Jason Segel Talks About His Decision to Move Out of LA

Jason Segel attends the 2024 Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Jan. 14, 2024. Presley Ann/Getty Images for SeeHer

Actor Jason Segel reached peaked stardom during his nine-season run on the hit sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” but despite his success, he decided to leave Hollywood behind and opt for a more quiet lifestyle.

During an interview on the “Today” show Oct. 16, the 44-year-old explained why he chose to move out of Los Angeles and head northwest for Ojai, California.

“I was having a really roaring twenties ... I had ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and I was also writing a bunch of movies that were successful and doing well,” he told host Hoda Kotb.

The CBS show aired from 2005 to 2014 and during that time Segel landed a number of roles in hit films like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “I Love You, Man.”

However, Segel admits he wasn’t doing a lot of “personal check-ins” because of how busy and hectic life got.

“I realized that art is supposed to be a reflection of what you’re going through, and I actually wasn’t going through much life-wise. So at 33 years old, I’m like, ‘Why am I still writing movies about being afraid of girls?’”

In hopes of finding fulfillment in his craft, Segel decided to leave the big city after his show wrapped and began some soul-searching.

“I moved to a little country town,“ he shared. ”I started to ask myself questions like, ‘What do you actually like? What are you actually thinking about right now? Who do you want to be as a performer and an artist?’”

In turn, his move ended up influencing future projects including his most recent dramatic comedy series “Shrinking,” which he stars in alongside Harrison Ford.

“‘Shrinking’ is the culmination of, ‘Oh, I care about dramatic themes and exploring those things, and I’m also good at comedy,'” he said.

Segel now resides in a small stone home in the middle of an orange grove and found that now living in the “middle of nowhere” he was able to get out of his own head.

“Being there had the really interesting side-effect of realizing—after six weeks time, mind you—that, ‘Oh, my gosh. I finally feel calm,’” Segel told the Los Angeles times in 2023.

“And it occurred to me that when you’re doing this job and living in L.A., you’re never leaving campus.”

Now a decade later, when asked if his move redefined his criteria for success, Segel says he is content with where he is at.

“It’s not moment-to-moment, unbridled joy,” he told the outlet, “but it’s like feeling good and satisfied and enough. That’s a big one. ‘It’s enough.’”

Segel isn’t the only famous face in Hollywood leaving the glitz and glamour behind, as many other celebrities have made the move in recent years in search of peace and time away from the spotlight.

Actors Ian Somerhalder and his wife Nikki Reed also moved their family north out of LA for life on a farm and ultimately agree the endeavor has been much more gratifying.

Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Biel and her husband Justin Timberlake, Sylvester Stallone, Candace Cameron Bure, and many others have also joined suit.