It could only be a matter of time before Jason Segel, known for his role as Peter Bretter in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, worked his magic in a new starring role. Acting alongside fellow “Legend of Comedy” Paul Rudd, Segel stars as the bromantic interest in I Love You, Man, set for release March 20.
When struggling real estate agent Peter Kraven (Rudd), recently engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones), realizes he has no male friends to serve as the best man, he sets out on a manhunt to find a best friend. Chemistry sparks with Sydney Fife (Segel), but the new pairing only causes problems as the wedding date approaches. North by Northwestern participated in a conference call and roundtable discussion with Segel, Rudd and writer and director John Hamburg to talk about Paul Bunyan, the schism between Chicago and New York-style pizza, and working with Lou Ferrigno.
So how do you guys feel about being dubbed the “new legends of comedy” by Vanity Fair?
Paul Rudd: Not good.
Jason Segel: No.
PR: It’s not true. The backlash begins. It’s a gross overstatement.
JS: I’ve done one successful movie. That does not a legend make.
Well, it’s very flattering to be on the cover of a magazine.
JS: I never thought I’d be on the cover of Vanity Fair, it’s insane.
PR: I get nervous when I see it.
If you guys aren’t comedy’s new legends, who is?
PR: I think a “new legend” is an oxymoron. I think we’re more of the John Legends of comedy.
JS: I don’t think you can be a new legend. I think you become a legend after 40 years; maybe then you start to be a legend.
John Hamburg: Legend is when you’re living in Palm Springs and you haven’t made a movie in 40 years.
PR: You know who I think is great legend? Johnny Appleseed.
JS: Great legend.
JH: Paul Bunyan in his later years.
PR: ‘Cause, you know, when Bunyan was young, he was just regular old Paul with his big blue ox. He may have had that ox, but he was just plain old Paul to everyone in the neighborhood. It wasn’t until years later that the legend of Paul Bunyan really came to fruition.
About the cover of Vanity Fair: Why the body suits? Why not just go full-frontal?
JS: Luckily, that’s not the cover. They thought about using that as the cover for a while. The cover is us in barrels, just ’cause they wanted people to buy the magazine. Why did we not go full-frontal? Those were really close quarters. We were all laying up against each other. I think everyone’s fear is that there might be an incident of contact. The next thing you know, you’re gonna have a Jason Segel/Jonah Hill baby. And that’s not very pretty.
PR: I was really the fortunate one in that photo.
JS: Has Paul ever looked better than in that photo? And maybe it’s the context. It’s not exactly Paul Rudd and Tyson Beckford. You walk away from that photo thinking “Wow, Paul Rudd is incredibly handsome.”
You guys have both worked on romantic comedies, but what is it like working on bromantic comedies?
PR: I know that I had a great time working with Jason. It was the third comedy we had, but we’ve known each other for a while. I mean, look at this guy, it’s hard not to fall in love with him.
JS: I loved it, because it really did have all the beats of a romantic comedy. I think it was hilarious that we had a breakup scene. It was a proper romantic comedy with Paul, but we also go to do the buddy elements that I liked, driving around on a Vespa, making each other laugh, trying to pick up chicks.
PR: You were very conscious of not having it be, in a way, a parody of a romantic comedy.
JH: We didn’t want anybody to think, “Oh, it’s a romantic comedy, but with two friends.” We just want you to be like, oh, you’re watching a story of two friends. Of course, there’s the breakup scene, there’s the way they meet each other, there’s the getting-to-know-you montage, but hopefully you’re caught up in the story and these guys play so real that you’re just watching the story of a couple guys.
JS: I think it’s a real testament to John’s directing ability as well. It was the first movie I’ve ever done where there weren’t huge plot movements. It wasn’t like, now there’s a car accident and everything changes or whatever. It had to be a very subtly crafted story about a relationship and the problems that arise. In the hands of another director it could have been boring or too silly, and John just nailed it.
JH: Thanks, Jason. You’re a great person.
JS: Yeah, you know it.
PR. Hmm. I would agree.
After doing this film, who would you consider to be the best bro in your life?
JS: It’s the same person from before I did this film. It’s my best friend since I was 12, this guy named Brian, who lived with me until a year ago. And he went off to med school. I thought it was fine, I said a very casual goodbye to him, “Goodbye bro, I’ll see you in New York, good luck, I’m proud of you,” and he left. I woke up, I had a very mundane dream about the two of us just hanging out in my living room and I woke up, and I was crying hysterically. Literally, just tears streaming down my face. And I called my mother. I was too embarrassed to call Brian. At two in the morning I called my mom, saying “I’m alone now.”
What would be your ideal bromantic date in Chicago?
JS: I’m not that familiar with Chicago, but how about a ballgame at Wrigley Field and then a McFlurry at the Rock N’ Roll McDonalds?
PR: Well, you have to get some pizza.
JS: Deep dish?
PR: You have to, it’s Chicago-style pizza. You know about the big war between New York pizza and Chicago pizza?
JS: Oh yeah, there’s a huge schism.
PR: I’d run and get some Chicago-style pizza and I’d want to take in a game. I’d like to walk through the Art Institute, and I’d like to do it with Joe Mantegna.
