When Jason Segal Goes Full Frontal, He Doesn’t Dick Around
APRIL 15, 2008
LOS ANGELES (TNA) -- The naughtiest moment in the new comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is based on a true story.
When the title character breaks up with her boyfriend Peter, played by Jason Segal, he is completely naked. But getting nakedly personal was a case of art imitating life for Segal, who is best known for his role on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” 
In 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' Jason Segal sings a love song to Kristen Bell moments before she breaks his heart.
"I had a naked breakup," said Segal, who also wrote the script to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which opens nationally Friday, April 18.
"It was basically exactly as it was in the movie,” he said. “I thought this woman was coming over to have sex with me, because she was my girlfriend and girlfriends and boyfriends have sex. So I was naked when she arrived.
“She walked through the door,” Segal said. “I literally did [a seductive gyration and said], 'Hey, baby.' She looked me in my face and said, 'We need to talk.'"
Every man knows what "we need to talk” means, but Segal was hardly upset.
"The sickness is that I knew that I should be experiencing this viscerally, like this is two human beings having an actual moment,” Segal said. “All I kept thinking was, 'This is the funniest thing that has ever happened to anybody. I can't wait until she walks out of this room so that I can start laughing and call all my friends.'"
The film follows Peter's attempt to overcome his breakup from Marshall (Kristen Bell), but the major question for Segal became: to show the penis, or not to show the penis?
"At first I pictured that it would be kind of 'Austin Powers'-y, obscuring [the penis] cleverly,” Segal said. “Then I was driving with [director Nick Stoller] in a van, location scouting, and I turned to him and I said, 'What if I show it?'
“He thought it was the worst idea he's ever heard and immediately put the kibosh on it, but it turns out male nudity enthusiast Judd Apatow [who produced the film] had had the same idea on his end."
Even a naughty R-rated comedy has to be careful, so Segal had specific penis rules to follow. 
Jason Segal, the star and screenwriter of 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' based the comedy on a real break-up.
"We went to Universal and pitched it to them in the most bizarre meeting you'll ever have in your life, where you find out the specifics of what is R and what is NC-17,” Segal said, pointing out, “Flaccidity is the dividing line."
An erection would have saddled “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” with the dreaded NC-17 rating, but Segal became self-conscious about letting his penis go totally limp.
"Men like all sorts of different types of women,” he said. “They like fat women, skinny women, women with big breasts and small breasts, blonde hair and brown hair. There aren't that many women out there who love a small penis. So the judgment is very particular when you're doing male nudity."
To find a point where Segal felt proud of his size but did not cross the line into pornography, he coached his own penis into shape.
"It was a weird 10 minute balancing act of just like, 'Let's work together here, buddy.' That's all I got to say on that."
It was much more nerve-wracking than Segal imagined showing his penis would be.
"I thought that it was going to be fun leading up to it,” he said. “I pictured showing up naked. It was like, 'Hey, action. Right, guys? Action. Rolling?' I realized that I was about to be naked in front of everybody and it was really terrifying."
Segal had hoped to be the first man to show his penis on screen since Harvey Keitel, but producer Apatow beat him to the punch with his recent production "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
Making the movie had good and bad points for Segal. The good: He was able to film most of the movie in Hawaii. The bad: He is completely naked during the opening moments of the film.
"I'm not gonna lie to you,” Segal said. “I was a little bit annoyed when I found out about the Dewey Cox penis because I was like, 'I'm gonna be the dude. I'm gonna be the first guy to do it in a long time.' I think there is some differentiation when it's the main dude showing it, as opposed to a weird stunt penis."
There is also more to the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” dick joke than just seeing the penis.
"That scene is so vulnerable as written,” Segal said. “The reaction when you see it in a theatre is this mixture of shock and gasping and confusion and laughter. I think it's because we managed to do it in a way that wasn't a one note joke. It wasn't hack-y."
Beyond the comic construction, the nudity speaks to the emotional core of the film.
"It was this very complicated moment where a guy is literally just being told that his life is ending as far as he's concerned,” Segal said. “That is a naked moment. So, you know, it's metaphoric, whatever. I'm no film student."
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