Q&A: Michael Cera

Michael Cera in "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" (Credit: Sony)

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Last year’s sleeper hits “Superbad” and “Juno” instantly made Michael Cera one of Hollywood’s most promising next generation comedians. Not that the success has gone to his head.

At the tender age of 20, he’s one of the least Hollywood actors around: he’s never in the tabloids, only throws temper tantrums if they’ve been scripted, took his parents as his date to the premiere party for his latest film “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” and is notoriously shy and soft-spoken.

All of that, plus his adorably dorky breakthrough work as George Michael Bluth on “Arrested Development,” has turned the Canadian-native into a sex symbol for the era of geek chic. Proof that, yes, sometimes nice guys can finish first.

Metromix spoke with Cera about “Nick and Norah,” the chances we’ll see George Michael (not the singer-songwriter) on the big screen and why’d he be nervous about making his own movie.

You’ve been quoted saying that you didn’t think there would be much interest in an “Arrested Development” movie, but there are still constant rumors that it will get made. What’s the status now?
People have asked me about a movie since the show was cancelled, but I don’t know. I think people will ask about it for a long time. Whatever the case, nothing I say will dictate anything.

But if it does get made, will you be in it?
It would depend on a lot of things. It’s pretty hypothetical. I know there’s a page for the movie on IMDb, which is strange because I know it’s definitely not that real.

The TV-to-movie transition worked for “Sex and the City,” another show with a loyal following that was huge on DVD. Do you think that helps in any way?
I never know how many people were aware of “Arrested Development.” It’s hard to have any kind of indication of what would happen with a movie. The show was so self-referential. If people aren’t familiar with it already, the movie might be difficult to understand.

That’s true. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” is a pretty simple love story and you have great chemistry with your co-star Kat Dennings. Did you do anything special to create that?
We all hung out before shooting, so we weren’t total strangers. We played poker, played PS3, watched movies, talked.

Nick makes mix CDs and the movie has a fresh soundtrack free of the usual teen movie suspects. Did you get to help pick any of the music?
Actually, I wasn’t too aware of most of them, except for Bishop Allen and Mark Mothersbaugh. I’m not too big of an active music listener.

But you play the guitar in the movie and you’re also in a real-life band called the Long Goodbye.
No, it’s not really a band. We just have this MySpace page that we put songs on occasionally. We never played live or anything. 

So playing live with Nick’s band the Jerk Offs in the movie was your first time rocking out in front of an audience?
I’ve done open mics and stuff, but this was kinda different, Because they’re, like, extras and they have to pretend to like it (laughing). It’s strange.

Let’s talk about your online shorts. Is there anything different about doing comedy for the Internet?
I’ve never really done anything that I thought was gonna be just for the Internet. There was a video that my friend put on YouTube that he and I made for a live comedy show that I was hosting. The “Knocked Up” [fake] audition was just for the DVD. And I did something with Zach Galifianakis that people think was made for [the Internet], but it was actually a pilot for this sketch comedy show that just didn’t get picked up.

Well, what about “Clark and Michael,” about the misadventures of two guys trying to sell a show in Hollywood.
That was made specifically for CBS.com. But when we wrote it, we were trying to get it on Adult Swim. We wanted it to be on TV, but had an opportunity to make it for this Web site. So we took advantage of that.

Are we going to see any more of that show?
Clark [Duke]’s working really hard right now on other things. He’s doing a series and movies. We just wrote these episodes in this very loose arc and kinda concluded it.

You wrote your own material for “Clark and Michael” and you’ve worked with Judd Apatow who produces scripts written by actor friends like Seth Rogen and Jason Segel. Do you have any ambitions to make a movie that you’ve written or directed?
I think too many people would see it.

And that would freak you out?
When you’re making a movie it’s so personal. You’re on this set with fifty people and it just feels like you’re a group. And then it becomes something else where, I don’t know, a very different thing when it comes out. I feel like if I wrote a movie it would be too open for people to feel like they can judge it.

So you’d prefer…
If it never came out.