Man-Crush: Jason Segal

This weekend Forgetting Sarah Marshall opens in the states, which could mean big things for that life sized teddy bear of a man - Jason Segal.

Yes, I have a man crush on Jason Segal. Does that make me lame? I don’t care.

The goofy 6ft 4” actor first caught my attention in the Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) created show Undeclared. Segal wasn’t a series regular but the episodes with him as the psycho boyfriend were the best of the short lived series. After all what is funnier than a guy who gives his girlfriend a pillow with his face printed on it? Note: This is also a favourite seduction technique of Deon Malan.

After seeing Undeclared I learned of the cult classic, which preceded it, Freaks and Geeks. Also produced by Judd Apatow and featuring Seth Rogan this great ode to 80’s and high school culture, was probably the best high-school series ever created. The fact that this show didn’t have a second season was a major bummer.

This time around Segal played Nick, a stoner drummer with no rhythm, who seemed to think the bigger the drum kit the better the drummer. Once again Segal played an overly obsessive boyfriend who has no understanding of boundaries.

Then Segal hit some prime time stability with How I Met Your Mother, one of the freshest sitcoms on TV. As Marshall Eriksen he plays less of a psycho and more of the general nice guy but is still milking the child like vulnerability for everything its worth.

Now due to the miracle of the Apatow power train (coming off two miss-fires with Walk-Hard and Drillbit Taylor) Segal gets to write and star in his own movie without any major Hollywood success.

Riding in his favour is that Forgetting Sarah Marshall is receiving very good reviews and the studio has executed a successful guerrilla marketing plan. In fact it’s going to be one of the few films in wide release that is fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

On the negative side the trailers have not been ridiculously hilarious, although most of Apatow’s films have saved the laughs for the film and not the trailer. Also the film probably has a lot of R rated jokes that can’t make the trailer. Segal does do some full fontal nudity in the film for one thing.

It opens this weekend and analysts are predicting a 15m-16m opening in second place behind the Jacki Chan/Jet Li vehicle The Forbidden Kingdom. Let’s hope that Forgetting Sarah Marshall proves them wrong. Why? Because Jason Segal fucking rules.