Michael Cera Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

GQMagazine

Michael Cera breaks down his most iconic roles in film and television, including 'Superbad,' 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,' 'Arrested Development,' 'Barbie,' 'Juno,' 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist,' 'This Is The End,' 'Twin Peaks' and his newest film 'The Adults.'  Variance Films will release THE ADULTS in select theaters across the US on August 18. Watch this episode for a sneak peek at an exclusive clip.  SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; as part of the strike, union actors are not promoting their film and TV projects. This interview was conducted prior to the strike.  Director: Robby Miller Director of Photography: Zach Eisen Editor: Graham Mooney Creative Producer: Arielle Neblett Line Producer: Jen Santos Associate Producer: Chris Sechler Production Manager: James Pipitone Production Coordinator: Jamal Colvin Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins Camera Operator: Kyle LeClaire Audio Engineer: Sean Paulsen Production Assistant: Shenelle Jones Post Production Supervisor: Rachael Knight Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi Assistant Editor: Courtney Karwal

Transcript

00:00 manager got a call checking on my availability for it and he called me and he said, "I got

00:03 a call about this movie, it's the Barbie movie, Greta Gerwig's directing it, Marco

00:07 Robbi and Ryan Gosling are starring in it, and it's filming in London for four months

00:10 or something, so I told them you probably wouldn't want to do it because you probably

00:13 don't want to go to London."

00:14 And I was like, "What?

00:15 What do you mean?"

00:16 "Call them back."

00:17 Super bad.

00:18 So, I is an imaginary number.

00:19 It doesn't really exist.

00:20 If I equals...

00:32 It was sort of this long audition process.

00:34 I felt I had to keep proving myself.

00:36 I mean, nobody...

00:38 There were kind of...

00:39 I guess it felt like it was going in a good direction that they kept bringing me back,

00:42 but actually the way I found out I got the part was from Jonah.

00:45 One day I got a voicemail from Jonah saying, "Hey, we're going to do this movie together,

00:49 so we have to hang out."

00:50 Judd says, "We have to hang out."

00:51 And that was really how I found out I got the movie and that Jonah was going to be in

00:54 it, and I was so excited that it was going to be him because he hadn't sort of occurred

00:58 to me as someone who could play that part, but when I found out it was going to be him,

01:00 I really felt like it was going to be a great movie because I had done a couple table reads

01:04 with Jonah actually for other projects, and Jonah was just always astoundingly great at

01:09 them.

01:10 And he would be one of those guys sometimes that they would throw a couple parts at.

01:14 You do a handful of parts.

01:16 Every single thing that they threw at him he would make so interesting and so much more

01:21 interesting than it was.

01:22 It would just be a very flat thing, and he would bring so much character to it.

01:26 So I knew how great he was and was very excited to get to do that movie with him.

01:32 I should buy Becca alcohol?

01:33 Yeah, and we'd pimp.

01:34 That way you know she'll be drunk.

01:35 You know when you hear a girl saying, "Oh, I was so shit-faced last night.

01:39 I shouldn't have fucked that guy."

01:41 We could be that mistake.

01:42 Jonah and I are friends to this day, and I think we just are naturally friends.

01:47 I mean, it's up to you, Fogle.

01:49 This guy's either going to think, "Here's another kid with a fake ID," or, "Here's

01:52 McLovin, the 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor."

01:55 Okay?

01:56 So what's it going to be?

01:58 I am McLovin.

01:59 No, you're not.

02:00 No one's McLovin.

02:01 McLovin's never existed because that's a made-up, dumb, fucking fairytale name, you

02:06 fuck!

02:07 When we made the movie, I think it cost like $20 million to make.

02:11 And so it didn't feel like a small movie to me.

02:13 I mean, it already felt like the biggest thing that had ever happened to me, just getting

02:16 the job and getting to make it.

02:18 So it kind of felt to me like a bit of a given that it would be a big movie, or else it would

02:21 have been a big failure.

02:23 It was so popular, and I was so recognizable suddenly, and so were all of us.

