Jason Segel left Hollywood to live in a “small country town” at the height of his success

These days, actor Jason Segel is just as likely to walk through a row of orange trees in overalls as he is to attend a Hollywood premiere in an Armani suit.

The 44-year-old How I Met Your Mother star opened up this week about why he packed up and moved to a “small country town” at the height of his success in the industry.

“I had a really great 20s. I had 'How I Met Your Mother' and I've also written a number of successful and well-performing films. But I haven't been doing a lot of in-person check-ins because I… “It's been so busy,” Segel told Hoda Kotb on the “Today” show Wednesday.

“You know, I worked almost every day of the year, worked on 'How I Met Your Mother,' wrote a movie that year and then shot it during the break and then went back to 'How I Met Your Mother.' And I realized that art should be a reflection of what you're going through, and I haven't actually been through much in life.

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Jason Segel moved to a small town after How I Met Your Mother ended. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

Segel said he realized he was 33 years old and still writing Fear of Girls films. Do you know what i mean? I'm like a grown man. I am a successful grown man. “I'm not afraid of girls anymore, so I moved from LA to a small country town and started asking myself questions like, 'What do you actually like? Performers and artists?'”

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He said he started writing different stories and joked that “it's like the end of an M. Night Shyamalan movie where everything makes sense” that his new show, “Shrinking,” starring Harrison Ford, in in which he plays a grieving therapist, “is the culmination of, 'Oh, I'm interested in dramatic themes and exploring those things, and I'm good at comedy too. How do I reconcile this?'”

Jason Segel with the cast of “How I Met Your Mother.” (NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Segel elaborated on the “small farming town” he moved to in a 2022 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, in which he joked that he “has a lot of oranges, and I have a lot of overalls,” adding that he owns about 21 hectares of orange groves.

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While he said he misses the city “sometimes,” “I really enjoy being in a small town. Like, I go to the high school football games and stuff and eat a sandwich, which I didn't know if you could do without kids,” but you can.

“And I go to the Christmas play in town, wait outside and ask the little kids to sign my playbill,” he added. “It's really fun. I love it.”

Harrison Ford stars alongside Jason Segel in Shrinking. (Monica Schipper/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)

When Kimmel asked if kids were “losing their minds” over a famous star asking for an autograph, he joked, “They don't know who I am.”

Segel said he moved there when “How I Met Your Mother” ended about 10 years ago. “I thought, 'Oh, I can do whatever I want now and I'm going to live in this city. And I never left.”

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He said he was always a little afraid to walk around in LA because of the paparazzi, “and there I really like to walk around like Big Bird,” he joked, waving exaggeratedly. “'Hey, everyone!' And to the kids I'm like the Muppet guy and to the adults I'm like the guy from “Sarah Marshall.” It’s a great mix.”