The Brampton-born actor has come a long way from Pillsbury cookie commercials
Storified by · Thu, Jul 18 2013 13:54:04
Cera was perfect in the role of junior banana stand employee George Michael Bluth in Arrested Development. When he wasn’t pining for his cousin Maeby, George Michael was dating Ann Veal (“Her?!”). The poor guy fell hard and saw something in her that the rest of his family seemed to miss, which is presumably why he’s the only one who thought a “mayonegg” was a cute idea.
Still, in his quest to be Superbad, we begin to see a different side of Cera.
Cera perfects a penetrative, slightly psychotic gaze for the role of
François Dillinger in Youth In Revolt. The mustachioed teen was a
“supplementary persona” to Nick Twisp, also played by Cera, a painfully
virginal, uber nice 16 year old.
Cera starts off as the familiar, soft-spoken but quietly reckless Scott Pilgrim, who must fight through various levels of comic-infused, arcade-like levels to win the heart of the mysterious Ramona Flowers.
If he learns anything from his overblown battles with her seven evil exes, it’s that he’s not the ordinary kid from Toronto he thought he was.
In the soon-to-be-released Crystal Fairy, Cera skips the awkward phase and begins his quest with a bold imperative: to find a hallucinogenic cactus in the Chilean desert and drink mescaline (something Cera really did, on camera, after consulting the real life Bill Murray).
Cera is judgmental, sarcastic and closed off - but if there’s one consistent theme to his work it’s this: his character surely needs to learn a lesson.
