An interview with Jason Segel, who plays enigmatic author David Foster Wallace in the new film, ‘The End of the Tour’

  • By Brian Miller Seattle Weekly
  • Friday, August 7, 2015 1:11pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

It’s fair to say that no film critic wants to assess David Foster Wallace, who died by suicide in 2008. Indeed, his books are so complex and his shadow so long that few literary critics dare to try. Better to take the limited approach of the recently released film, “The End of the Tour,” based on journalist David Lipsky’s five-day interview with Wallace in 1996, following the publication of “Infinite Jest.”

What does that book mean? The jealous writer Lipsky — played by Jesse Eisenberg in this road movie — is too smart to venture a guess; or rather, he doesn’t want to risk looking foolish by guessing wrong.

Sitting in a Seattle hotel bar last month, Jason Segel (cast as Wallace) and I consider Wallace as a movie character. We’re not talking so much about the actual man as about a guarded Midwestern soul facing a pesky New York interrogator trying to peck away at the facade of presumed genius.

Even with the Internet relatively new, Wallace is already very protective of his privacy at the movie’s outset in wintry Indiana. Says Segel, “I think that his relation to technology specifically is really interesting, because he could see that these things that are meant to connect us are going to dehumanize things.”

In “Infinite Jest,” Segel cites a prescient passage about video chatting — much like Skype or iChat today. “Everybody is so excited, and then they are confronted with the reality that they could no longer do other things while you had a phone call, because now they could see their face. People could no longer clip their nails or make their dinner. And so people make dioramas of their living rooms with little action figures of themselves looking into the camera to fake attention. And it ends with them putting a piece of tape over the camera and going back to normal phone conversations. And that is a parody of what actually happened. There were a lot of things like that … that ended up being dead-on.”

The mass-mediated image has a terrible allure for Wallace, a TV junkie who can’t allow a set in his home. “I think it’s like any addiction,” says Segel. “I think it’s relief. I think it serves the same function that touching the doorknob does for someone with OCD. I think it’s a form of checking out.”

Is a little escape-from-self a bad thing?

“Well, it’s the dosage,” replies Segel. “I don’t see the problem with people having a few beers on Saturday night, but …” He lets the thought trail off, since Lipsky in the movie is investigating rumors of Wallace’s heroin and alcohol abuse — all the stereotypical trappings of the tortured-genius story template that Lipsky may or may not be writing (a template Wallace despises for being cliché).

Wallace in ’96 is becoming a celebrity who knows the danger of being stereotyped by his popular image. People like Lipsky, and his readers, are beginning to treat him with awe. There’s a distancing effect that Segel can relate to today.

“When people come up and say, ‘Can I take a picture with you?’ my thing is, in today’s world, I don’t know where that picture is going,” Segel says. “So I offer what I think is a better alternative. I say, ‘I’d rather not take a picture, but can I shake your hand?’ That is a human connection.”

There’s something of the same contest (or negotiation) in the movie. Lipsky wants to be liked and respected by Wallace, who’s only three years older but far more successful. He could be writing a hatchet job, or he might secretly want to be friends. Eisenberg, as always, is smart about tipping his character’s intentions.

(For the record, I saw and recommend the movie, directed by James Ponsoldt of “Smashed and The Spectacular Now,” written by playwright Donald Margulies.)

How press-savvy or press-shy is Wallace here? “I think that Wallace had the benefit, if that’s what you want to call it, of having done Lipsky’s job,” says Segel.

“He had done profiles on people, so he was acutely aware of the fact that Lipsky had the ability to go and shape the story any way he chooses. As somebody who is likely the biggest brain in the room, (he’s) able to sniff out that Lipsky has an agenda.”

In the movie, the wary Wallace can certainly sense Lipsky’s brew of resentment, envy, and hero worship, says Segel.

“I zeroed in on what for me what was a helpful view of the dynamic, which is a guy talking to his younger self. A guy who could see himself 10 years earlier in Lipsky. Because it allowed me … to have tremendous empathy for this younger self, but it also gave me some freedom to yell at him. You know, to hate him. Like, man, get your head out of your ass!”

“The End of the Tour”

????

Rating: R, strong language including some sexual references

Showing: SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Sundance Cinemas Seattle

Director: James Ponsoldt

Cast: Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Chlumsky

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.