Why Jason Biggs Rejected The Lead Role In How I Met Your Mother
Jason Biggs has admitted to making some poor career decisions, including turning down the lead role in CBS's hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." In a 2021 interview with SiriusXM, Biggs revealed that he was offered the part of Ted Mosby, which ultimately went to Josh Radnor. He said, "I was offered the role and it's probably my biggest regret, you know, on passing. I think I was in a phase of, at the time — it sounds so obnoxious to say right now — but at the time it was like, 'Okay, do I want to do TV?' I don't know that I was quite ready to go that route."
In a recent appearance on Neal Brennan's podcast "Blocks," he elaborated more on his poor choices: "I would pass on some of these TV opportunities. This sounds defensive, but there was a bit of a weird stigma still around television. There were TV people, and then there were movie people. I thought I was still a movie person, so I passed on 'How I Met Your Mother' like a f****** idiot."
Biggs admits his ego played a role
Around the time "How I Met Your Mother" premiered in 2005, Biggs was landing roles in films like Woody Allen's "Anything Else" (2003) and Kevin Smith's "Jersey Girl" (2004). He explained, "Big picture, I have no regrets. Right? I'm very lucky, very fortunate. I'm still here. That's number one. But yeah, if I had to pick out something I wish I had done differently, I would've taken ['How I Met Your Mother'] for sure."
On the podcast Blocks, Biggs reflected on how, for a time, his career depended heavily on whether he was making another "American Pie" sequel.
"I was doing these other movies that weren't working," he told Neal Brennan. "So it was very much like ... I kept having 'American Pie' to sort of not only feed myself with food — because I could afford to buy really good food — but also feed my ego. ... But it started to come into focus that ... my success was becoming more dependent on just the 'American Pie' franchise."
Soon after he chose television as his fallback, thinking that it would be easier. To his surprise, work on shows like "Mad Love" did not deliver the results he expected. That changed when he joined Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" as a series regular, which became his most significant television role.