The many moods of Michael Cera

With the release of Year One, awkward teen-heartthrob Michael Cera makes the transition from television bit player to headlining comedy star. We’d like to take this opportunity to look back upon the varied, chameleonic career of one of cinema’s future greats – Mikey Cera.

Superbad
“I’m not too worried about it, really. I wouldn’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. I’m not worried at all.”

Cera made his cinematic debut in 2007’s raunchy hit comedy Superbad, starring alongside Jonah Hill as sex-obsessed Evan. In this poster, note his wide-eyed terror; a haunting glance towards the future, mixed with the anticipation of losing his virginity.

Juno
“I know that you weren’t bored that day because there was a lot of stuff on TV, and then ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was coming on Starz and you were like ‘I haven’t seen this since it came out and if so we should watch it’ and then ‘but oh, no, we should just make out instead la la la.'”

Later that same year, Cera nabbed the second-lead role in Best Picture nominee Juno, as the pregnant titular character’s nervy sperm donor. In this poster, we hardly see Cera. Instead, we see Paulie Bleeker, a pensive young man faced with a devastating situation. Note the horror in his eyes.

Year One
“Where does the sun go at night?”

Cera’s latest performance (although it’s not so much a performance as an embodiment) is as olde-timey gatherer Oh in Year One. This is the culmination of years of Cera refining his craft, pulling out one of history’s most transformative performance. As you can see in the above picture, Cera has added a wig and fur shawl to portray Oh. I don’t want to jump the gun here, but could this be Cera’s big Oscar chance?

End Sarcasm.

OK, I am actually a big (no, like really big) fan of Cera’s work, and I genuinely believe he is one of the funniest comic actors of the past decade. He does display far more depth in his roles than other shtick heavy actors. Saying that, the similarity of expressions across his movie posters is far too mockable to pass up. HOWEVER, his next film will be Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Will we get a movie poster in which Michael Cera is actually smiling? We have to wait and see.

Discuss: Favourite Cera performance? Clark and Michael suggestions are encouraged.