Jason Biggs says he turned down role as Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother: ‘ It’s probably my biggest regret’

Leading role on sitcom eventually went to actor Josh Radnor

Jason Biggs says he passed on the role of Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother – a move he now describes as his "biggest regret".

The American Pie star was asked about the part in a recent interview on SiriusXM.

"I was offered the role, yes," he said. "I was offered the role and – yeah – it's probably my biggest regret, on passing."

Biggs elaborated on his reasons for turning down the part, adding: "I think I was in a phase at the time – it sounds so obnoxious to say right now, but at the time it was like, 'Do I want to do TV?' I don't know that I was quite ready to go that route."

How I Met Your Mother began airing in 2005. In the mid-2000s, Biggs was in the middle of a string of film credits, including Guy X, Jersey Girl, and American Wedding, the 2003 sequel to American Pie.

Read more: How I Met Your Mother’s rapid slide into irrelevance shows what happens when TV finales go wrong

In his SiriusXM interview, Biggs said the How I Met Your Mother script was "definitely original and funny", adding: "I was right for it, but I passed on it. And then two things happened very soon thereafter: one, that show blew up. We all know what happened with that show. And two, I was like: 'I want to do TV.'"

Biggs then "spent four years trying to get a show made", during which time How I Met Your Mother was "blowing up to be this massive show".

He said he and his former American Pie co-star Alyson Hannigan, who played Lily Aldrin in How I Met Your Mother, have never discussed the topic together and he "[doesn't] know if she knows" he turned down a part in the sitcom.

The role of Ted Mosby eventually went to actor Josh Radnor, who portrayed Ted for all of the show's nine seasons.

This isn't the only instance in which Biggs and Radnor's careers crossed paths. In 2002, Radnor took over Biggs's role as Benjamin Braddock in a Broadway production of The Graduate, as Biggs had to step away temporarily for a film shoot.

Biggs did end up having a role in a high-profile TV show when he was cast as Larry Bloom in Netflix's Orange Is the New Black.