QUE CERA, CERA
Canadian actor seems to live by the mantra: Whatever will be, will be
As Michael Cera surveys the path ahead, the 35-year-old actor is growing a bit concerned about the possibility he'll slip up and take a tumble.
It's a reasonable worry, since only some of the sidewalks have been cleared on this icy January morning in Brooklyn. So Cera — initially unrecognizable in a hat, scarf and heavy coat, as well as a medical mask he's wearing for warmth — promptly plots a roundabout route through his neighbourhood that'll dodge any slick surfaces. Considering Cera is heading to Germany in March to start shooting Wes Anderson's next film, it's probably best for him to avoid showing up on set with an unexpected cast on his arm or brace on his knee.
Plus, he's not just looking out for himself nowadays. Once he's found refuge from the blistering cold at a chic diner, Cera stirs granola into his Greek yogurt, chuckles and shares a realization: “This is almost exactly what I made my son for breakfast.”
After breaking into Hollywood as a child actor on the sitcom Arrested Development and breaking out on the big screen in many a coming-of-age comedy, Cera has most definitely grown up. And art is beginning to imitate life: In addition to raising two sons — a baby and a two-year-old — with his wife, Nadine, he faced fatherhood onscreen when shooting season 2 of Life & Beth, which streams on Disney+.
Cera plays Long Island farmer John, the love interest of Amy Schumer's Beth, in the offbeat comedy loosely based on Schumer's romance with her husband, chef Chris Fischer. Season 1 planted the seeds of the couple's courtship, and that relationship grows deeper in the new episodes as marriage,
kids and the concurring conflicts come to the forefront, with both characters unpacking childhood traumas and John processing his neurodivergence.
The series is just part of a recent resurgence for Cera, who took time off during the pandemic but recently stormed back into the cultural consciousness. Over the past year, he played an opportunistic marketing executive in the surrealist indie film Dream Scenario; headlined the family dramedy The Adults; tackled artificial intelligence in the tech dystopian shows Black Mirror and Command Z; slyly anchored a viral marketing campaign for Cerave; and swiped scenes as the one-of-a-kind wallflower Allan in Barbie.
“He's not afraid to kind of go quiet for a little bit and wait till things feel right to him,” Schumer says. “He really, really trusts his instincts. And I feel like the love for him is always Cera's inherent earnestness is evident in an interview over breakfast with the Brampton, Ont., native, who is contemplative and inquisitive while considering his career, politely asking nearly as many questions as he answers. Every now and then, you're reminded that this unassuming Canadian has led an extraordinary life. But Cera, who doesn't have a smartphone and avoids social media, still comes across as open, amiable and devoid of Hollywood hubris.
The actor learned awhile ago — after the 2007 releases of Superbad and Juno and before filming 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — that he didn't have a particular affinity for fame. As Superbad became a generation's high school comedy of choice and the Oscar-winning Juno birthed its own fervent fandom, the occasional recognition he enjoyed during Arrested Development's initial run gave way to fullon celebrity. “I felt like I went out surfing and went into a tidal wave,” he recalls. “I wasn't prepared for that — I just wanted to do some body surfing.”
So Cera, who had become the industry's go-to choice for depicting tongue-tied teens and stunted 20-somethings, took a step back in hopes of slowing his dash into stardom. He turned down a Saturday Night Live hosting gig, much to his representatives' alarm, and veered away from franchise films that would've further elevated his visibility. In between the movies Cera did make, he created content for his Youtube channel and recorded music.
“I was just so young, and it took me awhile to really know myself well enough to know how to handle things and where my boundaries could be,” he says.
That shift can be seen in Cera's eclectic body of work, which has since been populated by niche independent films (Magic Magic, Tyrel, Gloria Bell), fleeting turns in buzzier projects (This Is the End, Molly's Game, Twin Peaks) and animation voice-over performances (The Lego Batman Movie, Paws of Fury, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off ). Elaborating on his role-picking instincts with knowing self-deprecation, Cera says he's “never been one to take a job — and this has probably not been smart — just based on financial reasons.”
When Cera signed on for his supporting part in Barbie, he couldn't have expected the movie to become a $1.4-billion box office behemoth. But this time around, he wasn't a lead actor at the centre of a pop culture maelstrom. And it helped that the curly-haired, typically bearded Cera is clean shaved with a stiffly styled hairdo in Barbie, altering his appearance enough that his young nephew couldn't even spot him. “At the end of the movie, he started crying,” Cera says. “He was like, `I thought we were going to see Uncle Michael.'”
Although Cera is more comfortable in the public eye as a 30-something, he has gained a reputation for being guarded about his personal life. Asked about that perception, he expresses bemusement and retorts, “Do you find me private?”
Reflecting on his decision to not publicly announce his first son's birth — the news got out when Schumer mentioned it offhand in an interview — he marvels at his own naiveté about others' curiosity. “It would never occur to me that anybody who doesn't know me would care that I had a kid,” Cera says through embarrassed laughter. “I mean, maybe a lot of people are quite public, quite into sharing, and I just don't engage with social media in that way. Maybe that's why I seem private? But then I will say, honestly, I do also value not having my personal life being overly taken from me.”