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I'm okay. I'm fine.
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I've done crazy [ __ ] before.
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Hey, what's going on everybody for First We Feast?
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I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today I'm joined by Michael Cera.
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You know him as George Michael in the hit show Arrested Development and award-winning roles in films like Juno, Superbad, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and many more.
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And you can catch him in the Waverly Gallery premiering on Broadway this fall.
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Michael Cera, welcome to the show. you.
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How are you with spicy food? I like spicy food. I think.
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There was There's this amazing Thai restaurant in LA called Jitlada and they have like at the back of the menu the like something challenge. And you took it on?
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And me and a friend did it.
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My friend Eric Edelstein and me, we sat and we got muscles.
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You can get anything with this sauce and they bring you like a pink like Pepto-Bismol milkshake and like a bunch of, you know, cabbage and stuff.
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And you just go bite for bite and it's like, "Okay, let's do another."
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It's like this weird ride you take with your friend and we did that.
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Well, let's go on another ride now, man. Great.
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Can I ask you how you're sitting on this stool?
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Are your feet both on the middle bar?
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I got one foot on the ground and I don't feel like I'm sitting You know, I mix it up every once in a while.
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I feel like throwing it off.
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There's like a little style with it.
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to straddle this thing that's like the leg of the table and just really actually join you here.
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Whatever makes you comfortable, Michael.
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Do I look more comfortable now? That's good.
1:42
So, I want to start by taking it back to the early days when you were a 9-year-old doing commercial auditions by the hundreds in the highly competitive world of child commercial acting, did you ever get backstabbed or double-crossed by another fifth grader?
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There were like two kids who were like the Kobe Bryant's of like the child commercial ring and they just booked everything.
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And you'd go to a commercial and they'd be like dozens of kids and all their moms and you knew their moms, too.
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And some of the moms were extra intimidating and weird.
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But there was like if you you saw like Luca, then you'd be like, "Well, [ __ ] Why did I even come?
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I might as well go home."
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Yeah, you're like, "This is a wash."
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And then in our research, we found an old Pillsbury commercial that you did early on.
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You actually got to poke the dough boy's belly.
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That was the second job I ever got and after that I never booked another commercial.
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It was just those two, but I went on hundreds of auditions. Well, Luca was there.
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Luca was taking all the work.
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Michael Cedar was killing it.
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I think it was like, you know, it's just like I don't know.
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It's like there's a C-stand with an X and there you do that for like 100 times cuz it's very important that you do it in the right place. Yeah.
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And then but the whole commercial was like a CGI extravaganza.
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Like there's this I'm making cookies and the cookie dough comes to life and yeah.
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is like chasing the other one. It's a whole thing. they went for it.
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They like kind of splurged on their special effects for this commercial.
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All right, so this next one is the heartbeat sauce. Sounds good.
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That's delicious, actually.
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So when Arrested Development was reborn in 2013, you took on expanded role not only as one of the show's stars, but then also a fixture in the writing room.
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There's a lot of lore surrounding writers' rooms and I know that your experience was limited, but in that limited experience, I wonder do the good ideas just naturally float to the top or is there an art in being the loudest voice in the room or a pitch man? Good question.
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Um yeah, I think sometimes there's like a lot of timing.
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If you have a good idea, maybe you shouldn't say it right away.
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Wait, you know, until things kind of there's like a lull and then pretend you just came up with it.
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But yeah, no, a lot of times the good stuff floats to the top.
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There is some kind of filter system that just kind of happens naturally and it could be I think kind of a political thing or or a personality thing.
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It's But there's like a balance to it.
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You kind of learn your place like a family almost.
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It's delicious, that one. Dom, put it in the bag. Yeah, no kidding.
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We'll give you that one to go. get some gifts? That's cool. Mhm. You do.
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We got a little swag bag. That's awesome.
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Oh, this is from Thunder Bay, Ontario. And you're from Ontario. I am from Ontario. Beautiful. Rapped for the homies.
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Yeah, they're doing a nice job up there. Just says pepper sauce. It's a little thing.
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Can I ask you like um you must be kind of like by virtue of the show like tuned into the world of hot sauce?
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A little bit more than I'd like to be, yeah.
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Very nicely curated, I have to say. Thank you. Even the color scheme.
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Like I guess you put some thought into how the the colors go.
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Schomberger, who helped put this whole thing together.
