For years, Michael Cera seemed like a natural fit for Wes Anderson’s cinematic universe — a quirky soul with an offbeat rhythm, tailor-made for the director’s pastel worlds and precise dialogue. But although the stars nearly aligned for Asteroid City, the actor stepped away from the project for the happiest of reasons: the birth of his first child. Now, with The Phoenician Scheme premiering at Cannes and heading to cinemas later this month, the long-overdue collaboration has finally taken flight.
Cera plays Bjorn, a peculiar Norwegian tutor with an intense fascination for insects, an accent that took some getting used to on set, and the kind of oddball conviction that feels entirely at home in Anderson’s world. "It is very silly," Cera admits of the voice, which was carefully calibrated in rehearsals with Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton. "It took all of us a minute to feel normal about it." Less manageable, he jokes, were the distorted prescription glasses his character wears — "like living in a fish bowl."
The part may be eccentric, but it’s not without heart. Cera found inspiration for Bjorn’s bug obsession through the writings of 19th-century French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre — a gift, he says, from Anderson himself. "I got so into reading this guy’s book every morning," Cera shares. "Even my sons started getting into scarab beetles." The role, though comedic, becomes central to the story’s globe-trotting plot, as Bjorn joins a chaotic father-daughter duo on a lavish, madcap journey.
After nearly two decades of knowing Anderson casually, Cera says stepping onto one of his sets was everything he’d hoped for — exacting but playful, endlessly detailed but never stressful. "It always felt optimistic," he says. "Around 20 takes in, you feel like, 'We’ve got it — now let’s play.'" For someone who nearly missed the chance once, it seems Cera made the most of it this time — bugs, Bjorn and all.
