." >> rose: i can see david foster wallace. don't see an actor trying to imitate david foster wallace. >> that's right. i think so. i felt like, by the time they said, "action," confident enough to feel that way. >> rose: i always wonder, too, with the talent that he had, whether there was anything anybody anybody could have done to stop him from doing who he did, to hang himself and commit suicide. >> i just don't know. i think that it's very-- most unqualified to answer the question, i should start by saying. i think when you deal with issues like this and-- we all have-- we all have zeroing degrees of these feelings, varying degrees of these feelings, but i think when you have them acutely, one of the things you're aware of is it's your job to manage your feelings moment to moment. i think it's a little bit like having a twisted ankle. even though i'm sitting here i'm aware i have to stand at the end of this interview. >> rose: and i know what it is going to feel like. >> right around the corp if i'm not careful these feeling

jason: it ended up being published after david foster wallace passed away. he came back. e was sort of a heroin davidic going on and lipsky was assigned to go cover this heroine story and when he came back, it was three months andr the book had come out in the publishing world, that's a lifetime and the story was no longer applicable. writes? today, he what does he say? jason: this movie is based on david lipsky's book which is basically a transcript of the four days. david lipsky recorded all of this on a tape recorder. beautiful memory of these four days with him. i think it meant a great deal to david lipsky. i don't want to speak for him, but i think there are things he would do differently. charlie: what else other than watching him on television helped you get david foster wallace? jason: honestly, i think there was nothing more informative than reading infinite jest. that is fiction, but i feel like it is the most honest thing i have ever read. i feel like david foster wallace is everything the one of those characters. manme, it felt more like a speaking in metaphor

he joins me now about a conversation and about david foster wallace. welcome. >> thank you. is a real dream. charlie: how so? >> i watched your show growing up and i watched your interview with david foster wallace over and over again in prep for the movie. one of the few examples i had of him during this period, which is a really important distinct period because things are going well at that moment. and you see him as sharp as you can possibly see him, but also in my opinion. all of these things are big as i prepared to play him. things go as well as you have dreamed they will go and you are confronted with the fact that you still feel the same. and it's a very scary moment. charlie: tell me more about him. writer, i suppose he's a who resonates with people so deeply. when i read it, it's the best way to tell you my experience with him. hen i read "infin it jest," it came at a particular time in my life where i had been working for 17 years in this business and varying degrees of success and some real high highs. and i found myself feeling dissatisfied. if anything was sup

david goes in with a bit of an agenda because there were addiction rumors swirling around david foster wallacedavid lipsky wants to expose him. john: has that happened to you dealing with journalists? jason: i do not these days think you would agree to an interview that is four days long. mark: bloomberg asked me to gain 40 pounds, and i did it with martinis and steak. how did you gain the weight? jason: funny you should ask. hot pockets. mark: do you love the hot pockets, or is that just an efficient way to gain weight? jason: i had fond memories of hot pockets growing up. mark: and the vanilla milkshake. jason: a lot of ice cream as well. it is fun for the first three days, and after that, you feel terrible. you just want to nap. you do not want to do anything, but it helps with the part, because there is something heavy literally and emotionally going on with david foster wallace. he has achieved everything that he dreamed of, and yet, he still feels the same. that is a terrible moment. i have had it. john: what was it like playing jesse eisenberg, the man who played david lipsky in the mov

so -- how much awareness did you have of david foster wallace before you took on this role? g comedy writer, you get the sort of short nonfiction. if you haven't read david foster wallace, there's accessible stuff. like, "consider the lobster," "a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again," which are short, sort of digestible chunks, which is a gross expression as i say it. [ light laughter ] but i never tried to tackle "infinite jest," which is 1,000-plus pages. >> seth: yes. >> and, it's a hard read. >> seth: i have to admit, because i've read his, the digestible stuff you mentioned. but i -- watching the film last night, it made me want to take another run at "infinite jest." when you got the film, did you make that effort to get through the full 1,079 pages? >> yeah it was really helpful to have a reason obviously because, [ laughter ] well, it's true. it's a difficult read. i have some really great dudes in my town who started a book club for me. they had all read it before. and they sort of took pity on me, because they saw i didn't know even where to begin. and it reall

