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Michael Cera and Kat Dennings Show Us Their Playlist
By Brian Tallerico
It's hard to find two actors of their generation who are as "on the rise" as Michael Cera and Kat Dennings. With his work in Arrested Development, Superbad, and Juno, Cera became a young actor that every casting agent wants in their flick. He seems to have a knack for finding quality projects, and Dennings isn't that different. She may not be as household a name yet but she will be. She broke through in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and has developed into an interesting actress with complex roles in Charlie Bartlett and this summer's The House Bunny.
Michael Cera and Kat Dennings knock their latest parts out of the park as the title characters in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, opening this Friday. These two clever young actors don't feel like a lot of the spoiled celebrities that make the press circuit. They're both genuine, a little shy, but clearly proud of this film. They sat down at a small round table recently in Chicago after a screening of their film.
Is Toronto exhausting, fun, or both?
 MICHAEL CERA: The interview stuff is fun. It's just the screening stuff that's kind of mentally exhausting.
KAT DENNINGS: So many people there, and you're up all day.
CERA: Yeah. And then you go to a party with people you don't know. It's so strange. It has nothing to do with the experience of making the movie where you're just like this tight-knit crew. All of a sudden, it's something else. But I live in Toronto so I had fun being home and saw my family. That was nice.
DENNINGS: I LOVE Toronto. I LOVE Toronto.
Is it different being back there again after the success you had there last year with Juno?
CERA: No, it didn't feel different except that this time I was doing promotional stuff where as last time I just came and went to the screening and I wasn't really - You know, Ellen [Page] was doing a lot of press for it. That's the only difference. Otherwise, it felt pretty much the same. Same theater, good response, it was nice.
Are you still living at home?
CERA: That's where my family is, so that's going to be my "home" forever - where your family is.
Have you both moved to L.A.?
DENNINGS: I did.
CERA: I have an apartment in L.A. I don't live there that much though.
DENNINGS: I live there.
CERA: Yeah. You live in the valley.
How do you like that? You're from Philly right? How's the L.A. adjustment?
DENNINGS: It took about three years to not want to kill myself there.
CERA: Totally.
DENNINGS: I have family there and like a base. We were just in Philly... yesterday?
CERA: Yep. That's right.
DENNINGS: Oh, my God. And it feels so familiar, but it's not home any more. It's kind of an eerie feeling. But, yeah, Philly is great.
Why do you think Nick and Norah fall for each other besides both having obnoxious exes and dependent friends?
 CERA: They probably see a bit of themselves in each other. They both feel a little heartbroken and they open up to each other. They trust each other.
There's a very important orgasm scene near the end of the movie. Was that like the most uncomfortable thing to shoot?
DENNINGS: Yeah. It was pretty uncomfortable. But Michael was there with me for moral support.
CERA: And Pete was great.
DENNINGS: He was really great.
CERA: He was sensitive. The crew was cool.
DENNINGS: It was just deathly quiet.
CERA: It's so... You're so vulnerable in that situation. You're putting yourself out there. It's so scary. But everyone can sympathize on set. No one's going to make you feel bad about it.
DENNINGS: We filmed it in a sound stage in Brooklyn. It was a closed set. So that means there's like black velvet curtains around where you're filming. But, you know, everyone's there anyway. And they can all hear you. They're all listening. You know, you're supposed to be real quiet when it's a closed set and it almost makes it worse.
CERA: It's true. Everything is amplified.
DENNINGS: It's SO quiet. Everyone is kind of turning away. It heightens all your other senses.
CERA: It's true. I wish everyone would just kind of embrace it.
DENNINGS: I wish they would all have orgasms in between takes.
CERA: That would make it better.
 DENNINGS: It would. But Pete was really sensitive and took me upstairs and like talked - "We're not going to do anything you're uncomfortable with. Blah, blah, blah." He wrote out the orgasm for me. So I felt like I had lines. It was just really sweet of him. Not to be weird, but he was close to me with a piece of paper and he'd check in - "Are you okay? Everything okay? Everyone okay? We're just gonna do one more." And Mike was great. He stayed there with me. It could have been just me. I wouldn't have blamed you.
Are you two night owls by nature?
CERA: Yeah, I am a night owl. Even if I'm just staying home, I sometimes stay up really late.
DENNINGS: Especially when I'm staying home. I get on my laptop and it's suddenly five in the morning.
What's it like filming in New York City at four in the morning?
CERA: I loved it. It's great.
There must have been some crazy things that happened.
DENNINGS: There were some characters. People drunk and angry that we were blocking their favorite store or something.
CERA: Or the train station. When we were filming at Penn Station, people were going to work because it was like seven in the morning.
DENNINGS: That's the angriest I've seen people generally.
CERA: People don't like it when you make them miss their trains. Their boss is not gonna care if some movie was being filmed and they missed their train.
DENNINGS: They'd yell at us, scream at us.
CERA: People get mean and angry and vicious, yelling at the cops that are there trying to hold them back. That was scary.
DENNINGS: It's funny that they yell and threaten cops. That's not the person to threaten.
You mentioned last night that someone confused you for Denzel Washington and you weren't joking?
DENNINGS: That happened. I was there. I saw it.
CERA: They were drunk though.
DENNINGS: And driving, which is what was scary.
CERA: They were driving drunk.
DENNINGS: Most certainly. You'd HAVE to be drunk to think you were Denzel Washington.
CERA: I guess so. [laughs] It makes sense.
