Michael Cera

THE ACTOR WHO CHANNELS THE INNER DORK IN ALL OF US PULLS OUR LEG

ABOUT HIS SOCIAL LIFE, GETS SARCASTIC ABOUT SHOW BUSINESS AND REVEALS

: v . HIS ALL-TIME WORST PICKUP LINE (AND IT'S PRETTY BAD)

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•*«¦¦¦•¦'¦¦ 01

PLAYBOY: You're in a new film called Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, in which you play the title character, an indie-rock guitarist who has video-game-style duels and falls for a girl who can travel through space portals. Is this a movie nonnerds can enjoy too?

CERA: I would say this movie is both a nerd's and a non- nerd's dream come true. For the nerds it has lots of Nin- tendo references and sound effects. The nonnerds will enjoy making fun of all the nerds in the theater exploding with joy and afterward will possibly beat them all up.

Q2

PLAYBOY: This movie is based on the popular comic- book series Scott Pilgrim. If somebody made a comic about your life, what would it be called and what kind of stories would it include?

CERA: It would probably be called Mega Dormant Actor Cuy and would include such memorable volumes as "The Loom- ing Evil of the Broken Garbage Disposal" and "Five Days to Throw Out the Bad Guacamole." And every now and then such challenges would arise as "Guys in car scream at you! Quick, pretend you're wearing headphones and have no awareness of the world around you! That'll show them."

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PLAYBOY: Your character in Scott Pilgrim has to battle

his girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends. Aren't all ex-boyfriends essentially evil?

CERA: Well, my current girlfriend's ex-boyfriend is [actor] Danny Trejo, and he and I get along famously. Just last week the three of us played squash. It was me and Danny versus Tanya. We absolutely destroyed her. At one point after the crushing defeat, she very obviously had tears in her eyes. Danny and I shared a hearty and satisfying laugh over it.

Q4

PLAYBOY: Squash? Danny Trejo? We have a hard time be­lieving you've ever set foot on a squash court or hung out with a tough guy like Trejo. Next you'll tell us your fight scenes in the movie are real.

CERA: We trained for a few months for those fight scenes, which involved waking up early and running, followed by two hours of push-ups or squats or whatever they threw at us. Then we'd all go get lunch and come back in the after­noon to do two or three more hours of fight training. It was really hard, especially for a person who considers loading the dishwasher exhausting.

Q5

PLAYBOY: Your co-star is Anna Kendrick, who last

played opposite George Clooney in Up in the Air. Is it a

pretty natural transition from working with Clooney to

working with you? (continued on page 110)

michael cera

(continued from page 73) CERA: Natural transition is not the phrase I would use. Handsome transition seems to be a better phrase to encapsulate what that lucky girl has experienced. Unfortunately, Anna and I got to work together for only one day. Though she plays my sister in the movie, one of our biggest scenes together takes place over the phone, and we shot our respective sides of the conversation at completely dif­ferent times on the shooting schedule. She regrets we weren't able to spend more time together. We got close enough for me to feel comfortable in assuming that.

Q6

PLAYBOY: This is the second time you've played a character in a rock band, after 2008's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Are you more inclined to take a movie role if it lets you embrace your frustrated inner musician?

CERA: Yes. In fact I turned down the lead role in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps be-

cause that idiot Oliver Stone didn't think the character should play the alto sax.

Q7

Pl-WBOY: Your movie characters are typi­cally meek and soft-spoken, as opposed to the loud, raucous personalities of comic actors like Will Ferrell and Jack Black. Is that by design, or is quiet just your natural personality?

cf.ra: I'd say it's by design. In real life I like to live hard and fast and filthy and ugly.

Q8

piayboY: You're a lot younger than most of the actors you've worked with. Do you ever feel the age difference? ckra: Until you're 18 you have to do three hours of schooling on set every day. During that time I always wished I could hang out with everyone else and laugh and kill time in between scenes. Superlxid was the first set I didn't have to do schooling on, and it was the best feeling in the world. Unfortunately I fell out of a tree and cut my lip while wait­ing around one day, and I couldn't smile

or laugh for three weeks because it hurt. It was worth it, though.

