Did you see those photos of Jason Segel and Michelle Williams together two nights ago? Maybe three nights ago. You can see them here – they’re pretty cute photos. Michelle looks a little bleary-eyed and unkempt (her hair is so much better when it’s unkempt!), and Jason looks like he had a few drinks but not too many. Anyway, Jason has been in NYC, promoting Five Year Engagement, that film about… well, the title says it all. Jason was on The Late Show With David Letterman two nights ago, and he discussed his body image and how Hollywood forced him to lose weight. Since societal and career-demanded weight loss is a subject we have discussed ad nauseum about the ladies, I thought we might take a gander at gender reversal:
Jason Segel was ‘forced’ to lose weight for his new movie. The actor stars alongside Emily Blunt in his latest film The Five-Year Engagement but was told by bosses he should shift at least 35lbs as they wanted the film to be as realistic as possible.
He told talk show host David Letterman: ‘I was forced to lose weight for this movie. It was by the studio president! I was told it had to be conceivable that Emily Blunt would ever choose me to be her husband, which I think is fair enough! I had to lose a good 35lbs. I didn’t enjoy it but they sent a trainer to set and I had to work out twice a day and he would also watch me eat all day.’
However, the How I Met Your Mother star – who is currently dating actress Michelle Williams – says he didn’t follow the strict rules he was put under and did his best to eat as much food as possible.
He said: ‘What they didn’t anticipate is that I’m very clever and I play a chef in the movie, so there were a lot of scenes in which I had to eat. So I paid my co-stars phenomenal amounts of money to mess up their lines during the scenes and I’d get to keep eating!’
[From The Mail]
Jason Segel is a big guy. How tall is he? Google says 6’4”. So, he’s a tall dude and he’s got a big, broad frame. Thirty-five pounds either way (on or off) isn’t some huge deal as far as his appearance goes, you know? So… I’m coming down on “This is rude, they should have just let Jason weigh whatever he wanted.” Part of Jason’s charm is that he seems like a big, goofy, slightly out-of-shape giant. And yes, sometimes thin women go for out-of-shape dudes. Half of all of the television sitcoms would not exist if that wasn’t accepted as a universal truth.
…Now, all that being said, it’s kind of nice to know that at least some actors are getting the same kind of body image pressure as the ladies. Ideally, no one would be told to lose weight, of course. But if it’s going to happen (and it does happen), it’s interesting to hear a story about it happening to a dude. Jason took the criticism well, it seems. Sigh… men just have a completely different attitude towards weight loss and weight criticism. It’s like they’re a completely different species.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It’s about time men were held to the same ridiculous standards as women.
yeah i demand men starve themselves to be a size 0 too! and then get silicone upper body muscles 😛
ITA the only reason we’re hearing about this is bc it’s a man. This would be a non-story if it were a female having to lose 15 lbs. Anyway, he’s such a big guy, it would require far less effort for him compared to most of these actresses having to attain/remain in the size 2 area.
That’s false. We JUST had to endure countless stories (and comments on CB!) about Anne Hathaway losing weight for Les Mes.
And about the ‘ridiculous standards of women’…actually, men are required to look just as fit as their female counterpart. They just don’t demand sympathy for it. O_o
When you work in a visual medium such as film, it is your JOB to conform to a certain body type if you want to work. They are well compensated for it.
Maybe they could have picked a woman who was more than a size 2. Oh wait, I forgot no one likes to look at women who have an extra 35lbs.
Of course the woman could NEVER be as average-looking as the man is allowed to be.
I was not a huge fan of the movie “Bridemaids” (and I haven’t watched SNL since Phil Hartman died), but I really liked the love story part with Kristin Wiig (?) and that Irish cop guy…. because they both looked like real people. It was refreshing.
