Michael Cera dishes on the status of the Arrested Development movie to a press conference with a paltry attendance of 10

Michael Cera dishes on the status of the Arrested Development movie to a press conference with a paltry attendance of 10

Future Dillinger: Michael Cera declares range wider than awkward teens (Photo by Karon Liu)

“This is brutal,” said a film critic as we sit in the largely empty media room at Sutton Place. There were only five minutes left before the arrival of the cast and crew of the new Michael Cera awkward-teen rom-com (is there any other kind?), Youth In Revolt. Aside from us, there were four photographers and five reporters. The low turnout must have been due to TIFF burnout and the fact that most of the cast members—Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi—didn’t show up.

The emptiness got so bad that organizers had to pull in the guys working at the BlackBerry booth outside to be seat fillers. And since all TIFF press conferences last 40 minutes, we all (including the BlackBerry guys) got together to brainstorm as many questions as we could to fill up the time.

Cue questions about Arrested Development and Cera’s indie poster boy status.

We asked Cera if he felt pigeon-holed by being cast in the same meek romantic lead character in every movie he’s been in. He responded, “I don’t think it will pigeon-hole me. The way I choose my projects, I see who’s involved and I see who I can work with and get along with.” Does he see himself playing John Dillinger or starring in an action movie? “Sure.”

With that, it cemented the fact that the Cera we see on TV and film is exactly like the Cera in person: soft spoken and shy, a man of few words. We also couldn’t help but wonder if a strong gust of wind could blow him away.

The press conference wasn’t all for naught: Cera said that the script for the Arrested Development movie is in the works and that he is on board (early rumours pegged Cera as the only cast member holding out).

The press conference ended 10 minutes early. Cera and the Revolt bunch left as photographers started streaming in to snap shots of Natalie Portman at the ensuing event—a presser for Don Roos’s Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.

The Youth in Revolt team: David Permut (producer), Miguel Arteta (director), Portia Doubleday (actor), Michael Cera (actor) (Photo by Karon Liu)