. : david foster wallace. there are a couple of compilations.s as heny as will ever read, and that was sort of my aches areas. when i got the script, i jumped into infinite jest, which is a different east. and it ispages, funny, but it is difficult, and it is intensely personal, and in answer to the press, that is how i got into foster wallace, because i felt that the man had on themself bear -- bare page. i went to my local bookstore, and i put it on the table, and there was a girl behind who literally rolls her eyes and me, and she says, oh, god, infinite jest. hasy guy i have ever dated an unread copy on the bookshelf, and i think that is true. that is everyone's experience with infinite jest, and you tried to get through it, but it is a difficult book. there happened to be three guys, and we would read 100 pages of week and get together on sundays and talk about it, and it is one of the most beautiful, intimate experiences i have had, and the themes of the book, loneliness, and reaching this age, in your early or mid 30's when you realize i

but i'm here promoting this movie because it is so cool and it is such a good movie because david foster wallacert of this literary icon, you know, sort of rock star literary icon and you kind of get to be in his head for five days and he talks a lot about pop culture and add and being distract and fame, and it is really interesting, and i think a lot of people don't know about david foster wallace that he was really funny and and that is why it was such a good fit for jason segel in a way. >> i'm used to jason just being funny but this looks like a really, maybe and important role for him. >> yeah, i think it is, i think, you know, i mean he is a really, really funny guy but people don't know that he is a really bright guy, i think. it is sort of an interesting combination. >> it seems like you certainly love doing movies, that involve journalist because we have to say we love broadcast news, still. >> ahh, that was such a fun move toy do good my gosh where you are running trying to get those tapes in time. >> right, i necessity, i don't even know if they do that anymore. i don't think there ar

he plays the late author david foster wallace in the movie "the end of the tour." >> if we ate like this all the time what would be wrong that? >> it would be wrong like besides your teeth falling out and getting fat. >> none of the nourishment of real food but it is real pleasurable. >> it's like seductive commercial entertainment. >> but what about good seductive entertainment like the first "diehard." >> jason segel, good morning. >> good morning. >> what's wrong with you? >> how do you mean? >> the last time you were here we talked about your children's book. i asked you about your favorite roles. then i said anything big coming up for you? >> yeah. >> you said nothing about what could be the role of a lifetime. >> yeah. >> why were you holding out? >> well for "today." >> this is it. premier it here? >> yes. >> this movie is -- people are lining up to review this movie. and i could spend the entire interview reading you the great reviews. let me pick one. i think huffington post says it best it's early but let's prep his oscar campaign just to be safe. >> well

access.wgbh.org >> rose: on the next charlie rose, jason segel is here, plays the late author david foster wallacee new tour. >> the director said he saw something behind my eyes in my comedy dating back to freaks and geeks when i was a kid that was very sad and i knew what he was talking about. but to have somebody so -- to have somebody point it out so explicitly and say i see this and this is not something for you to be ashamed of, you should build around that, that's special. >> when i think of this trip, i see david and me in the front seat of his car. he wants something better than he has. i want precisely what he he has already. >> david, welcome to minneapolis! >> hi, i'm david. david and david. we only just met. he's writing a piece on the story. >> what's the story about in your mind? >> about what it's like to be the most talked about guy in the country. >> you're a nervous guy. no, i'm okay. how are you? >> i'm terrified. have to ask what is the bandana? >> it's a security blanket when i'm afraid my head is going to explode. >> if we acted like this all the time, what would be wrong wi

. >> david foster wallace is one of the most acclaimed novelists in the history of time. i was going to say of the generation. but of ever which is true. for people who tonight know about the interview back and forth with lipsky, what's going on? >> well, it's interesting. it's a very, very te tail detailed look at one interview that david lipsky conducted with david foster wallace. it's from his point of view. it's based on his book that was also about this interview, slash, road trip they went on. i think that's what makes a successful, these days biopic is when you can take a fraction or a little piece of pie of someone's life and look at them through that lens as oh potioned to a cradle to grave thing. this does it well. >> amazing. >> okay. we have a little game. word on the web. we would like to play. i love the first one. is this true. your great-grandfather once owned a trained bear that appeared with the three stooges? >> absolutely, yeah. that's true. can you make that stuff up? yeah. i have a vaudeville lineage, for sure. >> that's the bear? >> oh, my goodness.