IU alumna serenades Jason Segel

An August graduation threw Chelsea Gill into the real world without a determined acting job, without her twin sister and with family troubles on her mind. It was a hard transition made even more difficult by rooting herself in one of the busiest cities in the nation­ — Chicago.

“To not think about it for, like, an hour every day, I’d watch a Jason Segel movie,” Gill said.

Gill loves every part Segel’s played: his lead roles in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “I Love You, Man” and “The Muppets,” and even his small role in “Knocked Up.” So Sunday, Jan. 1, she picked up her guitar to distract herself with something else Segel-related.

In the matter of half an hour, Gill wrote a song that captured her idol’s attention and scored her a date with a man she’d seen every day but never met.

“When I was young, I was told to follow my dreams / no matter how big or obscure they seem,” the song starts. “So here it goes, got a lot to prove / Can’t stop now, nothing to lose.

“Have drinks with me / Oh Mr. Segel can’t you see, I’m trying real hard to impress / I think you’re hot, but I digress.”

Gill played the song for her roommates, who told her to put it on YouTube. Gill didn’t have an account. She didn’t follow YouTube sensations; she couldn’t even tell you what many of them were. But in less than a week, Gill’s video received nearly 180,000 hits.  
“From what I assume, he saw it on Twitter,” Gill said. “Over 100 people tweeted it to him, and only 30 of them were my friends.”

Segel responded two days after Gill posted it.

“My favorite thing, maybe ever. I am in awe. Response on the way,” he tweeted.

“I’m gonna need a couple days on this one,” Segel also tweeted.

A couple days was all it took. Segel’s publicist contacted Gill, and Saturday, Segel invited her to the Chicago Film Critics Awards that night.

“First we went for drinks and talked, and it was me and my sister and him,” Gill said. “Then we went to the award show together. He’s a huge fan of the song.”

Gill said she knew Segel’s response was a personal gesture because there were no cameras following them, and everything she thought he would come across as was true. Though Gill never planned on becoming a YouTube hit, she said the craziness surrounding the video has been worth it.

“The fact that in less than a week, I met one of my idols, he had a drink with me and took the time out of his crazy, hectic schedule, I’m over the moon right now,” Gill said. “I’m probably the luckiest person in the world.”