Jason Segel is an actor, writer, director, and musician, whom we discovered as a teenager in Freaks and Geeks. Since then, he’s been part of Judd Apatow’s movies multiple times, and also worked on the great sitcom How I Met Your Mother. In the last few years, Segel has proved that he’s not only an incredibly gifted comedy actor, but also can play darker and more complex characters. Here are Jason Segel’s best performances, ranked:
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7 I Love You, Man (2009)
Paramount Pictures
Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is a soon-to-be-married man who has no male friends and no one to be the Best Man for his wedding. Until he meets Sydney Fife (Segel), a carefree investor who’s nothing like Peter. They hit it off immediately. I Love You Man might be one of the best bromantic comedies (did we just invent the term brom-com?) out there, as you feel the closeness and brotherhood between both characters (and actors). Segel is let loose and becomes an agent of chaos in this movie, making us understand where Rudd’s character is coming from, because we would also want to hang out with this laid-back version of Segel.
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6 The Muppets (2011)
The Walt Disney Company
Gary (Segel), his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams), and his brother Walter (Peter Linz), who is a Muppet, travel to Hollywood to meet The Muppets. There, they discover the evil plan of an oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) to buy Muppets Studio because there’s oil under it. Gary and company have to get the band together, so the Muppets can keep doing their thing.
Segel not only stars in the movie, but also co-wrote it. He told Wired how that came to be: in a meeting with Disney, they asked him what he would like to do, and his answer was simple: “I want to do a Muppet movie”, and it shows how much love Segel has for The Muppets, being the straight-laced man to all the Muppet crazy shenanigans that are happening around him. As the writer, he also gives them a new life, with some meta gags, good songs, and a lot of fun.
5 How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014)
CBS
Ted (Josh Radnor) tells their kids the story of how he met their mother. Segel plays Marshall, Ted’s best friend, and roommate, in this TV show with one of the best pilot episodes ever. It might look like another story of young people hanging out in New York, but thanks to incredible and funny characters, commentaries on the future, and a lot of unique running gags, this sitcom is one of the best of the century.
Segel’s interpretation of the character as the lovely, goofy, best friend is great. He’s always there to support the rest of the gang, and also has incredible adventures with his wife Lily (Alyson Hannigan) in what might be one of the best marriages on TV ever. At the times when How I Met Your Mother got serious, Segel gave it his all, having one of the saddest and most powerful performances during the story arc of his father’s death.
4 Jeff Who Lives at Home (2011)
Paramount Vantage
Jeff (Segel) is a slacker who still lives at home with his mom (Susan Sarandon). On one of his not-that-many excursions outside the house, he runs into his brother Pat (Ed Helms) and has to help him save his marriage.
Jeff Who Lives at Home was one of the first times we saw a different side to Segel’s acting, as he does a lot more than being goofy. The Duplass brothers are known for actor improvisation in their films, and maybe that’s why they thought of Segel, but he gave them much more, as his performance in this film is subtle and unique. Mark Duplass even admits that it’s his favorite movie they’ve done, and that’s in big part thanks to Segel.
3 Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
DreamWorks SKG
Freaks and Geeks is one of the best coming-of-age shows. It tells, realistically, the story of two high-school groups in Michigan in the ’80s. It was the big break for all the actors, many of whom are now Hollywood and TV staples (Seth Rogen, James Franco, Linda Cardellini, and Jason Segel).
There are many reasons why you should watch this show, and one of them is Segel’s performance as Nick Andopolis, the love interest to Linda Cardellini’s character, Lindsay. Segel is sweet and lovely, with a troubled home, and has the impossible dream of becoming a professional drummer, as he’s not talented enough. He had a very well-rounded character, thanks to Segel, who could play romantic, sad, stoned, angry, sweet, and dumb, and consistently and realistically change between them.
2 The End of the Tour (2015)
A24
The End of the Tour tells the story of David Foster Wallace (Segel) on one of his last press tours, while he spends five days with Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg). For many, this is Segel’s best dramatic performance, and we agree. Foster Wallace was a unique artist who had depression for many years. Segel’s performance insinuates all that is going on in his interior: the sadness, the depression, the numbness, the weariness, and the disassociation with the world, that all hides within his character. It doesn’t look like any other of Segel’s roles, because Foster Wallace was nothing like him, and that’s why this performance is so good.
1 Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Universal Pictures
Peter’s (Segel) girlfriend, the actress Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), breaks up with him, and he doesn’t take it very well. He’s uncomfortably sad, so he decides to take a vacation to Hawaii to decompress, and there, he finds Sarah with her new boyfriend, a lascivious musician (Russell Brand).
Although he had already appeared in many Apatow productions, always as one of the friends, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is Segel’s movie. He wrote it, he stars in it, and he’s the creative mind behind most aspects of this movie about unrequited love. This film is very funny, but also has some heart, as you hope Peter can move on with his life. Segel assembled an all-star cast (Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, and Bill Hader) for this movie about moving on. He gives Peter a sensibility that helps us empathize with him, all while making us laugh about some of his more pathetic moments. Segel’s love for puppets already appears here, with his unique Dracula musical. This movie showed many of Segel’s talents: as an actor, a musician, and a writer, and it’s still his best.
