For
15
years,
Jason
Segel
worked
almost
exclusively
in
comedy
—
from
his
first
screen
appearance
as
“Watermelon
Guy”
in
Can’t
Hardly
Wait
to
cult
TV
favorites
Freaks
and
Geeks
and
Undeclared
to
box-office
hits
Knocked
Up,
Forgetting
Sarah
Marshall
and
I
Love
You,
Man
to
the
long-running
sitcom
How
I
Met
Your
Mother.
Then
after
the
2014
raunchfest
Sex
Tape
—
which
was
also
one
of
co-star
Cameron
Diaz’s
final
projects
before
she
surprisingly
retired
—
Segel
retreated
from
the
genre.
He
played
David
Foster
Wallace
in
the
acclaimed
The
End
of
the
Tour,
explored
indie
sci-fi
in
The
Discovery,
created
the
complex
drama
series
Dispatches
From
Everywhere
and
now
appears
in
the
gut-wrenching
film
Our
Friend,
about
a
mother
(Dakota
Johnson)
dying
from
cancer
as
her
husband
(Casey
Affleck)
and
his
best
friend
(Segel)
tend
to
the
couple’s
two
young
daughters.
“I
did
about
a
decade
and
a
half
of
pure
comedy,
between
those
movies
and
then
How
I
Met
Your
Mother,
which
was
literally
every
day
for
nine
years,”
Segel
tells
us
during
a
recent
press
day
for
Our
Friend
(watch
above).
“I
think
I
was
just
interested
in
seeing
what
else
I
could
do.”
(Jason
Segel)
and
Annie
(Cameron
Diaz)
in
Sex
Tape.
(Photo:
Columbia
Pictures)
Sex
Tape,
which
was
a
modest
box-office
success
but
got
skewered
by
critics,
may
have
had
something
to
do
with
it.
“There
was
a
moment
around
that
period,
’cause
that
was
also
around
when
How
I
Met
Your
Mother
ended,
where
I
was
like,
‘I
have
a
blank
canvas
ahead
of
me
now,’”
Segel
says.
“Sex
Tape
ended
up
doing
well,
I
think,
but
it
didn’t
feel
good.
So
I
got
to
look
forward
and
say,
‘This
is
freedom.
You
can
do
anything
right
now.
So
why
don’t
we
walk
right
into
some
of
the
looming
questions,
like,
what
if
I
tried
to
do
just
a
drama?
What
if
I
tried
to
write
and
create
and
run
a
TV
show?’
I
wanted
to
bump
up
against
my
litmus,
which
I
hadn’t
done
in
a
long
time.”
Segel
in
Our
Friend.
(Photo:
Gravitas
Ventures)
Our
Friend,
which
premiered
at
the
2019
Toronto
International
Film
Festival,
is
based
on
a
National
Magazine
Award-winning
Esquire
article
by
Matthew
Teague
detailing
the
tragic
loss
of
his
wife
—
and
how
his
closest
friend
helped
him
through
it.
Like
another
one
of
Affleck’s
recent
dramas,
the
Oscar-winning
Manchester
by
the
Sea,
the
film
has
utterly
devastating
moments.
“It
was
weighty
and
emotional
to
film,”
Segel
says.
“We
were
shooting
in
the
real
town,
Fairhope,
Alabama,
where
Matt
and
Nicole
lived,
and
so
the
town
knew
Nicole
and
they
knew
the
story
that
we
were
telling.
And
they
were
really
supportive
and
some
participated
as
well
in
some
of
these
group
scenes.
It
was
something
that
was
really
cathartic
for
everybody.
That
was
emotional.
“I
know
Dakota
really
well,
and
care
about
Dakota
tremendously,
I’ve
known
her
since
her
early
20s.
And
her
performance
is
so
transformative
that
watching
her
go
through
such
a
tragedy
was
hard
to
go
through
side-by-side
with
her
when
we
were
acting.”
Our
Friend
is
now
in
theaters
and
via
on
demand
services
including
Amazon
and
FandangoNOW.
Watch
the
trailer:
—
Video
produced
by
Jen
Kucsak
and
edited
by
Steve
Michael
Read
more
on
Yahoo
Entertainment:
Source : Link