What would a Michael Cera collaboration with Michael Haneke look like?
Few actors have established themselves in their own hyper-specific niche quite as well as Michael Cera. He has mastered the art of playing awkward, idiosyncratic men who, despite their apparent lack of social grace, are ultimately charming and successful in their romantic pursuits. From Superbad to Juno, Scott Pilgrim vs the World to Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, nobody plays the skinny, dweeby, mousy-haired heartthrob quite like Cera.
That’s not to say there isn’t more to the Canadian than just specialist interests and not knowing what to do with one’s hands. Cera has also appeared in some unexpected places, most recently as a Norwegian scientist in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. His performance as the super corporate marketing manager Trent in Dream Scenario caught a lot of people off guard, and his upcoming appearance in Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man also looks set to buck his career trend.
Cera himself is clearly interested in working with filmmakers who will take him out of his comfort zone. Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, where he also revealed why he turned down a part in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, the Barbie star let it out into the ether that he has a desire to work with famed Austrian horror-drama director Michael Haneke.
“Oh, of course,” Cera responded when asked by the host if he’d do a film with Haneke. “I hope he makes something soon, it’s been a little while… he’s incredible”. The comedian revealed his appreciation for Haneke’s film Benny’s Video, a deeply psychological affair about a young boy who becomes obsessed with a tape showing a pig being slaughtered with a bolt pistol. Cera also shouted out The Castle, a TV movie adapted from the Franz Kafka novel of the same name.
Haneke doesn’t exclusively make traditional “horror” movies, but his films always contain a certain terrible edge. He thrives on stories of cruelty and bad luck, like his deeply disturbing erotic drama The Piano Teacher, which stars Isabelle Huppert as a depressed, sexually repressed musician who becomes the focus of her young student. Perhaps his most famous movie is 1997’s Funny Games, a film seemingly made to be as miserable as possible. The depraved, sadistic nature of the characters was designed as an antidote to the expected notion of a happy ending, no doubt derived from the director’s well-publicised hatred of American cinema.
This approach is in stark contrast to Cera’s usual oeuvre, which is what makes his admiration for the auteur so interesting. They don’t seem like they’d be a good fit at all, but then again, Hollywood has a proud history of casting funny men in extremely dark roles to great effect. Robin Williams famously went psycho in Mark Romanek’s One Hour Photo, and, while not a comedian, everyone was very pleasantly surprised by how well Hugh Grant took to horror in Heretic.
Though his works and personal opinions are often highly controversial, Haneke remains a titanic figure in the cinematic landscape. He hasn’t made a film since 2017 (the ironically-titled ‘Happy End’) and is approaching his mid-80s, so time is running out for him and Cera to do something together. God only knows what sort of mind-bending terror would be unleashed if ever they get the chance to collaborate.