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He has sleepless nights every season. Every season. My god.
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So when you're a beloved character that's in cult movies like Scott Pilgrim or Superbad, you end up sometimes having a persona that takes on a life of its own.
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Have you seen the way the internet has made you its own via memes and corners of Reddit? Do you ever poke around? Does it scare you?
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Are you fascinated by it? maybe it scares me.
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I don't think I want to know.
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Not that I you know, it's kind of nice in a way, but I'm not just a big internet guy really.
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Your friend and Superbad co-star Jonah Hill has this larger-than-life online persona in large part because he's like a street style icon. Right.
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Have you ever heard of Jonah Hill Day?
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Yeah, well, from Jonah I heard of it.
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I was with Jonah last week and he went to Jonah Hill Day that morning.
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I saw him at Jonah Hill Day. I mean, that's so brave. It's great though.
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I mean, I love that he did that.
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Cuz it's my buddies that put it on.
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Okay, you know those guys. Mhm. Aaron so James.
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Shout out Failing Upwards.
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So, when Jonah was on Kimmel, he was like, I was too shy to go the first year.
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And then the second one, it was just ringing off and he had such a great time.
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Yeah, it sounds like a great thing to do.
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I mean, I was inspired by Jonah doing that.
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At first, I think it'd be scary, but then it's like he had a great time. Right.
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I mean, also I think he like just got himself in the frame of mind of like I'm just going to go be this guy.
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Like it's like kind of a character or something.
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Like the person they want you to be or the whatever you're are to them in that day. Just go be that.
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I mean, it's like going and shooting something or something.
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It's like just kind of take yourself outside of yourself and have fun with it.
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Can we expect to see you in attendance at next year's Jonah Hill Day? That sounds fun.
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I told Jonah he should go like every like a like scatter when he goes.
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Like don't go the third year. Go the fourth. Yeah.
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People will be like, oh, every two years he goes. Keep them guessing. their toes.
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Just completely in a way terrorize them. So, this is this guy.
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This is the Son of Zombie. Great. Okay.
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I'm going to invite first, ask questions later.
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It's what they taught us in the academy.
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That one is just so delicious right away. Sweet.
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So, as you mentioned in your intro, you're in upcoming Broadway play called Waverly Gallery.
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And then earlier this year was Lobby Hero.
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So, clearly it's not a one-off experiment for you.
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What draws you back to the stage?
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So, I was working on Lobby Hero.
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With Kenneth Lonergan who wrote it.
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And he also wrote Waverly Gallery.
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And then I I I I think from my agent I heard that they were doing um the Waverly Gallery with Elaine May.
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So, I emailed Kenny right away and said, "Please let me like sweep the floor to be there because I love Elaine May."
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And I thought, "Oh my god, to have an opportunity to work with her would be just amazing."
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And something I would be so jealous of whoever got to do it if I wasn't doing it.
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And I would always regret missing that chance.
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What's the biggest difference when you're trying to target your next project when you're reading a movie script versus when you're reading a play script?
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I mean a play, it's a big commitment of time. And um it you're stuck.
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Like you can't do other things at the same time.
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And choosing a movie, you just don't want it it to be something that people see and that you're embarrassed by, I think. Which can happen.
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But it also is like who you get to work you know who I don't know.
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I mean like the reason I really love acting for a living is that that you get to work with people that are amazing that you admire.
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So this next one is the Los Calientes.
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We're calling it the sauce of summer. Hm. It's really tasty.
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We have a recurring segment on our show called explain that gram where we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context.
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You do not have an Instagram, which really throws a wrench, but we have a workaround.
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We've gone to the Getty's and pulled some interesting Michael Cera photos that just need more context.
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So I'll just show you the picture and you tell me the bigger story. Does that sound good? Yeah.
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All right, laptop, please. Sounds great. Thank you, Bill. You're welcome. It's a funny job.
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You lift a giant block with a computer on it.
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Bill, the legend of Bill has really grown quite a bit.
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First things first, looks like you're just minding your business in Oh, I remember that day. That's a story. That's a crazy story.
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That was a horrible moment for me. Really? Yes.
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So this guy um I used to live in Los Feliz in Los Angeles.
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And that was a moment when I was like kind of famous or I had a movie coming out or some reason why someone would like want to photograph me and spend their day doing that.
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So there was this guy like in my neighborhood stalking me.
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Uh this is the only time this has ever happened to me in my life.
