14 years later, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is still a hit comedy. Produced by Judd Apatow, the movie was pretty revolutionary when it first came out in 2008. It's a rewatchable raunch-com that's rare for featuring an emotional male lead character played by Jason Segel. Then there's Russell Brand's scene-stealing character which most people remember him for (aside from being Katy Perry's ex-husband). Some say the role was made with the actor in mind while others think he created the character himself. Here's the true story behind Brand's journey into playing the English rocker, Aldous Snow.
How Did Russell Brand Land His Role In 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'?
Forgetting Sarah Marshall was Brand's Hollywood film debut. But back then, he was already famous in Britain. When asked how he ended up auditioning for the film, Brand described it using colorful terms. "I thought it was wonderful. I think that in an audition situation one must acknowledge that there's a necessity for a certain amount of foreplay before launching into fully blown auditions," he told Female. "I think of it as a template for life. You can't immediately be taught, erect and buoyant, spraying effluvium willy-nilly. First of all, I must be courteous and gracious and polite."
He also talked about his fame back in England at the time. "I'm a very successful person. Look at all these things I've been able to get. I bought these myself with money. In England, yeah, I'm a successful comedian. It's really good. I'm able to have this haircut and no one questions this anymore," he said, adding a comparison of his popularity to Hugh Grant. "Well, it's a much more tabloid based fame than that," he said of his stardom. "Unless, of course, Hugh Grant has been sleeping with prostitutes then, of course, we're about even."
When asked what his big scandal would be, he answered: "Oh, Christ. Womanizing and fluzzying about. Do you know that some newspapers in the United Kingdom have the absolute gall to send women to sleep with me after standup comedy shows and then they write about it in the newspapers? Fortunately, the grammar is appalling because the women are ultimately hussies and shouldn't be allowed to pick up a pen."
How Did Russell Brand Create His Character In 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'?
Initially, Brand wanted his character to be a writer, not a rocker. "Well, I'm sort of like any author and authors can be quite extreme characters like Hemingway, a writer, who was certainly no wallflower or Jean-Genee," he revealed. "So within literature there are people that are quite decadent and hedonistic, aren't there? Henry Miller. So I thought that I would just play him like he was a Henry Miller kind of sexy author. Then they thought that it would be easier to just cast him as a rock star rather than trying to justify a man who writes books for a living having that amount of eyeliner on."
He added that he improvised almost the whole time. "Almost entirely. We were out there for two weeks, but they taught me how to horse ride and they taught me how to surf. We had two weeks of workshopping and writing up the script and they were incredibly generous and gave me an awful lot of freedom," he said of his improv. "I must say that it's great. It's so nuanced and brilliant. Jason wrote a wonderful story and a wonderful script and still within that they allowed for that ethos and allowed for me to improvise lines. That was brilliant and liberating for me because as a standup comedian I'm happier when I'm sort of writing my own material and stuff. So it was incredibly liberating and fulfilling. I improvised loads and loads."
Was Russell Brand Close With The 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' Cast?
It's not clear if Brand remained close friends with the cast through the years. But he had the nicest things to say about Segel and Kristen Bell. "He's a brilliant and generous actor. He's very skillful and funny and always looking for the laugh, but also good with subtle stuff," he said of Segel. "He works out the rhythm of a performer very quickly and gives you space to develop that. He's a really very skillful actor and a lovely bloke. I loved him."
He also had a great time working with Bell. "But she's really good. They're all really talented and good," Brand said of her. "I'm a standup comic, normally and I do my own TVshow and so I'm not really used to interacting with other people and so I work in a quite insular way and so to work with these people and to find these people good was exciting. It was really exciting. I loved it."
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