Jason Segel’s Real Nude Breakup Was Somehow Worse Than in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’
It doesn’t matter how many Muppet movies or Harrison Ford-starring TV shows Jason Segel appears in; he will always be remembered for the opening minutes of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in which he gets dumped by his famous actress girlfriend (Kristen Bell) while naked as a jaybird (or any other type of bird to be honest). We’d include a link to the full scene, but unless you’re Segel’s personal urologist, we’re pretty sure it’s not safe for work.
Segel famously based this part of the script on a real-life event: He endeavored to surprise his then-girlfriend by stretching out on the couch, completely naked, posing “like Burt Reynolds” in Cosmopolitan magazine — only to discover that the reason for her visit was actually to break up with him.
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Amazingly, as Segel recently revealed on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, he saw the comedic potential in this embarrassing moment while it was still happening, thinking to himself, “This is so funny. This is going to be amazing when I write it.” Presumably, he stopped short of mentally recasting his girlfriend with former stars of CW teen detective shows.
Somehow the real incident was even more awkward than the movie version. Segel describes how he prolonged the cringiness by pausing the breakup to get dressed (which is totally understandable), but then spent 25 minutes selecting the perfect ensemble to be dumped in, ultimately choosing a “button-up blue shirt and khaki pants” and pitifully telling his soon-to-be ex, “I’m wearing your favorite outfit.”
Little could young Segel have known that this humiliating moment in time would set into motion a series of events that would one day lead to Indiana Jones/Han Solo/Dr. Richard Kimble complimenting his junk on network television.
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