Jason Segel says reading David Foster Wallace was 'one of the best experiences of his life'
American actor stars with Jesse Eisenberg in The End of the Tour, about Wallace's interview with Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky
Jason Segel might not be the first actor you'd think of to play David Foster Wallace, the quirkily brilliant Midwestern author of essays and expansive, inventive novels (of which the 1,100 plus-page tome is his masterpiece).
Segel, a handsome, soft-spoken 35-year-old Californian whose screen persona is generally that of a sensitive, gentle funnyman ( , , the TV series ), wouldn't disagree.
He remembers reading Donald Margulies' screenplay for , a dramatisation of five real days in Wallace's life, in which journalist David Lipsky joined the writer for the end of Wallace's book tour. Segel loved it, but thought: "I'll never get hired to do this."
A meeting with director James Ponsoldt (, ) convinced him otherwise. One of Ponsoldt's goals, Segel learned, was "to remember how funny [Wallace] was. That humour is the inroad to some of the weighty insights." A thoughtful actor who understood comedy, who could make the long conversations that make up the film spark to life, was what the director wanted.
Upon casting, Segel embarked on an intensive tour of his own: of Wallace. (The writer, who struggled with depression for many years, took his own life at the age of 46 in 2008.) Lipsky's interview tapes were available, and Segel studied them carefully, mostly "for tone", he says - "This road trip needed to be fun." He gained weight, grew out his hair and beard, talked to people who knew Wallace. And he dived into the writer's work, reading the essays on his own but tackling by forming a book club.
"We did 100 pages a week," Segel remembers, smiling. "It was one of the best experiences of my life."
