For Michael Cera, life in plastic really is fantastic.
The Life & Beth actor's movie plate is full of fun projects right now, including the soon-to-be released animated film, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, and the highly anticipated live adaptation, Barbie. As the intrigue over the doll-centric movie grows, this marks a first for Cera.
"It's the first movie I’ve ever been involved with where, like, the public knows about it before it's even, you know, done being made," he told ET's Matt Cohen. For example, the project came up even when the star was at the airport.
"He was like, 'What's the movie you're working on?'" Cera said, recalling a customs officer's inquiry. "I said, 'The Barbie movie,' and he goes, 'Ok, who's playing Ken?' and the woman beside him goes 'Ryan Gosling.' People know about it."
In fact, Cera admitted he's sad because a lot of the cast is already done filming. "In a way, it's already over and we had such a good vibe," Cera said. "There's a really good cast vibe on this movie and I think the movie's gonna be great. I’m really excited about it."
Still, the new dad is focusing on living in the moment, especially after welcoming a baby boy. While he can't wait to show Paws of Fury -- about a cat training a dog to be a samurai -- to his little one, the actor noted, "I’m also training myself to never say 'can't wait' because you kind of always think ahead. 'Oh wow, it'll be great with this and this' in the future, but then I really wanna just try and be in the moment and what's happening now."
Still, with the 15th anniversaries of Juno and Superbad this year, it's hard not to get nostalgic about two of Cera's beloved projects. "A memory for me from the Juno set was when Jonah Hill came and visited me," he told Cohen. "We were shooting in Vancouver because we had just finished Superbad and we were all kinda so obsessed with each other and best friends and everything and Jonah didn't have anything going on for like a few weeks and he came up to Vancouver and stayed with me... I had, like, time off and we just walked around Vancouver, like, eating Subway and being weird."
All these years later, Cera is going strong in Hollywood -- thanks in part to Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz.
"Growing up in Canada, that was like my first U.S. job, which was like a big moment," he said. "Mitch, you know, created the show and and was so encouraging with me and I was 14." According to the actor, Hurwitz pointed him in the direction he's still pointed toward today. "He was just this amazing figurehead on that show," Cera said, "and an amazing person in my life."
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank will be out in theaters Friday, July 15.
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