Cera and Anderson were destined to make a movie together

When Michael Cera was announced as joining the cast of a Wes Anderson movie for the first time, the prevailing response was: Hadn’t he already been in a Wes Anderson movie? So seemingly aligned in sensibility and style are Cera and Anderson that you could easily imagine a whole fake filmography.

It is, for a slightly more corduroyed corner of the movie world, an actor-director pairing as destined as Scorsese and De Niro — even if “The Phoenician Scheme” is (checks notes one last time) their first movie together.

“I would remember,” Cera deadpans. “I would never have passed up the opportunity.” “The Phoenician Scheme,” which Focus Features releases on Friday in theatres, stars Benicio del Toro as the international tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda, who after a lifetime of swindling and exploiting has decided to make his daughter, a novitiate named Liesl (Mia Threapleton), the heir to his estate.

Cera plays Liesl’s Norwegian tutor Bjørn Lund. And because of the strong leading performances, you couldn’t quite say Cera steals the show, he’s certainly one of the very best things about “The Phoenician Scheme” — and that’s something for a movie that includes Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston playing a game of HORSE. Bjørn is an entomologist, which means Cera spends a sizable portion of the movie in a bow tie with an insect gently poised on his finger.

“He is sort of a bug, himself,” Cera, speaking in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival shortly before the premiere of “The Phoenician Scheme,” says with a wry smile. “And he sheds his skin and becomes his truth self.” If Cera’s role in “The Phoenician Scheme” feels like a long time coming, it is. He and Anderson first met more than 15 years ago. Cera, 36, was then coming off his early breakthroughs in “Arrested Development,” “Superbad” and “Juno.” A comic wunderkind from Ontario who stood out even among the “Arrested Development” cast as a teenager, Cera had caught Anderson’s attention.

“It was something arranged by an agent in New York and we went to a kind of cocktail party,” Anderson recalls by phone. “We were with Harvey Keitel, too. So it was me and Harvey and Michael Cera - a totally unexpected combination. But I loved him. For years I’ve kind of felt like: Why haven’t we already done something together?”

For Cera, the meeting was even more memorable.

“I remember being very excited to meet him,” Cera says. “I remember him being very disarming. Obviously, he was like a luminary inspiration. He has had a huge impact on my general sense of taste. I discovered his movies when I was a teenager and watched them over and over.”

They nearly did come together on a movie before “The Phoenician Scheme.” Anderson had a small role for Cera in “Asteroid City,” but when its production schedule got pushed, Cera had to drop out because of the coming due date for his first son with his wife Nadine.

“I was kind of worried that I blew it,” says Cera, “that I missed the chance to sneak in.”

But even though Anderson and Cera didn’t work together until “The Phoenician Scheme,” they developed a relationship. Cera, who aspires to write and direct his own films, would send Anderson scripts for feedback. “We became friends,” says Cera.

“In the case of this movie, it was everything short of written for him,” Anderson says. “As soon as we had the idea of the character, he was the guy who (cowriter Roman Coppola) and I started talking about. I think we talked to him about it before there was a script or anything.”

“It seemed like it had already happened,” adds Anderson. “And it was a very good fit, a natural thing.” Cera quickly adapted to Anderson’s unique style of moviemaking, in which the cast collectively stay at a hotel, begin the morning in makeup together and remain on set without trailers to retreat to. “At first, you’re kind of exhausted,” says Cera. “At the end of the first day, you go: OK, I need to eat a bigger breakfast.” As the production went along, Cera often sat right next to Anderson to watch him work.

Associated Press