Jason Segel Interview For ‘Bad Teacher’

Some teachers just don’t give an F. For example, there’s Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz). She’s foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can’t wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. When she’s dumped by her fiancé, she sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute (Justin Timberlake) – competing for his affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy (Lucy Punch). When Elizabeth also finds herself fighting off the advances of a sarcastic, irreverent gym teacher, Russell Gettis (Jason Segel), the consequences of her wild and outrageous schemes give her students, her co-workers, and even herself an education like no other. Check out what Jason Segel had to say about the film below. ‘Bad Teacher’ is out now in UK cinemas and June 24th in the US.

Your character is kind of the voice of reason in this.

Jason Segel: Yeah, it was really fun, to some extent I’m the straight man. And also I think in a small way I’m the eyes of the audience a little bit. I’m the one who pops in and calls her on her BS – which I think is what the audience kind of wants to do at points. “What are you doing?!“ And I’m the character who gets to voice that opinion, so that was really fun. I got to come in and just kind of observe and try to get a couple of zingers in there. That was kind of my goal and to just be natural. It was easy to act against Cameron and the entire cast.

Do you have any memorable teachers, not necessarily a bad one but somebody who really stands out?

Jason Segel: I would like to give a shout out to a teacher called Ted Walsh, who was my high school drama coach. He really changed my life. Right before I left and started working with Jake Kasdan on Freaks and Geeks…….wow, 13 or 14 years ago now – that’s crazy! He said to me, “Don’t ever forget the best actor in the world is out there stuck doing dinner theatre somewhere, so don’t ever get arrogant about thinking you’re entitled to this.” It stayed with me for this whole time.

It must have been fun seeing Cameron take on a role like this?

Jason Segal: Cameron is super super funny. You shouldn’t be that attractive and be as talented and as funny as she is! I get why she’s super super famous, I totally get it. It’s ironic seeing Cameron in this role because she often plays such a nice girl, the women next door. It’s refreshing seeing a women get this sort of role. She really conquered it.

How was it finding the chemistry to make this movie work?

Jason Segel: For me, when you’re involved in a cast like this there’s kind of a mutual admiration society element to it, especially when you’re doing your off-camera. You’re sitting back in awe watching great comedians do their thing. That’s always when I feel the luckiest and when I feel like I’ve totally tricked everyone. You are sitting around with everyone who are actually amazing at the thing you’ve professed to do. It’s very humbling.