02:28 And it's a strange adjustment to make, you know, but it was kind of helpful to do it

02:31 all together.

02:32 And we sort of just had our heads down, and we're going on this, like, giant press tour,

02:37 and it all just felt like this big, you know, tumble-dry cycle of craziness.

02:41 It was helpful to go through it together and figure it out as we went.

02:49 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

02:53 Can't wait to hear it when it's finished.

03:18 I was such a fan of Edgar's, from Spaced and Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

03:23 Well, Edgar actually had visited the set of Arrested Development and was friends with,

03:27 I think, with David and Jason and Will, and I didn't get a chance to meet him when he

03:30 came, and I was kind of disappointed.

03:32 But when I just, you know, when Edgar reached out, when I was even just in contact with

03:35 him, I was really excited, because I was a big fan.

03:38 I knew he was incredibly talented.

03:41 It was exciting to me.

03:42 It was sort of like too good to be true, because I also loved the graphic novels.

03:45 I just felt, like, fortunate to be the right age, the right time.

03:50 Yeah, it was a lucky thing.

04:12 It was so much fun.

04:13 It was a long shoot.

04:14 I mean, for me in particular, because other people kind of came and went, you know.

04:18 But I was there for, I think, nine months or something, which is like an enormous amount

04:22 of time to work on something.

04:23 But it was so much fun all the time, because we just had the greatest vibe with everybody.

04:27 I think that basically trickled down from Edgar and the energy that he was creating.

04:31 We all got to rehearse together and spend a lot of time together before we even started

04:34 making the movie.

04:35 By the end of the movie, I felt like, this is my world.

04:38 This is my group of friends.

04:40 It kind of feels like, oh, this is always going to be this way.

04:42 And honestly, I kind of was a little depressed when we were done, because it all just goes

04:47 away and you're like, where did everybody go?

04:51 So you kind of get used to that as you get older and as you're acting for a while.

04:53 But I was sad to lose it.

04:55 I could have kept making that forever, even though it was exhausting.

04:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:15 We were kind of doing endurance training more than anything, more than bodybuilding or something.

05:20 And fight training, choreography, which is just so unnatural to me and sometimes hurt.

05:27 There were a couple times where I got hurt.

05:29 Just even trying to do a block over and over and find the right point in space to put your

05:35 hand.

05:36 And one time I just went too low and received the full blow of this guy's kick, one of the

05:39 stuntmen who was just kicking at a point in the air.

05:42 And it's an insane feeling.

05:44 You can't believe it's happening in your hand.

05:46 You didn't know that you had these muscles in your hand.

05:48 Now they're throbbing for like a week.

05:50 Like a train hit me in the hand.

05:52 It's very weird.

05:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:57 Arrested Development.

05:59 The thing is that the year before Arrested Development, I had done a sitcom that never

06:03 aired called The Grubs, which was a Fox multicam sitcom starring Randy Quaid and Carol Kane.

06:09 It just never aired.

06:10 We shot eight episodes of it.

06:12 It was maybe sort of formulaic, like family, dysfunctional family sitcom.

06:17 It was really funny.

06:18 It was written by really funny writers.

06:20 But it was sort of situational.

06:21 And I was playing sort of a stock teenage part maybe.

06:25 And then when I got the role in Arrested Development and had this whole storyline that was really

06:30 insane of being secretly in love with my first cousin.

06:34 I should go to my mom tonight and be like, I met the cutest guy.

06:37 And then she'll see you and me totally making out.

06:40 [LAUGHTER]

06:41 But not really, right?

06:44 I just remember being really grateful as a kid to have such a strange storyline in a

06:50 show as a kid.

06:51 Because I feel like teenage roles in TV shows are sort of stock.

06:55 And you don't get too much to sink your teeth into other than being precocious or being

06:58 whatever.

06:59 So I was excited about that.

07:02 And it saw a lot of humor in it.

07:04 And I just thought it was always really so funnily handled that Jason Bateman is just

07:08 completely oblivious to it.

