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Why Playing Scott Pilgrim Might Save Michael Cera’s Career
Like everyone else between the ages of 18 and 35, we are not immune to the charms of Michael Cera. His halting delivery, his bashful good humor, his short shorts, his self-deprecation; we find the whole package just as charming as you do. Nonetheless, we were starting to get a little worried about Cera recently. He plays the stunted boy-man so well; would he ever be able to play anything else? Or is he doomed to a career of diminishing returns, playing high schoolers well into his forties?
That’s why we’re so glad that Cera is in talks to play the hero of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s pop-manga series, Scott Pilgrim.
It’s not that Scott Pilgrim is an enormous departure from the characters Cera’s been playing. He’s not, like, a rogue cop tracking a killer through the mean streets of San Luis Obispo. But he is a character who will make Cera take his trademark acting style somewhere new, and for the first time suggests a credible adult version of Michael Cera.
Scott Pilgrim in action.Courtesy of Bryan Lee O’Malley and Oni Press