Michael Cera Isn’t Surprised Fans Think He’s a Perfect Fit for Wes Anderson

When Wes Anderson began prepping his latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, back in 2023, fans of the beloved auteur got a pleasant surprise: Michael Cera would work with the director for the very first time.

Cera is one of those actors who feels like a perfect fit for Anderson, whose energetic, highly detailed style has made him one of the most famous independent filmmakers in the world. The actor has made a habit of playing charmingly awkward characters throughout his career, going back to his teens: George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, Evan in Superbad, the titular hero of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and more recently, the nondescript Allan in the hit blockbuster Barbie. As a longtime fan of Anderson's work, which includes beloved contemporary classics like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel, it doesn't surprise the actor that fans feel he's compatible with the filmmaker.

"I feel like Wes' sense of humor...is very singular to him," Cera tells New Times. "It's a big reason why his movies sort of popped when they first came out. It's like a new language — not just a cinematic and filmmaker approach that was very distinctive and very strong-handed, but also a style of humor that was very confident and very new. So I, like everybody else, grew up loving that and just thinking it was really funny. And I think a lot of the work I've done has been probably trying to approximate his work in some ways. That might be why it seems like I can work well for him. I've been somewhat molded by his work."

"Working well" might be an understatement, as Cera is one of the best parts of The Phoenician Scheme. He plays Bjørn, a Norwegian entomologist hired by swashbuckling tycoon Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) to teach him all about bugs, insects, and various creepy-crawlies. The affable scientist with a funny accent tags along with Korda on his mission to execute one last impossible business deal, serving as a perfect foil to the ruthless scheming of his employer and the stiff moralism of his daughter, the nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton). But as the plot twists and turns, this seemingly oblivious bug doctor reveals his hidden depths — and at least one big secret.

Thanks to the skill of Anderson's pen, Cera found it easy to slip into character. "[Bjørn] was very clearly drawn in the writing," he says. "Wes is a very, very good writer, which is not really news. But when you read the script, you really have a good sense of the characters, and of the movie and the world. All of the characters — when I read it, I had a good sense of them, because he writes character, and dialog, and scenes very, very well and very, very clearly. They kind of come alive in front of your eyes."

On set, Cera benefited from the director's unique way of making his movies, cleverly mixing fidelity and artifice to bring his imagined worlds to life. Anderson and his crew, particularly production designer Adam Stockhausen, went to immense lengths to construct Korda's rarified world. While Anderson ordinarily shoots on location, he filmed most of The Phoenician Scheme on soundstages at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, the oldest working film studio in the world, where masterpieces like Fritz Lang's Metropolis were made. They visited castles and villas around Berlin to get inspiration for Korda's palazzo. For the plutocrat's art collection, they sourced actual masterpieces by Renoir, Magritte, and other artists from the Hamburger Kunsthalle and various private collections. They also used models, puppets, and pyrotechnics for practical effects.

It's a level of directorial control Cera says is definitively non-standard, but one the actor says led to a better environment.

"I think on most productions, the director is not normally orchestrating the entire event at the same level that Wes is," he says. "Wes picks the hotel; he picks the chefs who cook dinner. The flow of the day goes the way Wes wants it to go. And he's sort of worked his productions into a certain shape that works for him and that everybody goes along with. And it's a little unusual. It's less automated than most productions are. It feels more like he's kind of gone into the guts of the machinery of a production day and reworked it a bit."

Anderson is far from the only famous auteur Cera has worked for. In 2017, he had a minor yet significant appearance in David Lynch's revival of his seminal TV series Twin Peaks. As Wally Brando, the soulful biker son of original characters Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) and Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz), Cera made a one-scene cameo that is nevertheless one of the season's most fondly remembered moments. Cera recalls his experience working with the legendary director and artist, who sadly died earlier this year.

"I love that third season," says Cera. "I think it's unbelievable. And I kind of can't believe I got to do that with him. It was really short. It was just a very short working experience. I feel like we worked maybe an hour on that scene, but it was like heaven working with him."

The Phoenician Scheme. Starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, and Riz Ahmed. Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. Directed by Wes Anderson. 105 minutes. Rated PG-13. In limited release in Miami; opens nationwide Friday, June 7.