07:10 You stay on top of her, buddy.

07:12 Do not be afraid to ride her hard.

07:18 I was just so excited to be a part of such a great troupe of actors too.

07:21 And be around these people all the time was the greatest thing.

07:24 Do you know the last time that I made love to my wife?

07:27 No.

07:28 I'll tell you when.

07:29 No, don't.

07:30 See, nothing has ever been easy for us.

07:32 I mean, the only reason she went out with me was to piss off her boyfriend.

07:35 The only reason she ever married me was to piss off her mother.

07:39 And then, of course, we couldn't conceive.

07:40 So there was that famous ordeal.

07:41 What do you mean you couldn't conceive?

07:43 Was maybe adopted?

07:44 What?

07:45 Is she not really related to me?

07:47 Is she just some girl I know?

07:48 I was really excited when they started writing sort of these side storylines that involved

07:52 myself and David Cross.

07:54 Like having one-on-one scenes together.

07:56 Because I loved David and I worshipped David actually before ever getting to meet him or

08:00 work with him.

08:01 Because I watched Mr. Show growing up.

08:03 Where I grew up, every Friday night there was the Tom Green show and Mr. Show slotted

08:07 as an hour.

08:08 And me and my friend watched it like religiously.

08:11 So when I heard David was potentially going to be in the pilot, I was like incredibly

08:14 excited.

08:15 And then they started writing scenes with David and I.

08:17 When he becomes kind of my roommate, we're like sharing the bunk bed at some point in

08:21 one of the earlier seasons.

08:22 And those were always so much fun to film and really hard for me to keep it together.

08:25 I have to wear it all the time.

08:27 You'd never understand.

08:28 Oh please.

08:29 I'll never...

08:30 I'll never understand that you can never be nude?

08:41 I understand more than you'll never know.

08:45 Yeah, it was completely intimidating.

08:48 They were completely encouraging and supportive with me and Alia, who's my cousin on the show.

08:54 We were the two children on the show.

08:55 It just is intimidating because they're all operating on this insanely high level of intellect

09:01 and humor.

09:02 And they're so fast and they're so brilliant.

09:04 But even though it was intimidating, I feel like we just benefited enormously by getting

09:07 to be around it and soak them up and be part of it.

09:10 And just be part of the fun that they were creating.

09:16 Barbie.

09:16 It was a kind of very last minute casting.

09:20 My manager got a call checking on my availability for it.

09:23 And he called me and he said, "I got a call about this movie.

09:25 It's the Barbie movie.

09:26 Greta Gerwig's directing it.

09:27 And it's filming in London for four months or something.

09:30 So I told them you probably wouldn't want to do it because you probably don't want to

09:32 go to London."

09:33 And I was like, "What?

09:34 What do you mean?"

09:35 "Call them back."

09:36 I mean, he didn't blow it or anything.

09:39 But he's like, "I managed their expectations that you might not want to do it."

09:42 I was like, "How can I not do it?

09:45 I need to do it."

09:46 I somehow got Greta's email address, I think through a common friend of ours.

09:50 And I emailed her.

09:51 I was like, "Can I be in it?

09:52 Can I do that part?"

09:53 And she was like, "Let's get on a Zoom right now.

09:55 Here's a Zoom link.

09:56 I'll be on there for the next hour."

09:58 So she was just hanging out on the Zoom.

10:00 She's like, "Just click that link whenever you're ready."

10:02 And then we talked about it and it just all happened really fast from there.

10:05 Hi, Barbie.

10:06 Oh, hi, Alan.

10:07 There are no multiples of Alan.

10:09 He's just Alan.

10:10 Yeah, I'm confused about that.

10:13 I mean, Alan is a sad figure.

10:16 He's just a person that just doesn't really have any place in the world.

10:20 Alan is actually based on a real doll that enjoyed a very short production run, I think,

10:24 in the year 1967.

10:27 It just wasn't selling.

10:28 I think the world just didn't need for Ken to have a friend to supplement that wing of

10:34 the collection.

10:35 It was like, "Barbie is good.