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It was a very strange experience. He just wouldn't stop.
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He was following me all day.
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I was riding around on my bike and he was enjoying my like fear.
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You know, it was just this like thing where you saw this other side of people and I was like I get it, like take the photo and go, but he like enjoyed putting me in a state of like fear or agitation to get another kind of photo or something.
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I went up to his window, I like shook his hand, I was like, "Please stop, you're really scaring me now.
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Like this is getting really weird." And he was like, "Okay."
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And that was what made it really weird, he was like, "Yeah, I got it, man. Yeah, totally. I'll leave you alone."
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And then he kept doing it.
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And then I could never And then he would just be always like a little far away in his car.
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I went into a movie theater, watched Feasters 3 and watched a movie for 2 hours and came out and he was waiting. He he he had waited.
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And I was like, "Don't don't follow me home, man.
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Like I don't want you to come know where I live and like be a splinter in my you know, leg for the rest of my life." Wow.
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So it was really And at one point I just like got off my bike and sat down on the curb and he he like drove by looking for me.
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I was like, "Dude, this is like really stressing me out. Can you stop?"
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And then he like saw that and stopped and went away. It was a weird day, man.
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I was like, "This is weird."
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I didn't mean to dig up any trauma.
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I'm glad I could explain it.
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It was years ago, you know, that hasn't happened to me again.
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Is that enough of a bite, to be fair? I don't want to be plus.
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If you don't, you can go in for another one.
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I will, just so that people don't call me plus.
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So Superbad celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.
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What I'd like to do here is dig up some of the lore surrounding that film because it means so much to so many people.
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And you can just tell me if it's fact or if it's fiction or if there's a bigger story behind that. Does that sound good? Fun. All right.
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True or false, Evan Goldberg's brother Dave drew all the dick drawings in Superbad. Mhm. That's true.
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I mean, we watched the movie like hundreds of times when it came out and we were promoting it and I think the dicks are like at the end of the movie. Over the credits. Mhm.
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There was a lot of dick pictures and people that was like a perfect emotional button for people. They were like, "Yes."
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They really wanted to see all those.
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Is it true that Christopher Mintz-Plasse pissed off Jonah Hill during the audition? Is there a story there? Definitely.
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When he left the room, Jonah was like, "No, not him." What happened?
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He was like irritated by him.
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I think he felt that Chris was like kind of getting the better of him comedically, stopping Jonah like like kind of like blocking Jonah's like funny jabs, which made it so funny.
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I mean, it made Jonah like double down, and Jonah getting irritated made him funnier. Made Jonah funnier.
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And Chris just deflected like he just he he is a guy who does not care in real life.
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He's really an admirable guy.
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He shrugs everything off.
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He does not care what anybody thinks about him.
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And that was really apparent.
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And in an audition setting that you're like a rock star if you have that quality, you know.
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Did you do an hour-long dance for the Superbad DVD? I did.
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So, that was Evan Goldberg's idea.
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Evan's a really fun and funny and weird guy.
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He was like it was like right when Blu-rays were like starting to happen.
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He was like, "With the Blu-ray, we can have a DVD menu that the menu screen can be an hour-long and it won't loop."
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He was like, "So, I want you to dance for an hour so that somebody will watch the DVD menu waiting for it to loop and it just like never will until after an hour." So, I was like, "Great."
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And then so we did that like after a day of shooting.
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We went into this like studio at Sony with a green screen and I danced for an hour nonstop.
13:08
There are million different references to Superbad in hip-hop lyrics.
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So, I want to bounce two off of you and you can tell me which one you're prouder of, okay? Great.
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So, this first one is from Big Sean.
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I'm unusual as [ __ ] I'm Superbad.
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Your girl probably doodling my dick.
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And then this next one is from Kanye West off Forever.
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Old money, Benjamin Button. What? Nothing.
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Now Superbad chicks giving me McLovin. Kanye West said that? Mhm.
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Oh my god, I didn't know that. That's cool.
13:35
I like the Kanye West one.
13:35
Jonah told me that he met Eminem and Eminem like um recited the first 10 minutes of Superbad to him, like had it memorized, and did our voices and stuff.
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How did Jonah react to that?
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Uh you know, like like shock.
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Like I mean, when he told me I was like stunned by that. So weird. Before we go on Sure.
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Do you think I could just floss?
