Michael Cera reveals why he rejected ‘Fantastic Beasts’ role
Michael Cera has explained that he turned down a role in the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts due to fears of becoming too famous.
The Fantastic Beasts series consisted of three prequels to Harry Potter, which starred Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, who teams up with a young Albus Dumbledore, played by Jude Law, to take on the evil wizarding force of Gellert Grindelwald.
Notably, Johnny Depp played Grindelwald in the first two films before Mads Mikkelsen took on the character.
Now, in a new appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, Cera said, “I don’t think I have a franchise resistance,” before explaining why Fantastic Beasts didn’t appeal to him.
“It was a Harry Potter one. The Harry Fantastic Beasts,” Cera revealed. “I don’t even know if I was offered, I think I just declined to engage with it because, I think it would be like probably six years commitment or something.”
The Superbad star continued: “Also, we were talking about it earlier, I did sort of, make a conscientious choice to limit my exposure a little bit, or just try and be a little more in control of it. Doing like, especially little kids movies. I had a big fear of doing things that would get me too famous. I think that’s changed a little. I think I’ve outgrown that particular feeling, but I think that’s what that was at that time.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Cera opened up about his struggles with being catapulted into fame as a 19-year-old, stating, “I would react poorly sometimes to being recognised.”
Reflecting back on that challenging time, Cera, who recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, said that he had “sort of some kind of PTSD from it” and admitted there were “some bad experiences”.
Even now, he still finds it difficult being in the limelight, revealing, “I find Los Angeles is kind of extreme for that. I feel real spotlight syndrome in Los Angeles even now. You’re being photographed and you’re self-conscious and, I liked my life better before that.”
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