Trivia / Forgetting Sarah Marshall

• Actor-Inspired Heroism: Kristen Bell specifically wanted to find the humanity in Sarah, while acknowledging that she was a bad person, but also wanted to give the audience a way to still root for her.
• The Cast Showoff: Peter was written as a composer in order to show off Jason Segel's songwriting and singing abilities. Russell Brand sings too.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Mila Kunis attended a table read with various actors when they were working out how the script sounded read aloud, and was later offered the role of Rachel based on that.
• Deleted Scene: Russell Brand revealed in one of his stand-up specials that there were meant to be scenes with Aldous horse-back riding and surfing, but he was so terrible at both the footage was deemed unusable.
  "Some of you might be saying 'Russell, I saw that film and I don't remember a horse-riding scene.' Yeah, there's a reason for that!"
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Latin America, the movie was called ¿Cómo sobrevivir a mi ex? ("How to survive my ex?").
  • The movie's French title Sans Sarah, rien ne va ("Without Sarah nothing's fine").
  • The movie's Russian title is V prolete ("Missed his chance").
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • An unintentional example; Kristen Bell found out Veronica Mars had been cancelled the day before she shot the scene where Sarah found out her show was cancelled.
  • Also the whole scene where Jason Segel and Russell Brand poke fun at the stupid horror movie premise of killer cellphones, not knowing that Bell (who's sitting right next to them) actually starred in the real-world horror movie Pulse which revolves around exactly that premise not a year before.
• Life Imitates Art: Part of the story is Jason Segel’s character Peter working on a puppet based comedy/musical and, at one point, he sings The Muppet Show theme tune. In 2011 he would go on to write and star in The Muppets (2011) movie.
• Reality Subtext: Jason Segel revealed in interviews that the Dracula puppet musical Peter is writing in the movie is, in fact, based on a real Dracula musical which he began writing in his youth, and the song he sings in the karaoke bar is a real song from that musical. He claims to have played a demo tape for Judd Apatow, whose only response was "You can never let anyone hear this tape." Listen for yourselves. The anecdote starts at 13:30.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: Mila Kunis signed on for the chance to visit Hawaii.
• What Could Have Been: The role of Aldous Snow was written with Charlie Hunnam in mind. Hugh Grant was also considered.
• Write What You Know: The script is a mish-mash of different break-ups Jason Segel had over the years, including with Linda Cardellini. While it was initially assumed the story was solely about Cardellini, he later confirmed that wasn't the case: "People are bound to talk, but she was a great girlfriend."
• Written by Cast Member: Jason Segel is the film's screenwriter.
• Written-In Infirmity: Kristen Bell injured her knee while filming a horse scene, which didn't make the final cut. In scenes towards the end of the movie, she walks with a slight limp.

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