Aloha! ComingSoon.net is in Hawaii with the cast of Universal Pictures’ new romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and we talked exclusively to the film’s star and writer, Jason Segel, and fellow star Bill Hader about the projects they have coming up. First up is Segel:
ComingSoon.net: Tell me about “Five Year Engagement.”
Jason Segel: “Five Year Engagement” is another movie that I’m writing with Nick Stoller, the director of this movie. Nick will direct it and I’ll star in it for Judd Apatow and Universal Pictures. It’s sort of our follow up to this. It’s not a sequel in any capacity, but it’s exploring a relationship over five years and how something starts out so strong can change over time.
CS: So we’ll see you in a relationship and follow you through the ups and downs?
Segel: Yeah, it’s a couple who gets engaged in their early 20s and follows them through five years of cross country moves and fighting and break ups and dating other people and getting back together and seeing if they can ultimately pull it together to get married.
CS: How is “I Love You, Man” with Paul Rudd going?
Segel: It’s going great. I love working with Rudd. He and I had a good rapport and sort of similar comedic taste. It’s been really exciting. I’m playing a different character. I’m playing sort of a long-haired suave guy which is fun for me. I’m finally doing some acting as opposed to varying my facial hair which has been my strategy up until now. This time I’ll have a moustache.
CS: The movie is about a guy who is newly engaged and he’s on this quest to find the perfect best man. Are you playing the best man or the guy who is engaged?
Segel: Paul Rudd is the guy who is newly engaged and I am the potential new best man, but you don’t know quite what to make of me. You don’t know if I’m a good guy or bad guy in this one.
CS: I know you’re also writing the new Muppet movie. What can you tell me about that?
Segel: It’s hilarious, fantastic, heart-wrenching, beautiful, nostalgic and remarkable.
CS: Were you a big fan of the Muppets?
Segel: I just remember being 10 years old and for me Kermit was Tom Hanks. Kermit is like the original every man and I remember watching the old Muppet with my parents and seeing Peter Sellars and people like that on. I’ve always had Muppet pictures and figurines all through my house. Now that I’m getting to write it, I feel like all if my dreams are coming true.
CS: Are you going to be one of the Muppets?
Segel: We’ll see what they come up with.
Now we turn our attention to Bill Hader, who addressed his future on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) and upcoming films:
CS: You have so many projects in the works right now, is SNL still something you see yourself doing?
Bill Hader: Yeah, totally. I love it there and there’s nothing else like it in the world. It’s a completely different world.
CS: You have “Pineapple Express” coming out soon. Tell me about your role.
Hader: I shot for one day on that. The scene takes place in the ’20s and I asked Seth and Evan, the writers, “What does this have to do with the movie?” and they said, “I don’t know.” It was a blast and David Gorden Green, the director of the film, I’m a huge fan of so it was fun to work with him. Seth and Evan are great guys, so it was a lot of fun.
CS: What can you tell me about “Tropic Thunder?”
Hader: I think people are going to be really amazed with Tom Cruise in this movie. I have a lot of scenes with Tom Cruise where he’s head of a studio and he’s really, really funny in this movie. He and Robert Downey Jr. are great. Everybody in this movie is hilarious. It’s an insane movie.
CS: Who do you play?
Hader: I play a guy who is the executive in charge of the movie “Tropic Thunder,” the movie within the movie. I’m kind of a sniveling bastard. I’m Tom Cruise’s character’s one-hand man in the movie.
CS: What was it like working with him?
Hader: He’s the nicest guy ever. He’s just hilarious in the movie.
CS: You also have ‘Hoodwinked 2″ coming up right?
Hader: Yeah, Amy Poehler and I play Hansel and Gretel. It was so cool. It was fun to do something with Amy outside of the show. It was a blast.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall opens in theaters on April 18.