JS: He’s not gonna like Chicago-style pizza, is he?
PR: No, he’s a Chicago guy! He’s the mayor of Chicago.
So you both have done screenwriting, how do you think that affects your performances?
PR: I think it enhanced my performance because I understand the character better. Because I write it, so it makes me understand a character’s motivations and all that other actor bullshit stuff more.
JS: And I agree with Paul, it is very easy given that you know every character — you know why your character was doing everything it did because you made those decisions. What I found though, on I Love You, Man, which I did right after Sarah Marshall and did not write — was that I had a new respect for the writers and how difficult their job is and not to be so frivolous with their words.
So the movie was about you guys being romantic. How did Rashida Jones fit in with the dynamics of the film?
PR: I’ve known Rashida for a long time. And so it seemed very natural because we — Jason how long have you know Rashida, do you know her very well?
JS: I’ve known her since I was 18 so, 11 years.
PR: Yeah right, so it was really actually quite easy. Rashida is very much kind of one of the guys. You know, she kind of is — hilarious and cool and easy to hang out with and um…
JS: She is like one of the most stunningly beautiful women you’ll ever see in your life.
PR: That part would make it a little uncomfortable because we would just [be in awe] even though we know her and have been friends with her. You just say, wait a minute, she is just stunning. And then Jason and I would look at each other to kind of shock ourselves back and where am I gonna go with this, I wonder… Apparently, nowhere.
So obviously you guys are bros in the movie, did you have to do any prep beforehand? Did you have to do any bonding?
JS: We did have a couple of hangs, we went to the bar a couple of times and scored a few brews…
PR: Yup. We scored a couple of bro-steins.
JS: Yeah, a couple of bro-mens.
PR: Yeah, we sipped a bro-menheimer or two.
JS: We pounded some brains and um, you know thankfully we knew each other and so there was, you know, already a little bit of built-in familiarity and we made several boner jokes before we ever started this one. So you know, we already spoke the same language a little bit.
PR: I wasn’t joking.
JS: I wasn’t joking either, and when I say boner jokes and language, it’s an actual language called Bonerist. We both speak Bonerist.
PR: Yeah, it’s a lot like sign language, unfortunately except without the hands.
JS: Like sign language without the hands. Really it’s very hard to just spell out one letter.
PR: Yeah, there is really just a couple…that’s an “L,” nope it’s an “I.” It’s an easy language to learn.
Did the fact that the director of Undeclared directed this movie attract you to the script at all?
JS: Yeah, what attracts me is the fact that we have all known each other for so long. We formed a pretty tight comedy coalition, as I like to call it. So it was just a very, very comfortable environment, you know, Paul and I worked together a bunch. And John Hamburg and Paul and I have known each other for so long. It was a very, very comfortable environment.
PR: I also call it a comfortable coalition, but…I change it up, I like comedy, I like to do it with “K” so I’m in a very komfortable koalition…
JS: But, Paul that’s KKK.
PR: Oops.
JS: I realize that I belong to the KKK, the Komfortable Komedy Koalition. And we are a very — what we like to do is improvise, have fun and we are an extremely racist group.
PR: If it’s just about comedy, we should re-think the uniforms.
JS: Yeah well… it’s the hats that are really…
PR: I think we need to re-think the spelling. And we’ll just go with um…
JS: Oh, Paul is getting dead-eyed. I’m watching him right now.
How was it working with Lou Ferrigno?
JH: Intimidating, because of his incredible size and hands. He has the biggest hands of anyone I’ve ever been in a room with.
PR: Your tone was freaky, actually.
JH: He’s cool, he gets the joke, he likes these kinds of movies — which we weren’t sure, but he was like “Oh man, I love R-rated comedies.” And he could kill the three of us.
PR: He was like a real-life superhero when we were kids, to actually meet him was cool. And then to know him was awesome.
JS: It was terrifying to be sleeper-held by him because he was a very, very strong man for sure. Scarier was the guy who taught the sleeper-hold. This was a legitimate move, the sleeper-hold, and this is the father of the sleeper-hold. He brought a guy upon which he demonstrated the sleeper-hold, then he came up to me and said, “You gotta be tough. You gotta be tough, kid.” And BOOM! He slapped me in the face. This was the biggest badass I’ve ever met. He was wearing a shirt that had something about the sleeper-hold.
JH: A “Choke ‘em out” t-shirt. You’ll see on the Comedy Central special that’s gonna air, there’s some b-roll footage of him smacking you.
In terms of the masturbation station [a station in the "man cave" where Segel's character can masturbate, complete with lotion, condoms and a large television] — are you guys actually that disgusting? Is that inspired by personal experience?
JH: The only one of us who has a masturbation station is Jason.
JS: The cave is based on our editor.
JH: Our editor, Bill Kerr, has a man-cave in his garage. And he claims that he doesn’t have a masturbation station, but he has the three TVs and everything. The masturbation station just came about, it seems like something Sydney Fife would have, because he’s an honest guy.
JS: He pursues his passions and he’s free about it. Right into the condom, condom into the trash.
PR: It’s a whole operation.