Jason Segel Talks About How He Dealt with 'Tough Stuff' in Life: 'I Laughed My Way Through It'

The ‘Shrinking’ Star sat down with Ali Wong for 'Variety'’s Actors on Actors feature, reflecting on his past "existential crisis" and how he used humor to get through difficult times

With credentials that include How I Met Your Mother, The Muppets, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel’s comedy chops are well-established.

However, the actor, who has pivoted to a more dramatic role as star and co-creator of the Apple TV show Shrinking, opened up about using humor to get through the tough times during a frank conversation with Beef star Ali Wong, as part of Variety’s popular Actors on Actors series.

“Comedy found me first and I turned out to be good at it,” he said, admitting, “I’ve been through some tough stuff in my life, and I laughed my way through it. Some of the funniest moments were the times I was the most miserable, weirdly enough.

"I just take the view that that's what life is."

Segel told Wong that his motivation for Shrinking — where he plays a therapist trying to grapple with his wife’s death —  “was grief.”

“It was just trying to think of this idea that I think is kind of universal, beyond just losing a loved one,” he explains. “We filmed right after the pandemic. Everything was so weird. Culturally, we couldn’t quite name it, but we all had this sense that something was taken from us that we’ll never get back.”

As he looks back on his career, Segel tells Wong, ‘I wish I had zigged where I zagged.”

Related: Jason Segel Admits He Was 'Really Unhappy' While Filming How I Met Your Mother's Later Seasons

He started acting after high school, but it wasn’t long before he found his niche in comedy. “I worked a lot in my twenties and thirties, and at some point, couldn’t quite figure out why I was doing any of it. I basically had an existential crisis. So I started only taking movies where I would be around somebody I really admired just so I could ask them questions."

The actor has previously opened up about being "really unhappy" during the final seasons of How I Met Your Mother, which ran for 9 years. Segel said, "things were firing in both movies and TV, and everyone was telling me how well it was going,...and I was really unhappy."

He's also been frank about his own mental health journey, saying he's "struggled a bit with anxiety and some sense that something is wrong and a sense of impending doom."

But Segel told Wong that an interview between Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson inspired him to make those different career choices.

”Michael invited Kobe to Neverland Ranch when Kobe was a rookie and gave him all this advice. And one of the pieces of advice he gave Kobe was when you’re around someone you admire, don’t be a fan. And ask them every question that you think will be helpful to you on your journey.”

Related: Jason Segel Says He's 'Always Struggled' with Anxiety: 'We're All a Mess'

But now, at 43, Segel tells Wong he’s finding some balance. “I’m only just now starting to believe that everything’s OK,” he said. “But that has not been my experience of how I feel during any of it. I’m always a little bit scared of, 'How do I keep it up?' ”

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