Past the age of ten or so, most of us aren’t super comfortable when it comes to nudity and our parents, nor are our parents super comfortable with nudity and us. There shouldn’t be anything weird about it, but for most of us, there just is, as Jason Segal’s mother proved when she watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall and started crying.
The issue was apparently less that his mother couldn’t handle the nudity and more that she was completely and utterly shocked by it. Segal didn’t give her any kind of heads up; so, she was sitting there, minding her own business and all the sudden he was naked on screen and she couldn’t handle it, nor did she think any of her friends or family members would be able to handle it either. So, like any good mom, she decided to get on the horn and save everyone the embarrassment she felt.
Here’s the email she shot out to everyone she knew who may have planned on going, as per Vanity Fair…
"I would like to inform you all that Jason has chosen to do full-frontal nudity, however, it is not gratuitous and is essential to the plot."
I’m not sure I would call Jason Segal’s penis "essential to the plot", but it’s not gratuitous. It allows for several running gags, and it makes a good point about the weird line between being unhappy, yet completely comfortable with someone. In that way, it’s ridiculously honest, and it should have been included. But the movie still would have been the movie if he were shown from the side. It would just be a little less funny and a little less real.
As for Segal’s mom, I appreciate her zest for life and her emotional aggressiveness. For her sake, I hope the nudity didn’t take her too far out of Forgetting Sarah Marshall because her son offered a major contribution to one of the best romantic comedies of all-time. She should be very proud of him (and his penis).
As for Segal moving forward, you can check him out in Sex Tape opposite Cameron Diaz. You would think that would involve some nudity, but I’m not really sure that’s going to be the case. We’ll just have to wait and see, though for Mrs. Segal’s sake, I truly hope her son reached out and at least gave her a heads up this time around. I’m not sure her nerves could take another nudity-filled surprise.