Kristen Wiig is incredibly skinny
My comment was not about skinny, it was about looks. Kristin Wiig is awesome, but her face and body are a bit busted. She’s not ‘attractive-skinny’, she’s scrawny. Most of the women in my family have that body naturally (no diet, no gym), so I was talking more about having a ‘not super-pretty’ woman as a romantic lead. She’s not in her 20’s, nor is she a gorgeous woman that they uglied up. It’s rare.
well he is a bit of a porker…
True Confession time: When I was reading the Fifty Shades books I really, really wanted Mr. Grey to look like, say, Gaspard Ulliel. But the behavior of Mr. Grey was so immature and odd that for some reason Jason Segel became the dominate mental image I had.
Jason is a nice looking guy and appears to be pretty down to earth. I apologize for visualizing him as a f*’d up sadist who needs to work out his mommy issues.
lol don’t worry i’m sure he won’t find out. unless he uses google alerts, doesn’t really strike me as the type who would but you never know…
That kind of upsets me. I think he looks great just the way he is. Of course, I’ve always been a bit of a chubby chaser 😉
Before kids, when I had more time, I used to bake constantly. The idea was to feed my husband as many baked goods as possible and chunk him up. That way, no matter what, I will always look skinny next to him 😜
you sneeeeeaky morticians! hahah…so smart though.
I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: You, Mort, are a genius.
Thanks ladies! Love you 😉
BUT…women are forced to loose weight when they are already pretty thin – men are forced to loose weight when they are chunky or have a bit extra weight. That’s a difference.
So true. Plus the standard of what slim and fit even looks like changes for men as they get older. For instance, a 40 year old male star — even when he’s in great shape for a role — typically doesn’t have the same body he had at 20. But women in Hollywood are expected to have the sylph-like bodies of teenagers eternally.
Yes! That’s essentially what I wrote above, but just saw your post. Def agree.
Agree – overweight guys are told to lose and get back to a healthy weight, vs. healthy weight actresses being told to become underweight.
I have always found Jason very handsome and it’s totally believable to me that Emily Blunt would fall for him no matter his weight. I think it’s great that he’s talking about it.
Okay, if this guy is ‘chubby’, then the entire state of WI is obese. Sure we have our overweighters, but to me he looks like a NORMAL person.
Granted, the studio probably frowns on ‘moobs’, but he’s one of the most realistic looking actors out there. I’d rather watch a real looking actor than a glammed up pretty boy any day.
preach. whenever I step outside of Madison, I’m astonished by the obesity (Madison has so many skinny college kids that it really overrides the overall fattiness of our state…in my mind). I mean, I love my cheese curds and beer as much as the next Wisconsin girl, but there has to be some kind of tradeoff…
And, shout out to my fellow Sconnie Franny! (Madtown is sooo much better than Mil)
Sorry Mel, but by LA standards, the entire state of Wisco IS obese.
I’m considered super skinny in the Midwest. They think I’m fat out there. From what I get, the LA definition of skinny is the WI definition of anorexic. I’m not bashing, I’ve just spent a lot of time in both places and that’s just what I’ve seen.
I agree, for the most part Sconnie is filled with obese people, and although I’m a size 4, I’m sure I’d be chunky in LA.
I guess it depends on where you live, Madison and Milwaukee are way more fit than the rest of the beer guzzling state (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Either way, I stand by Wisco!
Me too, babe! Our people may be fat, but not without good reason. The food here is awesome!!
Veruca – have you ever been to Burbank? I’ve gained a lot of weight – maybe 14-16 and I always get depressed by how THIN I look when I’m in Burbank.
It’s only in West LA that the anorexic starlets roam.
Places where I am thin make me sad. I worked my way to this size honestly (eating like a sow when I couldn’t work out for a year due to what I did to my knee).
OK… Pilates time…. I still can’t do much cardio but now I have muscles under the flab for when I can. Damn knee.
So a man who actually can get Michelle Williams in real life was told to loose 35 lbs so people would believe he could get Emily Blunt in a Hollywood fantasy?
Has anyone seen Kevin James’ real wife?
She is gorgeous!! I would totally get with Kevin James… but my fav of all time was Chris Farley… Good grief. He was a biggin but his personality and his comic side did it for me all the way!
Ugh, Jessica you just reminded me of my fantasy marriage to Chris Farley when I was a teenager. Comedians and musicians will ALWAYS attract the ladies!
