Jason Segel tries to get passion back with wife in ‘Sex Tape’

He previously starred with Cameron Diaz in director Jake Kasdan’s hit comedy “Bad Teacher,” which made over $200 million worldwide. Now, Jason Segel (“The Muppets,” TV’s “How I Met Your Mother”) reunite with Diaz and director Kasdan to bring bigger laughs in Columbia Pictures’ scandalous comedy “Sex Tape.”

In the film, Jay (Segel) and Annie (Diaz) are a married couple still very much in love, but ten years and two kids have cooled the passion. To get it back, they decide – why not? – to make a video of themselves trying out every position in The Joy of Sex in one marathon three-hour session. It seems like a great idea, until they discover that their most private video has gone public. In a panic, they begin a wild night of adventure – tracking down leads, roping in friends, duping Annie’s boss – all to reclaim their video, their reputation, their sanity, and, most importantly, their marriage.

Kasdan notes that the roles of Annie and Jay were written expressly for Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel. “Working with Cameron and Jason on `Bad Teacher’ was one of the great experiences I’ve ever had,” says Kasdan. “And I really wanted to find something else for them – I knew that they were hilarious together and I knew that, in these very different roles, we could pick up where we had left off on the first movie and do something completely new. I had a strong hunch that there would be something kind of spectacular between them, in these characters, and they surpassed all of my hopes and expectations. As actors, they are both hugely supportive teammates that really commit, and as comedians, they’re generous with each other and eager to set each other up to get a laugh. They pitch jokes for each other… And then of course, they’re both just hugely appealing, on their own and together”

Kasdan says that the parts play to each actor’s strength. “Jay is well-meaning, an optimist who loves his wife and kids and has a powerful desire to make things right, but doesn’t always know exactly how to go about that,” he says.

Diaz says she was never intimidated by the material, because she knew that she would be working with Segel. “Considering that this is a film where we had to be naked with each other, here was a partnership where I could feel so safe and at the same time, completely playful,” she says. “We could laugh and find humor in what we were doing and at the same time tell the story of these two people who really love each other in a real way. We’re not trying to be shocking just for the sake of shocking. Annie and Jay are doing some crazy stuff that they never thought they would ever do, and they’re doing it with somebody they each feel safe with. And that’s how I feel about Jason – he’s just the guy you can do that with.”

“Cameron is really game,” says Segel, “and she’s a student of comedy. One of my pet peeves is people who settle for pleasant instead of funny, and Cameron goes for it every time.”

“Jason is a double threat that we haven’t seen in a long time,” says producer Jason Blumenthal. “He’s a great actor and a phenomenal writer. A lot of writers lead with the ‘funny’ and that’s it; Jason leads with the character. And he’s an inherently relatable actor — you root for that guy.”

Opening across the Philippines on August 13, 2014, “Sex Tape” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.