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I have like a piece of chicken in one tooth and it's got too much of my attention. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. here? Do we have floss on set? Or a toothpick? You can get a toothpick. Thanks. Sorry.
14:06
We got a toothpick coming in.
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No, that's I just don't want to be I like And it's like still spicy.
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So every time I try and wedge it out It's it's a it's an obstacle. I can't compete. Yeah.
14:17
Does anyone who had floss there's also toothpicks you can I'll just do that with this. Sorry.
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I'll be 5 seconds with this. Sorry.
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You can film it if you want. You well.
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All right, so this next one is the Bunsters Black Label. It's out of Australia. It's come a long way. 16 out of 10 heat. It's weird.
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I think it makes them sound kind of stupid.
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That they don't understand math or something. Just say 10 out of 10.
14:55
I was annoyed recently at a farmer's market because um there was this woman selling soups.
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And some of them were really hot. She had a rating system.
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She had like um this one's a two out of five, this one's a three out of five, this one's a four out of five.
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And she had like 10 soups, but there was no five out of five.
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I was like, then why don't you make the one that's four out of five the five if that's the hottest? Like what is five?
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Shouldn't five be the hottest and shouldn't that exist?
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Is there some imaginary number that No, I didn't.
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I wanted to confront her, but she's just a little woman selling soup.
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I don't want to embarrass her in front of her potential customers.
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Walked away and quietly said it to my mom and girlfriend how stupid she was. Class move.
15:35
All right, so this next one is the bomb. Is it pretty hot? Uh historically, yes.
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They make a big deal of it on the bottle. Warning.
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This sauce is extremely hot.
15:58
Consume one drop at a time with extreme caution. It's hot. It's tasty, though. I'm into it. I like chipotle. No problem.
16:12
I mean, a little pain in the mouth. It's okay. I'm fine.
16:26
I've done crazier [ __ ] It's not to get too meta, but I do want to talk to you a little bit about the dynamics of a celebrity interview cuz it's something that we think about all the time at this freak show that you so gamely decided to join in on.
16:38
I heard you make an interesting point about how sometimes your Hollywood interviews can cause a bit of a kerfuffle simply because you can't match the gigawatt energy of whoever is in front of you or the platform.
16:50
Can you explain that for me?
16:53
Well, it's like trying to talk normally. My tongue hurts.
17:01
Um you're doing like a junket and sometime and then you have like 10 people roll through in a day.
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I might just be drooling and not know it. It's okay. It's the show.
17:10
And um yeah, everybody kind of that's like their 10 minutes and they've like sometimes prepared a bit that you haven't signed off on and you have no interest in participating in.
17:21
You think you're just there as a human being to talk about your movie, which is pretty boring, granted, but sometimes you just don't think they have any taste.
17:29
And now now I'm like forced to like go along with it or else I'm like throwing a wrench in your thing and I seem like I'm not fun.
17:36
Sometimes if you just don't want to go with their energy, you seem like a confrontational [ __ ] or something, but to go with their energy would be worse, I think.
17:43
You'd seem like a total [ __ ] So, it's a kind of lose-lose.
17:48
No, listen, I connect with it as a guy who hosts a show where we have 10 scorching hot chicken wings laid out in front of our guest, you know. Yeah.
17:55
When are the scorching hot ONES COMING OUT?
18:06
IS THIS ONE A REALLY SLOW BUILD or cuz it's not as hot as the previous one, I find. Yeah.
18:10
But we order by the uh Scoville unit. Oh, okay.
18:13
Yeah, I saw you talking to the pod about the SCOVILLE UNIT. OH, WOW. There you go.
18:17
And I really enjoyed your thoughts about it. Or her thoughts.
18:21
Which was like it's kind of like an imaginary measurement or something. Exactly, exactly.
18:22
So, in addition to being one of the most famous actors in Hollywood, I know that you're very much a film buff, a student of the game.
18:27
So, what I want to do is give you a series of universal life moments that maybe the power of film could help someone through and then you try to recommend a film Rock is kind of like a moment. Exactly. That's challenging, man.
18:42
Is there a movie that you'd recommend to a kid who's feeling like an outcast? I feel so on the spot.
18:48
Well, The Sandlot comes to mind right away, but the lesson of that movie is kind of hard.
18:52
It's like, "Well, just find a group of friends that you fit in perfectly with and you'll be happy."
