Hollywood’s humblest Canadian lashes out in Youth in Revolt

Last summer was a busy one for Michael Cera. The Brampton, Ontario, native topped the bills of two theatrical releases that were as different as night and day. One was the Harold Ramis comic ball buster Year One, in which he played one half of a blundering prehistoric duo alongside slapstick fart king Jack Black. The other, offbeat indie mockumentary Paper Heart, took Cera and his then real-life girlfriend Charlyne Yi on a quest to determine if love exists. Spoiler alert: it does.

In between promoting his two summer films, Cera embarked on a couple new projects to guarantee next summer will be just as busy for him. And, as if that isn’t enough to keep the guy’s hands tied, he is starring in the adaptation of the novel Youth in Revolt,which just so happens to be the actor’s all-time favourite book. Naked Eye caught up with the young star to talk about the upcoming film while he was shootingScott Pilgrim vs. the World, one of next year’s releases.

“I had a great time getting to do this role,” says Cera of Nick Twisp, Youth in Revolt’s embittered protagonist. “I was sent the script years ago and wanted to be a part of it right from the beginning. Then I was sort of unofficially attached to it for a few years while it switched studios and while the producers were trying to find a director. Finally I was officially attached to it, which was very exciting for me.”

As an actor, Cera has found his niche. From his breakthrough role as the terminally shy son on (Fox television series) Arrested Development to the short-shorts-wearing unlikely teen dad in Juno,Cera has settled in nicely as the dorky but amicable and well-intentioned youth. It is hard to imagine a guy more perfectly suited to the part, but in repeatedly playing the same sort of character so well he risks being typecast. After all, as great an Urkel as Jaleel White may have been, he was never afforded the opportunity to show off his Hamletto the world.

The acne-scarred Nick Twisp is not too far a cry from the type of character that Cera is best known for, but he plays another role in the film as well – one that is a decidedly less familiar type for him. When Twisp’s summer crush (played by Portia Doubleday) uses his shy demeanour against him, he hatches a plan to prove his hot-bloodedness. Meet alter ego Francois Dillinger: with tight-fitting clothes and thin crustache, the kid is a bitter and irascible character, not typical of Cera’s past roles

“I’m not sure if people will see me differently. To me, acting is acting and hopefully people just see me as an actor playing a different part, which is all that’s really happening,” comments Cera.

By the end of Youth in Revolt,Twisp manages to alienate everyone around him as each of his failed attempts to reunite with his summer love spirals out of control like a life-sized game of Mouse Trap. Twisp may be willing to go to extreme lengths to get the girl, but Cera maintains that the character’s core is a familiar one.

“I think Nick is completely relatable. He’s basically just a kid who got stuck with these pretty awful parents and wants to be happy, like everyone. He does some pretty selfish things to get what he wants, but it’s all pretty relatable in my mind.”

One begins to wonder just how much Cera can relate to a character who steals his parents’ car, takes it for a joy ride and ends up torching half a city. One who tries to fake his own death, pretends to flee to India to escape the FBI, and sells his passport to a Pakistani terrorist. If this is relatable, is it maybe because Cera himself has a storied past of rabble-rousing?

“I got into a bit of trouble growing up,” the actor admits. “But nothing that I ever felt was going to bring my world crashing down.”

In addition to securing roles in seemingly every new movie, Cera has also recently published a short story in McSweeney’s, the literary quarterly founded by writer Dave Eggers. “Pinecone” is the story of an actor struggling to keep his head up while realizing his career is starting to take a downturn, and features some pretty venomous internal monologues. Actors crossing over to other artistic realms can get messy (Dogstar? 30 Seconds to Mars?Murder at the Academy Awards?), and while Cera’s literary undertaking could be perceived as an opportunistic grab at the writer title for its own sake, in actuality he is achieving a long-standing goal. “I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was eight years old,” Cera confesses.

The bitterness of the character in “Pinecone” may seem surprising, coming from someone whose persona is so humble and whose career has been going so well. In fact, on viral videos and DVD extras, Cera uses his nice-guy persona to mock some of the more self-obsessed and ego-inflated celebrities who indulge in on-set freakouts. The Knocked Up special features include a behind-the-scenes bit involving Cera exploding after getting fired from the movie, while the promotional campaign for Youth in Revolt includes a sketch in which Cera, playing a Christian Bale-ified version of himself, reaches his emotional boiling point on set and lashes out at the crew. How does Cera, known as a nice guy both on screen and off, keep his own ego in check?

“I don’t find it particularly hard to stay grounded,” he muses. “I’ve been acting since I was nine years old so I know how it goes. Nothing is permanent and as an actor you’re extremely lucky to be working at any given time. I really like working on sets and that’s the reason I’m still acting now.”