Michael Cera is one of the four dozen actors making up the ensemble for Wes Anderson’s latest confection, The Phoenician Scheme. Good for him! It’s his first time entering Andersonlandia, and it looks like he actually gets to flex some of his quirky muscles this time, more on that later. A lot of critics are cheering that Michael and Wes have finally collaborated. In his press for the movie, Michael is still his humble, practical Canadian self. He’s thrilled to have gotten to work with Anderson, and credits it in part to his generally having always lived under his means, thus allowing him to be more selective with projects. I mean, we already knew he wasn’t throwing his money away on a smart phone, and I wonder how much of a gateway drug those things are to making other purchases. There’s a behavioral study in there, somewhere, but I digress… Here’s Michael talking about the freedom to say no, the happy spirit on a Wes Anderson set, and garbage bags:

“I’ve always kind of lived [on] very little means in a way because I really like having freedom to say no to things,” he explains, adding that being able to decline projects is how to “stay in love with what you’re doing.”

“I kind of like time in between jobs,” he continues, before admitting that he does “get kind of itchy” after a break and is eager to get back to work.

“As an actor, you’re like a freelance person and you never know what the next thing is, so you kind of have to make peace with that feeling of the unknown,” he shared.

Although the “Superbad” star confesses he might be a little less picky now that he and his wife Nadine have two kids and live in Brooklyn.

“I mean, it’s insane, you go to buy, like, garbage bags and it’s like $50 now,” he jokes about climbing grocery prices.

Cera can currently be seen in the latest Wes Anderson movie, “The Phoenician Scheme” as Bjorn Lund, a seemingly Swedish entomologist.

He says it “definitely felt goofy,” speaking in a Nordic lilt, but calls it a challenge, “calibrating it in a way that it didn’t tip into being distracting or damaging the overall balance and the effect of the movie.”

The “This is the End” star says working with Anderson is “surreal, but it also just feels normal… Everybody’s happy to be there. And you really feel that. Everybody knows that it’s an unusual opportunity to work on a movie like this with someone like Wes and with a team like that.

“So, there’s a really happy spirit in the air.”

[From Page Six]

Pardon me, I’m just picking myself up off the floor after devolving into heaps of laughter over the description “a seemingly Swedish entomologist.” Something about that phrasing just tickles me no end! Not the entomologist part; I think we all knew it was just a matter of time before Michael Cera played an entomologist. But “seemingly Swedish” is hilarious to me. Maybe I’m crazy (don’t answer that). Anyway, it’s nice to see Michael getting to play a more whimsical character. I feel like a lot of the time he’s typecast as the straight man, or the sensible person holding steady in a sea of flamboyant characters. Now it seems he gets to show off his own eccentricity with Bjorn Lund, the seemingly Swedish entomologist. (Gets me every time!) And good for him for living under his means for so long. Saying no is indeed a luxury for an actor, and part of the reason why many celebs take ambassador deals with brands. Including Michael! But of course, he found a partnership that perfectly ties in with his persona: a campaign with CeraVe with the taglines: “Developed with dermatologists. Not Michael Cera. He’s not a dermatologist,” along with a big X over his face. Perfect, no notes.

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Photos credit: Olivier Huitel/Avalon, Julie Edwards/Avalon