She’s stunning. And, JS is dating Michelle Williams. She’s a very attractive woman, and very, VERY tiny.
She just played Marilyn, ffs! Chubby Jason still gets beautiful women.
That ‘studio president’ is an idiot. Women are much more forgiving about looks, in favor of personality and humor.
This guy is so gross. I have never, and will never, see his appeal.
Eh, I don’t see it either. The chubby factor gives him a Vince Vaughn vibe.
Why has HE never had to lose weight – VV that is. I have never gotten his appeal. He was thin once but totally out of shape. Honestly, I prefer chubby with muscle underneath than skinny and flabby.
Some of my friends used to rave about how hot VV was. He always grossed me out. For me he was like the less bad looking version of BBT.
Jason doesn’t gross me out but I have only seen him in the Muppets and he was perfect for the role. He was a dork.
I won’t see those Apatow movies he has been in because I find them horribly sexist in the looks sense. It’s always these utterly hideous guys: Seth Rogen anyone? and these gorgeous girls. Thanks but no thanks. I don’t want real life in my movies. I’ll wait for the Seth Rogen Melissa McCarthy film and even then she is too cute for him. It’s the man-fro another thing I can’t stand.
I think his appeal is that he looks like a normal nice guy you would see in real life.
Plus, and I hate to be vulgar, but I’m going to say it bc I haven’t seen anyone else do so…the dude is PACKING. If you’ve seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, you know. It’s…very impressive 😉
I thought he was cute before the scene but afterwards, my inner size queen came out :-O
I love him skinny or chunky!!! Marshall!!!!
Exactly! Marshall forever 😉
I think he was fine just the way he was, no need for him to lose weight.
Get over your suffering and sacrifice, Jason. You got paid a lot, right? So stfu. Women are told to lose ridiculous amounts of weight all the time. And I doubt we would ever see a movie where the female lead is Jason’s size (a chunker) and the male Emily’s (super thin). It’s this fantasy that tv and movies appear to want to feed to men – no matter what your size, what you look like, how groomed you are, you shall find a skinny hot woman to love you, it’s your right. The opposite is true for women, of course. Unless you’re skinny, you don’t deserve love. Meh.
EXACTLY!!!! It sickens me.
I like Seth Rogan more.
I find this funny because Emily Blunt’s actual husband is also a “big, goofy, slightly-out-of-shape giant.”
Ha, too true. And he’s even more adorable. But heaven forbid someone in Hollywood be attractive for their personality…
Men don’t worry as much about their weight because women accept them that way. Women are more willing to date a guy with a few extra pounds, but very few men want to date an overweight woman. A sad but true fact. For the record, I’d have dated Jason with the extra pounds. He’s cute and funny.
So true.
to be fair, it’s not like Jason was obese or anything. He was average. And I know plenty of real men who prefer women who are a size 8-12 rather than a size 0. different strokes, as they say…
But I think the hollywood fantasy is still that all men prefer waifs. there’s no room for individual preference. how would they sell you anything if you had your own opinions??! god forbid.
That is the point. He’s an actor. He needs to look like he could realistically get one of those waifs and spend all their dates at Vegan restaurants next to the gym.
Also looking at him, I can see why he was picked out. He was close already. Like someone said he isn’t obese he’s just overweight. I don’t think anyone would have picked out Jonah Hill and want to make him hot.
I’m curious to see how the Melissa McCarthy thing pans out. Will we have two categories of women as well? Fat and funny and hot and unrealistic? Regardless, normal people are not allowed – women size 8-14, men size whatever the equivalent is.
He’s not that fat. I would totally date him IRL but not on film.
Hollywood is ALWAYS ASKING WOMEN TO LOSE WEIGHT FOR ROLES. Now a man knows how it feels. He’s an actor that gets paid a lot, so I’m not feeling sorry for him.
My ex was 6’5″ and weighed around 280 lbs. He was chubby but super athletic and had a lot of muscle on his frame.
After we broke up he went through a diet phase and went down to 240 and people were worried about him, always asking if he was sick.
Some people look a little better with some meat. But Jason did used to be fairly skinnish when HIMYM first appeared.