10:36 We can get a lot more Barbies in here and friends of hers.

10:39 But we've got Ken and we don't need to go deeper in that direction.

10:43 He can hold it down."

10:44 So Alan kind of fell by the wayside a little bit.

10:48 Honestly, there's been so much anticipation for the movie ever since we even started working

10:54 on it.

10:55 I think it's just very infectious.

10:57 Maybe there's just something in the world right now that people are ready for a Barbie

11:00 movie.

11:01 It feels like just the right time to have a Barbie movie.

11:05 I mean, even on the set, everything was very infectious.

11:07 Everybody was wearing pink shoelaces and everything.

11:09 And it was fun.

11:12 It was a good spirit right from the start.

11:16 Juno.

11:17 What should we do?

11:21 Well, you know, I was just...

11:28 I was thinking I'd just nip it in the bud before it gets worse.

11:31 Because they were talking about in health class how pregnancy can often lead to an infant.

11:37 Typically, yeah.

11:39 That's what happens when our moms and teachers get pregnant.

11:42 When I read the script the first time, the thing that really grabs you is the rhythm

11:47 of it and the dialogue.

11:49 So you're cool with that then?

11:51 Yeah, yeah.

11:52 Wizard.

11:53 I mean, you know, just, I guess, do whatever you think you should do, you know?

11:56 It's very distinct in its voice, you know, which I think Diablo Cody has kind of made

12:01 her hallmark in a way.

12:03 But I don't think anybody knew who she was when that script came out of nowhere.

12:07 And she just kind of wrote it in like a sandwich shop or something and really carved this voice,

12:12 you know, out of nothing.

12:13 And I think actually she had a blog that she was kind of a little famous for at the time.

12:18 But yeah, reading it for the first time, that's just the thing that really knocks you out

12:22 is kind of the voice, the voice of it.

12:24 I think I'm in love with you.

12:26 You think you can be his friends?

12:30 Oh.

12:31 I mean, for real.

12:34 Because you're like the coolest person I've ever met.

12:39 And you don't even have to try, you know?

12:43 I try really hard, actually.

12:44 I remember when the movie came out, there was some, I don't know, promotional effort

12:48 that involved a bunch of guys dressed in those track suits or the running, you know, outfit

12:55 and running around Hollywood in a cluster, which was just, you know, kind of funny and

13:00 uncanny.

13:01 Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist.

13:06 The thing that most drew me to it was Pete Sollett, who directed it.

13:10 He had made this incredible movie, Raising Victor Vargas.

13:13 It was stunningly great, that movie, and just wanted to do anything with him.

13:17 And then there was an amazing script by Lorene Scafaria, who, yeah, had adapted it from a

13:23 book but did this great job with the script.

13:25 So it just felt like it was going to be good.

13:28 So that's it, Tris.

13:29 That's the breakup mix.

13:30 I have 10 songs from my broken...

13:32 That's not even real.

13:36 Can we go straight to laughing about this?

13:39 I have to pee.

13:40 Okay.

13:41 It was a month or longer of night shoots, which is, you know, strange, like, strange

13:46 biological experience, sleeping with the sun up and garbage trucks going by and life outside

13:52 your window and not sleeping very well.

13:54 But I was, I think, 19 when I made that movie and having the greatest time, because we would

13:58 wrap it at 6 a.m. and then we would go get soup at Veselka or go, you know, hang out.

14:03 Honestly, it's probably the reason I live in New York today, because I really fell in

14:06 love with the city and the feeling of just wandering through it and how alive it is and

14:10 how generous it is as far as, like, a texture of life.

14:14 There's just always something of interest happening all over the place.

14:17 Sometimes you have to guard yourself against it.

14:19 It can be a lot, but I was just so drawn to it.

14:22 I got this.

14:23 Hey.

14:24 What's up, friend?

14:25 How you doing?

14:26 Hi, I was just going to go in there.

14:27 Hey, you walked right in your dingy little bird.

14:28 I did too.

14:29 I'm sorry.