18:59
If you're stuck in a rut of your day-to-day existence, you want to expand your mind, what film would Michael Cera pull off the shelf?
19:06
A rut of day-to-day existence? Mhm.
19:08
Something that's like a fantasy thing, I guess.
19:11
Maybe World on a Wire, the Fast Bender movie, just cuz that's like a really fun science fiction movie.
19:16
Can you give me a movie that you'd recommend when you're tripping balls on psychedelic mushrooms? Fantastic Planet. Be fun. Something animated.
19:24
Or like um Spirited Away.
19:28
I just watched that with my niece.
19:28
It's a little scary for kids, I think.
19:30
I got it for her for her eighth birthday and we were watching it and like halfway through I was kind of like, is this too scary?
19:36
But I think she was a little disturbed by it. All right, Michael Cera. So this is the last dab.
19:49
We call it the last dab because it's tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing. Okay.
19:55
You don't have to if you don't want to. I will.
19:57
Which should be no problem for you.
19:59
My friends I was with my friends last night Mhm.
20:01
and they're a couple and they have a bet one of whether I'll finish this. Really? Yeah.
20:05
One is against me, one is for me.
20:08
I'm supposed to text them after.
20:09
The one who's against you What an idiot. looking like an idiot. Yeah, underestimation. All right.
20:16
And then you bite right on the sauce.
20:18
You bite right on the sauce, that would be the point. But before you do Yeah.
20:22
here we are at our hot sauce journey's end.
20:25
And you're so expressive.
20:25
You can say so much without even so much as uttering a word.
20:30
So what we're going to do here Huh.
20:34
is we're going to stimulate our bodies with a bajillion Scovilles Mhm.
20:38
and then follow the journey of Pepper X entirely through facial expressions. Okay. Got it. You're doing great. That's fun to watch. break.
21:27
I can't I can't I love that.
21:32
Like how much happens in the space of a second that we don't really realize? Mhm.
21:37
to watch like a 10-minute version of all the stuff you just did.
21:40
Well, let's loop it for an hour, put it on the next DVD menu, and look at you, Michael Cera.
21:45
I don't know who your friend is who said that you couldn't run the board, but look at you.
21:52
Look at you, you king, all the way through.
21:54
10 chicken wings up, 10 chicken wings down.
21:56
Red red red in the face little bit, glowing around the eyes, but I honestly think that it's like a reborn Michael Cera. Looking so good.
22:06
I would love to swim right now.
22:07
This camera, this camera, or this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life. Right away. All right.
22:17
Guys, I'm going to do this play on Broadway with Elaine May.
22:21
And we're going to go until January. God bless her. She's 86, I think.
22:27
And she's going to give an amazing amazing historical performance doing this, and nobody should miss it.
22:33
Especially if you love her as much as I do, which you should. Thank you. Good job, Michael. Good job. My floss, sure.
22:41
When you eat the actual pepper, Yeah.
22:43
is it like you get a high? Yeah, yeah, you do.
22:44
Like cuz like even sometimes on the show, like I always make this joke that like that's what's keeping us going is that I'm just chasing the dragon, you know? But it's true.
22:54
Like sometimes I'll go over and be like I have like a nice little head brush off of it, you know?
22:59
But then same with the pepper is that like when you eat a Carolina Reaper, yeah, it's sort of drug-like in nature.
23:03
But then you go home Yeah, but then you go home and then you're just in the fetal position basically giving yourself food poisoning and then it's you know, it's it's it's it's it's it's not a nice down. Wow.
23:17
It's kind of exhilarating. Okay, spice lords. Give me here.
23:23
I want to let you in on a little secret.
23:25
You already know about the hot one subscription box.
23:28
Every month we send you three of the best damn hot sauces you've ever had in your life.
23:33
But this is the big announcement.
23:35
The moment you've been waiting for.
23:36
The thing that people will not stop tweeting me about.
23:40
If you want the last dab redux with chocolate pepper x and pepper x, the way to do it, sign up for a hot one subscription box before August 15th.
23:47
If you already get the subscription box, you're good to go. Throw your feet up.
23:55
The last dab with chocolate pepper x and pepper x, it's on its way to your doorstep.
23:58
But if you want to be one of the first people to get it, the way to do it, sign up for a hot one subscription box.
24:04
You already know the drill. heatness. com heatness. com to sign up.
24:09
Who appreciates the spice lords? I do. What the No. DON'T DAB ME, BRO.