I will always prefer a chubby guy with a little beer belly over a guy who is supermuscular and has a six pack.
Six packs just gross me out. I never get why this deformation is considered attractive. I would even prefer someone who is skinnier than me than Ryan Reynolds. I just don´t see why someone wants to spend a good amount of their life in a gym. Actors may have to because they want to play action roles, but when it comes to normal guys I just think extrem workouts are a compensation for something.
Exactly – he is an ACTOR – being at the gym is part of his job. I have no unrealistic expectations from men or women in my personal life. As far as a normal guy around my age, assuming he is intelligent and funny he is totally acceptable looks wise. If he isn’t uber hairy then he is better than most guys in my neighborhood.
I do have unrealistic expectations for actors. If I was paid million$ a year to look good – I would not look like I do now. I would spend 8 hours a day on my non-working days at the gym. Call it the American work ethic but I would earn my millions.
You know, it’s funny cuz the first thing I noticed about Jason was his eyes. He has really pretty eyes imo. His weight didn’t even really register with me. I think he’s adorable.
Bet this is why Russell Brand says Jason has so much game. He seems relatable and attainable.
Russell Brand is an example of “too thin” and utterly repulsive. This guy is “eh”.
I watched a re-run of HIMYM last night, which showed him in undies and he looked great.
Jason Segal may be a tall guy, but he constantly walks the line that veers into chubby … even for someone his height/frame. There are seasons where Marshall is flat out chunky. Not obese, or morbidly overweight, but definitely carrying more weight than he should.
I find him doughy. Especially his face. Doughy and greasy and not attractive. He could stand to stay the weight he is in the header pic….. but that’s a slimmed down version. Marshall, at times, has had a very very visable gut.
This. Also, I was shocked to find out he was in his early-30s — the puffiness adds another decade, so I figured he was around Gerald Butler’s age.
So true about men approaching weight loss and body image completely differently — it’s rare to find a man who feels completely emasculated and unlovable because he’s carrying an extra 40 around the belt. But women: gah, it’s so easy to hate ourselves over an extra 5-10.
And the dudes are a helluva lot more flexible calling each other out over it: “whoa man — you got FAT” is a pretty common line my husband and his friends toss around with each other……
Anyway — I don’t really take Jason Segel for that chubby…..out of shape, sure, but not fat…..the greasy hair and face: yeah, that needs to go, but overall, he’s just sort of SOFT.
“And yes, sometimes thin women go for out-of-shape dudes. Half of all of the television sitcoms would not exist if that wasn’t accepted as a universal truth.”
It’s really not a universal truth at all, it’s a self-serving fantasy land male chubby writer create.
I’m not into chubby out-of-shape dudes. I doubt that most women are.
almost, but not quite. I dig a man with a little chub, always have 🙂 Softer, more hug-able or something?
I think its a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If all you see tons of schlubby dudes with women out of their league, it seems more “normal” in real life. Also, we can’t forget that for women, so much of our self-worth is about how we look, and not by our own choice. It’s easy to be cool about weight when there isn’t anything at stake.
For $5 million for a couple months’ work, I’d happily gain and/or lose 35 pounds. Studio’s choice! Call me, Hollywood. xx
seriously. everyone was so “impressed” when Renee had to gain weight for Bridget Jones and its like “honey, I can do that…fo free!”.
35 pounds seems excessive even for a tall guy. In comparison, I’m five nine and a couple of years ago I lost 21 pounds (in 6 weeks!) and everyone kept remarking – wrongly, ha – on the difference.
I’m of the opinion that unless you are portraying a role where weight is one of the primary issues (say an extremely ill person, drug addict, POW or what not), whatever your typical look is, should be OK.
For women to meet Hollywood standards of beauty, they have to exercise like crazy and starve themselves.
For a super-tall guy like Jason (6’4″) to lose 35 lbs, he’ll still be able to eat two or three times as much as the average woman, and the weight will come right off. So, it’s not like he’s going to be all that deprived.
