Freaks and Geeks star Jason Segel remembers duking it out with James Franco, resulting in the character being split into two.
Maybe Joan Jett doesn’t give a damn about her reputation, but Jason Segel’s was good enough that he basically had his Freaks and Geeks character written for him…and it was unlinked from another.
Like pretty much everybody that was about to enter William McKinley High School in 1999 (or 1980 if we’re putting ourselves in Freaks and Geeks), Jason Segel was a complete nobody. But he was trying to make it in the business, and after landing the right contacts and some minor gigs, he got the chance to audition for what would become one of the best cult classic shows ever.
Speaking with GQ, Jason Segel remembered him vying for a key role on Freaks and Geeks, only to find the powers that be at a standstill. “The Freaks and Geeks script came across, and I read it and I loved it. And I showed up totally blind and cold. I didn’t know anyone. And Judd [Apatow] and Paul Feig were there and they had me improv a little bit and I had the naivety of youth. I wasn’t scared at that point…Next thing I knew, I was brought in for a callback with James Franco and we were – as far as we knew – competing for the same part. Because at the time, there was only one of those characters. Daniel and Nick were just one character at the time. So we went in and we auditioned against each other. They liked us both and they split the part, and he became the cool one, and I became the goofy one.”
That’s one heck of a compliment to both Jason Segel and James Franco, although it’s strange to think of drummer/Rush aficionado Nick Andopolis and habitual toker/class skipper Daniel Desario sharing the same DNA outside of being freaks (as opposed to geeks).
As Freaks and Geeks – which marked its 25h anniversary this year – only lasted one season, we never got a chance to see what became of the characters. And since we’ll likely – and, if we’re being honest, hopefully – never getting a reboot, Segel can only imagine what became of Nick. “The sad answer to where I think Nick is now…in my mind, he gets sent off to war and doesn’t make it. That was always the threat looming for Nick…” Was kind of hoping he would have gone full Neil Peart in a cover band, but whatever you think, Jason!
Which character stands out the most for you on Freaks and Geeks?
