Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan were a fan-favorite couple in the popular sitcom show How I Met Your Mother, as their on-screen chemistry as Marshall Eriksen and Lily Aldrin were a major highlight of the show. The actors were outstanding as a couple and they were the best friends of Ted Mosby, who always had his back.
The two actors played their roles flawlessly and gave many memorable scenes to the popular sitcom. While the on-screen couple was immensely loved by the fans, it turns out that Jason Segel had to get rid of his smoking habit for his role because Alyson Hannigan could not stand the smell of cigarettes during their kissing scenes in the show.
Jason Segel Quits Smoking For The Kissing Scenes in How I Met Your Mother
When Jason Segel joined the NBC sitcom show in early 2000, he was a heavy smoker when he bagged the role of Marshall Eriksen, and he would be part of the main cast of the show starring alongside his on-screen wife Alyson Hannigan. However, during an interview with DigitalSpy, Hannigan stated she did not like kissing Jason Segel in the show because he was a smoker, and locking lips with the actor felt like “kissing an ashtray.”
“I cannot stand cigarette smoke. It’s like kissing an ashtray and he’s trying to be polite by having gum or mints, but it doesn’t help.”
She added that Jason Segel made a bet with her to stop him to quit smoking, but the actor could not control his habit even though money was on the line.
“When we started the pilot [for the show] he was like, ‘Get me to stop smoking, I’ll be your best friend.’ So we did this bet where he would owe me $10 every time he had a cigarette. After the first day, he owed me $200.”
The American Wedding actress added that Segel had quit smoking for a year, however, he went back to his old habit due to stress.
“So he said, ‘I’m just quitting,’ and he quit cold turkey for about a year. It was fantastic but then … he got stressed out and he started smoking again.”
Despite his smoking habit, Hannigan and Segel are close friends in real life, which adds to the chemistry in the show, Moreover, fans loved their characters in the show because they were written beautifully and their relationship was what made the fans love them so much as a couple, and some fans even believed that the co-stars have dated in real life.
Did the How I Met Your Mother Co-Stars Dated in Real Life
Since the on-screen chemistry of Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan was flawless as a couple, many fans of the show started believing that they were dating in real life as well. However, much to the fans’ disappointment, their spot-on chemistry resulted from being good friends. Since they have been working together for nine seasons, they have become good friends.
When the cast of the show appeared on The Talk to discuss the end of How I Met Your Mother, the actor praised his on-screen wife for helping him to be a better man and cleared their dating rumors.
“Aly taught me a lot about how to be a man, I gotta say. I was 25 when I took [on] the show, and I think we’ve all been through a lot personally. Aly and I have a lot of scenes together, and we spend a lot of time together, and she’s always been there to listen to me and to give me advice. [She] saw me through hard times and good times. I learned a lot from being around Alyson about the kind of person I wanted to be.”
While fans were disappointed to know that the co-stars have not dated each other, there’s no denying that they were a great couple with great comic timing, and their ability to communicate with each other made them yearn for a relationship like theirs, eventually making them as one of the most iconic couples of all time.
How I Met Your Mother can be streamed on Hulu.
Source: DigitalSpy
