How I Met Your Mother was a smash hit show, and Jason Segel was a key part. But in his words, his time at the show was “tricky.”
Appearing on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, he remembered how he juggled the CBS show, which ran for nine seasons, his movie career, and his stints at writing projects.
“Judd had instilled this thing in us during Freaks and Geeks, where he said, if you can improv the way that you can, then you can write. I just need to teach you how to write,” the actor recalled his friend Judd Apatow’s advice, encouraging him to write.
He added it was a “life-changing moment,” remembering his friend’s words, who was also the director of 2007’s Knocked Up, in which Jason starred.
“If you can write something good enough,” you can always ‘get back on the wheel,” the 45-year-old recounted, adding, “You’re a weird dude, and the only way you’re going to make it is if you write your own material.”
While trying his luck in writing, Jason said HIMYM brought recognition and “financial security.”
Still, he also said he was “locked into playing a guy for a long, long time and then having to decide if he was going to work or rest during hiatuses.”
The Shrinking star said this was not a huge hassle; however, combining movie and TV careers was the most difficult task.
“The way my life was for about six years was I would be shooting How I Met Your Mother.”
“And during that time, I would be writing a movie that we would then shoot on the four months off and get done in time to get back to How I Met Your Mother,” he continued.
“And it was an amazing time. It was an electric time. But I also was getting a little tired and I was starting to not enjoy myself so much,” the actor admitted.
“And that was a bummer because I was doing such cool things. So I was a tired dude,” Jason concluded.