Have either of you been as obsessed with a band or anything as your characters in the movie?
DENNINGS: I was obsessed with Hanson most of my teenage life.
Not any more?
 DENNINGS: I still love them. I still listen to them. I think they're great. I'm not obsessed with much anymore except my cat. I'm obsessed with my cat. I would... I'm gonna stop. I don't want to be crazy. [laughs]
What's your cat's name?
DENNINGS: Pumpkin. Orange eyes, so beautiful. Big orange eyes.
So no TV shows or anything like that?
DENNINGS: My So-Called Life. I'm in love with that show. Taken away before its time.
CERA: There's not much I really watch on TV. I like Kenny vs. Spenny and Tim and Eric. You know, I just watch those when I can. I download them on iTunes. You can get them on iTunes now.
That leads to a question that we have to ask that I'm sure you're tired of answering...
DENNINGS: What would be on our playlist? [laughs] I know. We understand. Let's just do crazy ones.
Blow people's minds.
DENNINGS: "I'm an Animal" by 50 Cent.
CERA: TV theme songs.
DENNINGS: "Golden Girls".
CERA: I like a lot of movie music.
DENNINGS: Just do something crazy! Say something bananas! I'll say it for you. Michael would put on his playlist...
CERA: Cream. A lot of Cream.
DENNINGS: "White Room". No, "Butterfly" by Crazy Town. [laughs]
Bananas!
CERA: I like Gnarls Barkley. They're good. Doobie Brothers.
DENNINGS: That's not weird. You know who I do love, who I keep forgetting to say? Teddy Pendergrass, who's a Philadelphia artist.
CERA: Buffalo Springfield. Simon & Garfunkel.
DENNINGS: I used to hate Fleetwood Mac because my mom loves them and now I love them.
CERA: Crosby, Still, Nash & Young.
The movie was filmed during the writers' strike. How did that effect the acting? Because there must have been times you were forced to improvise.
DENNINGS: Yep.
CERA: Yeah, but no more than during a regular movie that wasn't filmed during the strike, I think.
DENNINGS: With everything, if you're in a place and there's a table, you have to change stuff out of necessity sometimes. But Lorene couldn't do rewrites because her guild was not allowing her to. We did have to make stuff up. It works.
Do you like to improvise? Do you like the freedom?
 DENNINGS: It's fun. It's appropriate for this one. Sometimes there's no reason for it.
Were there any scenes in particular that you remember being a great improvised scene?
DENNINGS: The stuff with us in the Yugo. Like when you said, "If anyone's getting raped in this van, it will be a guy." That was you. You made that up.
CERA: It all blends together for me.
DENNINGS: "Let's dance, douchebag!" I made that up. I love the word douchebag. I'd like to say it in every movie.
CERA: It's kind of your job, you know? If something doesn't feel right, obviously you're not going to be able to sell it really, so...
In doing research, I read a lot of comparisons to '80s movies like John Hughes and your character to Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything.
DENNINGS: That's really nice.
So I guess that wasn't an intentional influence?
CERA: No, it wasn't intentional. We weren't trying to get an '80s tone. I thought the tone would be... Peter has a very specific tone to me from his last movie. That's what I imagined it would be like and that's what it feels like to me.
What's that?
CERA: I don't know if you've seen Raising Victor Vargas but it's very authentic and very real. I just thought that he has a very specific tone that's hard to describe.
DENNINGS: When I see it, it feels like it felt to film it. It feels like New York, late at night.
The city's definitely a character.
DENNINGS: It sets a tone. And, you know, New York City pretty much looks like it did in the '80s.
CERA: Different cars.
You're always on these lists of "Hollywood's Hottest Young Movie Actors". Do you feel that way?
CERA: Those lists are ridiculous. There's no need for those lists. What does it mean?
You don't think it opens any doors?
DENNINGS: If it gets me roles, great.
CERA: You know, if you're going to work with good directors than they're going to want to cast you. They're not going to care about some list that you're on.
DENNINGS: It's also dangerous to be TOO talked about. You don't want people to get sick of your face.
That raises an interesting point. At an interview you did in Toronto you said that you didn't like the word famous.
DENNINGS: Because I'm NOT famous. It's just not true.
That's why you don't like it?
DENNINGS: I don't know. When I think about famous, I think of like Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt. I'm not. I just like to live the same life that I have.
CERA: That's always gonna be possible.
DENNINGS: That word seems to carry negative... a little threat of not having my normal life.
Do you feel the same way? Do you worry about fame taking away your normal life?
CERA: No, definitely not.
DENNINGS: That didn't happen to you.
CERA: No. It's easy. It depends on what you want. I think some people want to be actors FOR that life. There are different people with different goals. I was acting when I was really young because I always had fun. That's why I like doing it. It's nothing to do with what I want my life to be like outside of it.
DENNINGS: I agree.
We talked earlier about shows people obsess about. Mine is Arrested Development. So, I asked last year and we didn't know anything. Are we any closer to an AD movie?
CERA: No. [laughs] No, we'll see. I don't know.
What do you think? Is it going to happen?
CERA: I have no idea. I don't know. [laughs]
What else do you have coming up?
CERA: I have Youth in Revolt.
DENNINGS: I have Shorts, which is a kids movie but it's by Robert Rodriguez. So, it's really cool. He's definitely somebody that I wanted to work with. I probably would have done any movie if it was by him.
Check out Michael Cera and Kat Dennings in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, opening October 3rd.
-- Brian Tallerico
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