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Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

It's hip to be dorky

At least, Michael Cera makes it seem that way

It’s early September, the Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing, and the posh hotels here are stuffed with movie stars. Most have large entourages — publicists, photographers, friends, hairdressers, hangers on.

Into one of the studio suites walks a gawky kid: double-white skin, skinny stick arms, lemon-yellow golf shirt and a bright red backpack hitched up over both shoulders.

He’s by himself, looking like a seventh-grader who got lost on his way home from school.

His last two films have each earned more than $120 million.

“Can I, um, get a cup of coffee?” he asks a publicist.

His name is Michael Cera, he’s 20 years old, and unless you’ve seen “Superbad” or “Juno,” you probably don’t know who he is. If you have seen either film, you realize he is a unique talent, arguably the great cool dork of a generation.

His latest film, “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist,” opens today. It’s the story of a broken-hearted bass player who hooks up with a rebel rich girl (Kat Dennings) in the search for an elusive underground rock band one night in New York City.

It’s young, raunchy, hip and oddly innocent. In other words, pure Cera.

The kid seems genetically incapable of insincerity, onscreen or off. When he delivers a raw comic line — which he does frequently — it resonates doubly thanks to his naive demeanor. He’s one of those dudes who is so incredibly square that he’s hip.

Speaking with him is a strange square dance of incomplete sentences, awkward silences and nervous chuckles.

On being a musician: “I play guitar. I wouldn’t call myself a musician. I don’t feel competent.”

On the success of his movies: “It’s nothing to do with me. I had nothing to do with the success of any of those movies. People who sell movies kind of use how much money a movie made, but I don’t use it. I just work on set, you know?”

He’s unfailingly polite, sweet even. Just like the guy you figure he is.

On suddenly being a celebrity: “Normally, I can walk around and enjoy myself. It’s weird being recognized, it’s very strange sometimes. People don’t like you, and that’s weird. But it’s worth it.”

On what success has done for him: “I guess it’s a bit easier to get a part now. I remember auditioning a lot, really desperately. And that’s kind of different for me now. Yeah.”

Cera has been going to auditions ever since he was 10. Born in Brampton, just outside of Toronto, he started out on Canadian TV, surfaced playing a young Chuck Barris in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” in 2002, and then scored big time when he landed the part of George-Michael Bluth on the critically adored TV series “Arrested Development” with Jason Bateman.

In it he played a high school kid, just as he has in “Juno,” “Superbad” and now “Nick and Norah.” The thing is, Cera never really went to high school. He was working.

“I didn’t really have a high school experience. Actually, I did. I went for one year and got the gist of it. I don’t think I would have thrived,” Cera, who recently completed “Youth in Revolt” in Michigan, says.

“ ‘Arrested Development’ was kind of my high school experience, being on that show. And I feel like I learned a lot. I learned about what I liked and what I wanted to do,” he says.

And what does he want to do? What does any 20-year-old want to do, or any 60-year-old for that matter?

Have fun.

“I don’t really think about how I’m perceived. I think about what would be fun and who would be fun to work with,” he says.

So that’s the future. And as far as the past goes, Cera has no regrets.

“I’ve missed stuff. But if I wasn’t doing what I was doing, I would have missed something that was more important to me,” he says.

Such is the Zen of Michael Cera.