Q9

PLAYBOY: One of your first jobs as a child actor was in a Pillsbuiy coininercial in which you poke the Doughboy. At the time, did you feel it might be your big acting break? CERA: Well, in a way it was. Kids around school started asking if I had been in a commercial. They all seemed baffled by it. I enjoyed the recognition until the older kids started poking me in the stomach. Hard. With their fists.

Q1O

Pl-\YBOY: Not long ago a video "leaked" of you freaking out on a movie set, accus­ing the crew of being amateurs and de­claring, "If this movie is worth watching, it will be a fucking miracle!" You never came out and admitted the whole thing was staged, but can we safely assume you're not really a spoiled brat prone to Christian Bale meltdowns? CERA: You can safely assume whatever the goddamn hell you want.

Q11

PI.AYBOY: Are you just making another joke to avoid answering the question? CERA: For sure.

Q12

PI.AYBOY: In a behind-the-scenes documen­tary for the Superbad DVD, director Judd Apatow called you "the most irritating guy I've ever worked with," and your co-star Jonah Hill called you "a fucking ass." They were obviously joking, but doesn't all com­edy contain at least a grain of truth? CERA: The truth of the matter is I'm too classy to ever come out and speak any truth about those reprobates, and they're both classless enough to knock on me and my problems. Between you and me—and I'll thank you not to print this—those two used to come in to work and quite literally spit in the face of crew members. I once saw Jonah pinch the prop master. They'd pour salad dressing in the coffee and sometimes even grab people and kiss them hard on the mouth. To me this sort of behavior in a working environment is deplorable. Then I participate maybe once in a game of throwing shoes at the on-set medic, and all of a sudden I'm painted as the villain of the whole production. That's the brilliance of Jonah and Judd.

Q13

playboy: In Ymilh in Revolt you play a shy teenager with a suave alter ego named Francois, a cigarette-smoking, musta­chioed bad boy. Francois had some hilari­ously dirty pickup lines, such as "I want to wear you like the crown that you are, then tickle your belly button from the inside." Would you be able to say a line like that to a woman you were attracted to? CERA: It would be much easier to say it to a woman I was not attracted to.

Q14

PIAYBOY: So what's the worst pickup line you've ever mustered the courage to say out loud?

CKRA: "Hey, lady, those are some sexy-ass extensions. I guess you won't mind if I extend to you a personal invitation to party with me one-on-one in a scary motel room."

Q15

PLAYBOY: Your female co-stars tend to be the sexual aggressors. In real life, do you prefer women who take charge? CERA: Yes, but they're hard to find. For example, when I go out to a restaurant I know every girl in there wants to come say hi and be sexually aggressive, but they're all so gripped by shyness that they don't even make a move. In some cases the shyness is so severe they won't even look at me.

Q16

PLAYBOY: You once got a "Guido makeover" by the cast of MTV's reality show Jersey Shore. Was that as uncomfortable for you as it was for us to watch? CERA: Actually it was one of the most pleas­ant days I've had in a long time. We got drunk and laughed and danced and got in a hot tub and ate pizza. It was sort of like my eighth birthday party.

Q17

PLAYBOY: You're in your early 20s, but you still have a baby face. Do you expect that to change someday, or will you be a 40-year-old man who still gets carded at bars? CERA: What am I, a baby-faced psychic?

Q18

Pl-\YBOY: It seems as if in almost all your films your character is losing his virginity in awkward and embarrassing ways. Was your actual deflowering just as adorable? CERA: To be honest I don't remember too much about it. All I remember is I had been awake for almost 86 hours, I was on the roof of a Public Storage building in what seemed to be a freezing rainstorm, and Crispin Glover was there with a disposable camera he kept winding even though it had clearly run out of exposures. My memory of it has fogged as time has gone by, and I've pushed it out of my mind, though I do seem to remember something about a plas­tic Academy Award for best grandson be­ing involved. You might say it was my first brush with the finer side of show business.

Q19

PLAYBOY: On the cult TV show Arrested De­velopment, you played an insecure teenager named George-Michael while you actually were a teenager. Were you just an acting prodigy or was all that insecurity and clumsy uncertainty we saw on-screen the real deal? CKRA: For sure an acting prodigy. Off set I used to joke with the crew guys about how we'd all beat up my character if he ever tried hanging out around us.

Q20

Pl.\YBOY: Your last name means "wax" in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. If only to live up to your surname, are you always ready for bikini season? CERA: I've never lived up to anything in my whole entire life.