Michael Cera’s Deadpan Take on Turning Down a Fantastic Beasts Role
Behold the uncommon spectacle of an indie darling treating franchise gold like radioactive material. Michael Cera admits he quietly bowed out of the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, citing a terror of “six-year commitments” and a conscious strategy to curb his own market saturation. On the June 26 episode of the Louis Theroux Podcast, Cera confessed, “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.” (Louis Theroux Podcast; E! News)
At 37, Cera still winces at the thought of being the next household name for every ten-year-old wizard enthusiast. “I had a big fear of doing things that I would get too famous,” he quipped, in a line that sounds less like modesty and more like someone who measured fame in megahertz. He self-imposed limits on “little kids’ movies,” convinced that one role in kid-centric franchise could trigger a global mass-mailing of cereal boxes decorated with his face.
Fast-forward to today, and Cera’s tune has changed from “No, thank you” to a more tempered “Maybe, if it seems interesting.” The Arrested Development alum admitted he’s “outgrown that particular feeling,” suggesting he’d no longer sprint out of an office waving the franchise flag. When pushed on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his fantasy role as “a superhero who is a big fan of dairy” nearly landed him in an animated cheese-themed saga.
Irony piled on irony when Cera revealed he almost bypassed Barbie’s Allan—an omission his manager, Willie Mercer, apparently tried to safeguard. Mercer’s offhand remark, “It’s very unlikely Michael will want to do it,” actually greased the skids for Cera to snag the part, thanks to the producers’ low expectations. At the time, Cera and wife Nadine had just welcomed a son and weren’t exactly itching to decamp to London. Yet London’s siren call—and the chance to play an awkward dreamboat in one of 2023’s biggest box office smashes—proved irresistible.
Cera’s aversion to franchise life isn’t unique in Hollywood lore. Chris Pine has lamented passing on Ryan Atwood in The O.C. due to teenage acne (SiriusXM), and casting whiffs like Benedict Cumberbatch’s near-miss for Doctor Strange (Entertainment Weekly) remind us that everybody’s a critic—often of their own resumes.
So, what have we learned? Even gentle, doe-eyed chameleons like Michael Cera know when to nip a blockbuster in the bud, only to regret—or redeploy—that caution later. Tune in next time for more tales of self-inflicted career U-turns and the questionable life choices that follow.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and E! News, Louis Theroux Podcast, SiriusXM, Entertainment Weekly
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
