Jason Segel Auditioned Against James Franco For ‘Freaks & Geeks’ But Producers “Liked Us Both” And “Split The Part”

deadline.com:

Although Freaks & Geeks only got one season, its female protagonist was blessed with two love interests, thanks to a couple of talented young actors.

Jason Segel recently recalled the audition process for the Paul Feig-created NBC teen dramedy, which ran from 1999 to 2000 with EP Judd Apatow, featuring himself as aimless drummer Nick Andopolis, the eventual boyfriend of Linda Cardellini‘s overachiever Lindsay Weir. “I was brought in for a callback with James Franco, and we were, as far as we knew, competing for the same part, because at the time, there was only one of those characters,” he told GQ. “Daniel and Nick were just one character at the time.

So we went in and we auditioned against each other. They liked us both, and they split the part, and he became the cool one, and I became the goofy one.” Segel added, “I always felt like Nick was a lot like me.

He was a sweet guy who just couldn’t quite get it right.” Franco was cast as the heartbreaking bad boy Daniel Desario, with Busy Philipps, Seth Rogen, John Francis Daley, Samm Levine and Martin Starr rounding out the cast of titular outsiders.