14:30 You're like a little canary in skinny jeans, huh?

14:31 Well, I was going to go in there just to look for my friend.

14:33 Oh, you got friends right here.

14:35 Me and Switzerland are here for you, baby.

14:37 Hey, thanks for coming by.

14:38 Let me ask you a question.

14:39 You ever hook up with a dog?

14:40 What?

14:41 No.

14:42 What?

14:43 Like a dog, like a pet?

14:44 No.

14:45 Don't.

14:46 It's not worth it.

14:47 I like you so much.

14:48 I'm running away.

14:49 With that era, there was like a studio independent movie genre almost where they weren't really

14:54 independent.

14:55 I mean, they were financed by studios and they cost a lot of money, but they sort of

15:01 are labeled independent.

15:02 There's sort of a flavor, like a lane that they found, a genre or something.

15:07 It seems like it's gone.

15:08 I mean, it seems like it's an era where that model doesn't work anymore, where movies being

15:12 made at that level or at that budget that aren't superhero movies or something that

15:16 will be guaranteed to have an audience.

15:20 It just seems like the sort of relic of that time.

15:24 I'm not sure if it'll come back, but like a $10 million movie or something, which used

15:28 to be kind of normal to get made, and now I don't think they're being made anymore.

15:33 I think you either make now a very small movie that we can go make with this crew or a giant

15:40 movie.

15:41 It's a little weird.

15:42 It's changed.

15:45 This is the end.

15:46 Hey, is this Coke smell funny?

15:47 Fuck, Michael.

15:48 Fuck.

15:49 Fuck.

15:50 Fuck.

15:51 Fuck.

15:52 Fuck.

15:53 Fuck.

15:54 Fuck.

15:55 Fuck.

15:56 Fuck.

15:57 Fuck.

15:58 Fuck, dude.

15:59 Fuck, dude.

16:00 I've never fucking done cocaine, dude.

16:01 What is the fucking-

16:02 Well, you did the best shit possible for your first time, because that's good fucking

16:03 stuff.

16:04 I'm not sure whose idea it was.

16:05 I guess it was Seth and Evan, and the thing that was hugely beneficial for me on that

16:08 movie was that I kind of came in late.

16:11 They had been shooting, and they'd been shooting that house party sequence in particular for

16:16 at least a week or so before I got in.

16:18 I kind of had to come in late because I was just finishing another job, so when I got

16:22 there, they filled me in on what everybody had been saying about me.

16:26 They had all been kind of describing me, creating a character really for me to step into.

16:32 They told me all that, which was hilarious, and then it was really just all there for

16:36 me.

16:37 I just have to live up to what they're saying.

16:38 I have to be weird.

16:40 That was ... Yeah.

16:44 That's not cool.

16:47 Don't touch Michael.

16:50 Michael, that's not cool, man.

16:53 Fuck up, Jason.

16:54 We're playing a game, man.

16:55 Yeah.

16:56 I mean, she definitely hit me, yeah.

16:57 But I really, I wanted that.

16:59 I think it's a lot funnier and a lot more convincing.

17:03 A fake slap just doesn't look good.

17:05 She hit me hard.

17:06 I mean, yeah, she really sent me flying, and it was great.

17:09 Now it's on film forever, this pain that I experienced.

17:16 Twin Peaks.

17:17 Look who's here.

17:18 It's Wally.

17:21 We're so excited he came in unannounced.

17:23 Good to see you again, Wally.

17:27 It's good to see you too, Sheriff Truman.

17:32 As you know, your brother, Harry S. Truman, is my godfather.

17:37 Well, the full story actually is that I met David Lynch, I don't know, a year or two earlier

17:41 because I had done a transcendental meditation course where you go to the center, they teach

17:47 you how to do it, they give you your mantra.

17:49 You go for like an hour over four days, they just kind of make sure you've got a handle

17:52 on it.

17:53 And the fourth day when I was leaving, I was with a few friends of mine, this woman just

17:57 appeared, and she was a young woman, she said, "My name is Pookie, I work with David Lynch.

