richard E. Grant and more.
“I wish more people had seen it came out right during the pandemic,” he says. “It’s really, really special to me. I couldn’t think of anything to write after ‘The Muppets,’ and I was kind of trapped. I had worked so much in comedy in my 20s and early 30s, and then I decided I wanted to try other stuff. When you decide to try other stuff, you’re like, ‘oh, people are gonna be just as excited about this pivot as I am.’ But then it turns out, nobody gives a shit. You kind of have to start from scratch again and get people interested in what you iare interested in about yourself. “Dispatches From Elsewhere’ was based on this real art experiment that happened in San Francisco about remembering your childlike wonder and art for art’s sake and finding joy and everything around you, the everyday minutia. I just put poured all of myself into that.”
Next up, Segel is about to embark on his next film project, a thriller that he says “harkens back to ‘Fatal Attraction,’ ‘Cape Fear.’ And it’s a it’s a two hander. It’s an idea that has been haunting me for about a decade, and I finally felt like I was smart enough to write it. I had this idea maybe 10 years ago, and I thought, ‘oh, somebody should write that.’ And then I finally aged into the idea.”
Meanwhile, Segel also addressed one of the things he is asked the most: Will there be a “Dracula’s Lament” movie, based on his Dracula puppet musical from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”?
“I perform it every once in a while, I do secret performances of the Dracula puppet musical around town,” he says. “I did one at Hotel Cafe last year. I would like to do one soon at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.”
And any talk of a “How I Met Your Mother” reunion? “That show changed my life, I would do anything they asked me to do,” he says. “I think they did so many flash forwards on that show, though. I always loved that Marshall was kind of an enigma, because he could become a Supreme Court justice, but he also could lose a tuna sandwich and spend an episode just like looking for a sandwich.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.
“It was actually very overwhelming, and I was very tired,” he says. But he kept his eye on the prize by thinking about what Michael J. Fox pulled off in the 1980s while starring in “Family Ties.” “You would hear these stories about Michael J Fox doing his show while he’s doing ‘Back to the Future’ and going from one set to another and sleeping in his trailer,” Segel says. “We used to talk about like, ‘hey, if Michael J Fox can do this, we can do this!'”
Cut to this upcoming Season 3 of “Shrinking,” which just wrapped production. and features Fox as a guest star. Segel says he isn’t in a lot of scenes with Fox, but he still got to share “what an idol he is to me and to a lot of the guys who I came up with… I got to tell him, ‘hey, I think you got me through a lot of these experiences.”
“Shrinking” Season 2 is also currently nominated for an Emmy in outstanding comedy, while Segel is up for comedy lead actor. Segel stopped by Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast to talk about this most recent season of “Shrinking” — including the scenes that helped earn co-star Harrison Ford his first ever Emmy nomination (in supporting comedy actor) — and what’s to come in Season 3 with guests like Fox and Jeff Daniels, who will be playing the father to Segel’s character, Jimmy. We also discussed whether he’d do a Muppet movie with fellow “Shrinking” exec producer Brett Goldstein (of course), and what he has on his plate next.
We began by talking about why Segel doesn’t have his own podcast — but if he did, what it would be about. Listen below!
When “Shrinking” returns later this year for Season 3, new additions will include Jeff Daniels. “That was the most brilliant casting for my dad,” Segel says. “Because, we’re doing very similar stuff. There were moments where in my head I was gonna try to mimic his movements. So I was kind of spying on him during scenes, and I realized we’re already doing the same thing… He’s one of those guys like Peter Sellers, who can’t really be put into a box. You can do drama, you can do comedy. And guys like Jeff Daniels kind of broke my brain open about not letting yourself be limited about the kind of material you can do.”
Segel says he finds that he has embraced “Shrinking” as it gives him even meatier material to play with in his 40s than perhaps what he was doing as a younger actor. “I really thought my 20s were my prime. So in my 20s, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is it.’ And then in my 30s, I had a little sense of mourning, like, the best part happened. And then my 40s have arrived, and I’m like a grown adult who’s learned all the lessons from his 20s — and now, all of a sudden, the parts are richer. They’re like man parts of people who have life experience. On ‘Shrinking,’ [his character, Jimmy] has gone through the biggest tragedy you can go through. And I’m like, ‘oh, my 20s were rehearsal. And now I get to play parts where you get to really express something.'”
Segel also says he’s learning a lot from Ford about career longevity and always finding new ways to grow as an actor. “Harrison Ford gives this speech in the finale about, ‘I’m not sure how much longer I get to do this,’ because his character is suffering from Parkinson’s,” Segel says. “It’s the best acting I’ve ever seen, certainly in person, sitting there watching him give this monologue. It was sort of the bullseye of my ethos about what art is, which is somebody performing an act of self exploration for an audience. Everything he’s saying in that speech is a 1:1 ratio for what I’m sure you’re thinking about at 83 years old, at the end of any career. ‘I don’t know how much longer I get to do this, what an honor it is to get to do it with all of you. How much this career has meant to me’ and all that. You’re watching him just say these words, and we’re all crying disproportionate to the occasion — like it’s not totally right for the scene — but it works.”
Segel says he gave his career a hard look in his 30s, “when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to do the rest of this job. I was looking ahead like, ‘man, you have 50 years left of this, if you’re lucky. What are you going to do with it?'” he says. “And I realized that surrounding myself, just getting near people I admired who seemed to have a better idea about why we’re doing this stuff than I do, and asking them a ton of questions, was going to be like the mentorship of a lifetime. Like, I have a chance to be an apprentice over and over again with people I admire.”
In recent years that’s included parts in series like “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” writing a series of novels and creating and starring in the series “Dispatches From Elsewhere,” alongside Sally Field, Andre Benjamin, Richard E. Grant and more.
“I wish more people had seen it came out right during the pandemic,” he says. “It’s really, really special to me. I couldn’t think of anything to write after ‘The Muppets,’ and I was kind of trapped. I had worked so much in comedy in my 20s and early 30s, and then I decided I wanted to try other stuff. When you decide to try other stuff, you’re like, ‘oh, people are gonna be just as excited about this pivot as I am.’ But then it turns out, nobody gives a shit. You kind of have to start from scratch again and get people interested in what you iare interested in about yourself. “Dispatches From Elsewhere’ was based on this real art experiment that happened in San Francisco about remembering your childlike wonder and art for art’s sake and finding joy and everything around you, the everyday minutia. I just put poured all of myself into that.”
Next up, Segel is about to embark on his next film project, a thriller that he says “harkens back to ‘Fatal Attraction,’ ‘Cape Fear.’ And it’s a it’s a two hander. It’s an idea that has been haunting me for about a decade, and I finally felt like I was smart enough to write it. I had this idea maybe 10 years ago, and I thought, ‘oh, somebody should write that.’ And then I finally aged into the idea.”
Meanwhile, Segel also addressed one of the things he is asked the most: Will there be a “Dracula’s Lament” movie, based on his Dracula puppet musical from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”?
“I perform it every once in a while, I do secret performances of the Dracula puppet musical around town,” he says. “I did one at Hotel Cafe last year. I would like to do one soon at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.”
And any talk of a “How I Met Your Mother” reunion? “That show changed my life, I would do anything they asked me to do,” he says. “I think they did so many flash forwards on that show, though. I always loved that Marshall was kind of an enigma, because he could become a Supreme Court justice, but he also could lose a tuna sandwich and spend an episode just like looking for a sandwich.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.