I once dated a tall guy with a similar body type to Jason’s and we both started on a diet at the same time. I had to cut my calorie intake to 1000 calories a day to lose weight, but all he had to do is cut back his daily intake by about that much (and he still got to eat more than twice as me, how unfair is that). After a month, I was down 8 lbs and he’d lost about 20!
So, I’m not too sympathetic. Jason will still get to eat quite a bit even when he’s dieting, plus he’ll end up looking his age instead of a decade older than Michelle. Especially since he’ll also get a boatload of money!
He needed to lose weight to play the love interest. I don’t want to see a dumpy guy as a love interest in a romantic comedy. I am sick of sitcoms on TV with sloppy guys with hot wives. I make an exception for the King of Queens though. It was an amazing sitcom and their dynamic worked.
I boycott all Apatow movies for that reason. His leading men aren’t all fat but they are all dorky and I don’t like dorks. I’m no skinny minnie but fat men aren’t hot neither are skinny ones.
Like someone said “some” chub is OK – In REAL LIFE – but Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill make me want to barf. They look fat when they are thin. ICK!
I’m going to go ahead and say it: No, I don’t want a guy who has a little extra weight. My boyfriend stays in shape for me, and I like it. No he doesn’t have a perfect six pack. He just avoids getting chubby, and I do the same. Honestly, Jason Segel is too fat for me. I like to stay in shape and I want a man that does the same.
Vince Vaughn is another tall guy who sometimes veers from ‘big’ into fat. He’s great when he’s thinner, but when he’s fat, no thanks.
Are those pix above of him “before” or “after?” if they are after his wt loss, then I think it was the right thing to do. He’s only just barely an acceptable weight in my opinion. 😉
Good point. I can’t tell. I’ve only seen him in the Muppets and I thought he was supposed to look like a dweeb – and he was perfect as a dweeb. I really didn’t notice how fat he was because he was a dork and I don’t like dorks. I also thought he was an actor and may not be a dork in real life but I haven’t seen him in real life or even on a red carpet so are those before or after and can we have a genuine before and after. If he just started losing weight then ignore that request.
About freaking time… the should have specified 35lbs and TONED.
Yeah, I’d go out with him as is, IRL he’s not bad – but his job is NOT IRL. His job is to embody fantasy. Being clever or whatnot is not enough. I have no problem with the fantasy women because that is what they are fantasy. It’s about time we got matching fantasy men.
Lean protein and more reps Jason. We look forward to your first topless scene. Or you can stay as you are and become a writer producer.
Yes, I judge onscreen talent harshly but that is their job.
We have Molly and Mike…. which makes me looks like fantasy woman. I don’t want to live up to that without a raise.
Gotta say… I like him a little less plump. On the old HIMYM reruns, he’s adorable when he’s thinner. But then again, I love the Marshall character, period.
And he may want to do something about the extra weight. I seem to remember him talking about his tux coming apart at this year’s Oscars on Ellen.
He’s fat. I don’t care if you see people like this every day and this is your norm. Then the people around you are fat, too.
LAughing my ass of over all the women in the comment section.
Always complaining about the high standards of beauty and how man are not subjected to them, when it is women who insist on wearing high heels that hurt so, so much!
All it takes for a woman to be in shape is to not eat like a horse.
Men need to have rockhard abs und bulging biceps. Get real.
Well, why should men get a waiver for not making an effort to look good?
Kaiser/CB can you guys post a before and after shot?
A lot of us aren’t that familiar with him. Most comments are about Hollywood and men and women overall.
Thanks!
I saw this on a different post a few days ago but if there’s any truth to this, he definitely needs some work on his body LOL http://chasingthejersey.blogspot.com/2010/11/athletes-or-actors_26.html
There’s an outtake on the DVD of “I Love You Man” where the director keeps sending a PA to adjust Jason’s shirt tail as he lounges on a chair in the tux-fitting scene.
After the second adjustment, Jason says, “What, are you trying to hide my gut?”
Director (off-screen): “Yes, _trying_ to.”
I adore Jason Segal, but I wish he would take better care of himself. He’s always yo-yo dieting and he has absolutely no muscle tone. He is not going to age well if he keeps this up.