18:02 Would you guys like to meditate with David sometime?"

18:03 And we were like, "What?

18:04 What do you mean?"

18:05 I mean, just unbelievable invitation.

18:11 And you know, came out of outer space.

18:13 And we were like, "That's insane."

18:15 I can't even say how profoundly important he is to me.

18:20 I got there first, I was the first one there.

18:22 I went up and met David alone for like five minutes.

18:25 And he was just so sweet.

18:27 I was like, "What is this going to be like?

18:29 I'm coming to his home.

18:30 Is he going to be annoyed?

18:31 Is he just kind of eye-rollingly allotting this time to us because someone convinced

18:36 him to?

18:37 What is the situation?"

18:38 But he was so welcoming, so warm, so happy that we were there.

18:43 It was the four of us and we sat in his art studio at the back of his house and meditated

18:47 with him and talked for a while.

18:49 A friend of mine who was there, Jocelyn, was about to make her first film and just had

18:54 questions for him like, "Do you have any advice on directing?"

18:58 And he gave great advice, very practical advice.

19:00 And that felt like it was going to be it.

19:02 I was grateful to ever have met him.

19:03 And then a few years later, got this invitation to come work with him on this show for one

19:10 day.

19:11 And I was on that set for like two hours, tops.

19:13 And that was just like the greatest experience.

19:16 I've crisscrossed this great land of ours countless times.

19:25 I hold the map of it here in my heart, next to the joyful memories of the carefree days

19:34 I spent as a young boy.

19:37 You know, it was very specifically written.

19:40 It was a monologue.

19:42 They said in the script, I think, how I was dressed and that I speak like Marlon Brando.

19:48 That was basically all that was provided to me.

19:51 And so I prepared myself and wanted to show up completely prepared, but open to whatever

19:57 he would want to adjust or do or whatever.

20:00 But we hardly talked about it on set.

20:01 Like we did it a couple times.

20:03 He came over.

20:04 Basically he gave me notes on some of the punctuations in the monologue.

20:07 Like really hit that comma or whatever.

20:11 Small things like that, shaping the rhythm of it.

20:15 And then just very supportive.

20:17 And we did it just a few times and it was done.

20:20 And I really wish I could have spent much more time working with him because it's really

20:24 a joy.

20:27 The Adults.

20:29 It is sort of a very mysterious character as written because a lot is withheld.

20:35 The ambiguity actually is sort of what the driving force of the story is.

20:39 Actually the ambiguity that's happening between the characters.

20:41 This distance, this gulf that's happening between them.

20:44 But that was, I think, what was compelling to me about reading the script actually is

20:47 everything that's living in the darkness of the characters and of their history and that

20:50 we don't know.

20:51 And the little pieces that we do see are what we have to draw our conclusions from.

20:55 I have my hand.

20:57 Yeah?

20:58 Is that good?

20:59 I think it's good.

21:00 Yeah, I have a hand.

21:01 I don't have the nuts or anything.

21:08 I played poker before doing the movie.

21:10 I used to play in a home game, a weekly home game at my friend's house.

21:14 The game still stands but I don't live in Los Angeles anymore but they still play.

21:18 I used to love playing just for the social aspect of it.

21:22 Just to be there, joke around.

21:24 And I would kind of just throw my money away and lose.

21:27 And then there are some people that were playing at a different level that seemed to have an

21:32 understanding of the game and the fundamentals of it.

21:34 And so I knew that they were playing on a different level than me but I was never really

21:37 too curious to go deeper with it until I got cast in Molly's game and then I thought maybe

21:41 I should read a book, a poker book, and see what they know that I don't know.

21:45 There's something going on that I don't know but maybe I should just get interested in

21:47 it.

21:48 And then once I did I found it so bottomlessly fascinating.

21:51 I really love poker to this day.

21:53 Love playing it.

21:54 There are times where I'm good at it and then other times where I'm just terrible and just

21:59 can't get a handle on it.

22:00 But it's fun.

22:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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