Sunday, December 4, 2011

Jason Segel's Secret to Success

Maybe I did Google Jason Segel upon return home from the new Muppet movie tonight. What of it?


From a GQ interview he did a while back; let's just call it Jason Segel's Secret to Success:

...I just spent two years being terrible at it until I was good at it. That's just me. There's no way I'm actually intrinsically talented at writing, acting, playing music, puppeteering. It's that I'm willing to be shit at them for a while, until I'm good at them. It's like when you watch a kid in math class—at some point, they just shut off, like, "I'm not going to be good at this, ever." I don't ever reach the "Fuck it" point in anything. I'm willing to be bad for as long as it takes, until I'm good.

GQ: Where does that willingness to push through come from, you think?

I don't have a sense of shame. I just don't. If I've hurt someone's feelings, if I'm mean to somebody, I'll lament over that for days. I'm
that dude. I'll lose sleep over mundane stuff. But I don't really have the thing of, "Oh, I've embarrassed myself." I just don't understand why I would stop trying to play piano even though I'm not good at it. I want to be good at it. So why wouldn't I keep playing?

GQ: You never think, This is silly, what I'm doing?

Never. That's how you get three songs deep into a Dracula musical.
Yeah, and that's also how you get to write and star in a Muppet movie! I am so inspired, and was misty-eyed throughout. Walter that very manly Muppet is my hero.