These days, actor Jason Segel is just as likely to walk through a row of orange trees in overalls as he is to be at a Hollywood premiere in an Armani suit.
The 44-year-old « How I Met Your Mother » star opened up this week about why he packed up and moved to a « small country town » at the height of his success in the industry.
« I was having a really roaring 20s. I had ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ and I was also writing a bunch of movies that were successful and doing well. But I wasn’t doing a lot of personal check-ins because I was so busy, » Segel told Hoda Kotb on the « Today » show Wednesday.
« You know, I was working pretty much every day of the year, doing ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ writing a movie during that year, and then shooting it during the break, going back to ‘How I Met Your Mother.’ And I realized that art is supposed to be a reflection of what you’re going through, and I actually wasn’t going through much lifewise. »
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Segel said he realized he was 33 years old and still writing movies about « being afraid of girls. You know what I mean? I’m like a grown man. I’m a successful grown man. I’m not afraid of girls anymore, and so I moved out of LA. I moved to a little country town, and I started to ask myself questions like, ‘What do you actually like? What are you actually thinking about right now? Who do you want to be as a performer and artist?’ »
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He said he began to write different stories, joking that « it’s like the end of an M. Night Shyamalan movie, where it all makes sense that » his new show « Shrinking, » with Harrison Ford, in which he plays a grieving therapist, « is the culmination of, ‘Oh, I care about dramatic themes and exploring those things, and I’m also good at comedy. How do I reconcile those?’ »
Segel elaborated on the « little farm town » he moved to in a 2022 interview with Jimmy Kimmel in which he joked he has « a lot of oranges, and I have a lot of overalls, » adding he owns around 21 acres of orange groves.
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While he said he « sometimes » misses the city, « I really like being in a small town. Like, I go to the high school football games and stuff and eat a sandwich, which I didn’t know if you could do without kids, but you can.
« And I go to the Christmas play in town, and I wait outside and I ask the little kids to sign my playbill, » he added. « It’s really fun. I love it. »
When Kimmel asked if the kids « lose their minds » over a famous star asking for their autograph, he joked, « They don’t know who I am. »
Segel said he moved there when « How I Met Your Mother » ended around 10 years ago. « I was like ‘Oh, I can do whatever I want now, and I’m going to go live in this town. And I never left. »
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He said in LA he was always a little afraid to walk around because of the paparazzi, « and there I really like just walk around like Big Bird, » he joked, doing an exaggerated wave. « ‘Hey, everybody!’ And to the kids I’m like Muppet guy and to the grownups I’m like a guy from ‘Sarah Marshall.’ It’s a great mix. »