As a comedy series, How I Met Your Mother mainly has funny scenes, but there are also dramatic and sad moments that many fans remember. One of the saddest scenes even came as a complete surprise to one of the main actors.
Most viewers probably remember the funny scenes and many gags from How I Met Your Mother. Nevertheless, there were also sad or dramatic moments in the nine seasons of the series that put the friendship of the characters to a severe test.
For what is arguably the saddest scene in the series, the actor playing Marshall didn’t even want to know what it was about.
It was a special night
What scene is it about? In the 13th episode of the 6th season (Bad News
), Marshall and Lily continue to try to have a child. When it doesn’t work, Marshall gets examined by the doctor. Marshall grows increasingly fearful of being infertile, and on top of that, his parents come to visit but leave again.
In the end, Marshall learns that everything is okay with him, and he wants to call his father. However, his father doesn’t answer, and Lily gets out of a taxi in tears and tells him: His father has died. This is an event that will influence several episodes.
In an interview with GQ (source: YouTube) from 2024, the actor playing Marshall, Jason Segel, revealed that he didn’t know before the shoot what Lily would tell him. For leak reasons, the script didn’t specify exactly what Lily says to Marshall in the scene. But Jason Segel thought that was good:
It only says: “Lily tells Marshall some news.” Because I’m such a weirdo, I went to the producers and the director and said, “Hey, do me a favor. I don’t want to know the news. Don’t tell me what the news is.”
According to Segel, there were several options for what the news
was. It could have been a move, a pregnancy, or a divorce. So, he didn’t know what would be said during the shoot, allowing him to convey his own shock into the acting: It was a special night. I like stuff like this.
Segel really enjoys these moments in his job. He wants to capture
things on camera. While you need to get good at repeating such reactions for multiple takes and angles, these real emotions are magic
for him.
How important was the death of Marshall’s father? The death plunged Marshall into a crisis and was a pivotal point for his character development, which remained visible even later. However, it was also a strong moment for the group’s friendship, as the friends showed how close their friendship is even in tragic moments.
How I Met Your Mother was probably the most important series for Jason Segel that made him well-known. He plays a similarly funny but also emotional role in the comedy series “Shrinking”: A fantastic comedy series with “Marshall” from How I Met Your Mother is perfect for anyone who misses Scrubs
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