This is actually the first time I’ve gotten Michael Cera by himself. He’s usually paired with his costars, be it Ellen Page for Juno or McLovin for Superbad. Perhaps it’s because he’s become such a huge star, we need all the time we can get for Youth in Revolt. Or maybe because he plays a dual role, we need his undivided attention. Anyway, here’s a roundtable interview with Michael Cera.
Q: After all these years and all these movies, do you feel like you’ve established a Michael Cera brand of comedy?
Michael Cera: No. I don’t feel like that. I’ve just had scripts that I really like come my way that I was lucky to be attached to.
Q: But, there is something you do that’s not what everyone else does.
Michael Cera: I guess. It’s really hard for me to think about it like that. I have no perspective on that, whatsoever.
Q: Does that make someone like Francois Dillinger particularly attractive, since he isn’t what people have seen you do?
Michael Cera: Yeah. I was really excited to get to play that part and I had a lot of fun doing it. It was really fun to get to do that with [director] Miguel [Arteta], and figure it out.
Q: What made the Francois character so fun?
Michael Cera: It was just fun to get to wear contacts, put a mustache on, transform how I looked, just say really gross things and smoke. I had a lot of fun things to do with actors that I really admire, too. It was fun to have a scene with Ray Liotta, where I had a challenging moment with him. There were just a lot of really fun scenes and things to do and say.
Q: Did you model Francois after anyone specific?
Michael Cera: Not anyone specific. We tried to capture how he felt in the book, as much as we could. I was inspired by Malcolm McDowell and James Cagney a little bit, but mostly we just tried to make it feel like how it did in the book and feel it out on set as we went.
Q: Were you a big fan of the books?
Michael Cera: There are several books. There’s one that’s called Youth in Revolt that has three books in it, and that’s what this movie encompasses. I read that a couple of times and really loved it.
Q: Had you been trying to get them made into a film yourself?
Michael Cera: No. It was sent to me with the script when I was 16, and I just really loved it and was trying to be a part of it for a long time. It was one of those movies that kept getting pushed back and I was worried that, by the time it was being made, I would not be able to play the part. But, I just always asked about it and always wanted to be a part of it.
Q: It’s such a big book to cut down for a film. Were there things that you filmed that got cut, and were there favorite scenes of yours from the book that didn’t get shot?
Michael Cera: Some. There’s a scene that’s a great scene in the book, and we did it word for word, and it didn’t make it in just for time, but I think it will be on the DVD. It’s a scene where Francois and Trent have a phone call, and we took it word for word from the book. It’s a really great scene. There were a lot of characters that couldn’t make it into the movie. It would have been great to include them all, but it would have been a nine-hour movie. Some day, it should be a mini-series. They should redo it and use everything from the book.
Q: Did you see this as playing two different characters, or were you basically playing Francois as a character that would be envisioned by Nick?
Michael Cera: I don’t know. They’re totally different, so I think I just thought of it as a different character.
