ReelzChannel sat down recently with Michael Cera and Kat Dennings to talk about their roles in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist as two music-loving teens in search of a legendary band's secret show.
ReelzChannel: Last year, the big buzz movie at the Toronto Film Festival was Juno and now, Michael, you're back with another big buzz movie. How does it feel to be back in that kind of limelight again?
Cera: It's nice. I'm excited to see this movie. I haven't seen it, yet, and the way I saw Juno for the first time was in the same theater...
Dennings: The same theater?
Cera: Yeah, same theater.
Dennings: How crazy!
Cera: Yeah, so it's going to be exciting.
RC: You've done some great movies, Michael. So what is it about the script that jumps out at you and says, "OK, this one"? I'm sure you get a lot of offers.
Cera: Well, I really liked this script and really liked Pete [Sollett] and his other movie. And I thought he was a great director and thought he would be fun to work with. I liked him as a person, you know? We met and hung out, and I thought he would be great. I trusted him completely, and he did a great job.
RC: And you're also home, kind of...
Cera: Here? Yeah.
RC: How does it feel to be home with your movie?
Cera: It feels nice to be home -- I mean, apart from the movie, it's nice to see my family and stuff.
RC: Do you get a chance to see them very often?
Cera: I do. But I haven't seen them in awhile, actually. It's been awhile since I've been home -- like 3 months -- so it's nice to come back. And my family got a new dog...
Dennings: Really, what kind of dog?
Cera: It's half-Pekinese, half-Maltese -- oh no, no, no, half-Maltese, half-Yorkie. Really tiny.
Dennings: Is it fluffy?
Cera: It's very fluffy. It's really cool.
RC: Michael, in every movie you do, you have a cute, very innocent love scene. With the two of you, the chemistry looked so real. Was it comfortable kissing and doing your own little thing?
Cera: I wouldn't say comfortable. It's weird if that's comfortable, I think.
Dennings: Well, it's never -- screen kisses are never comfortable because there's 800 billion people around. It's always...
Cera: Yeah, but you know, Pete did really good and...
Dennings: I felt...
Cera: It's tough to be a director -- directing something like that 'cause it's kind of your job to make sure that everything is cool. And he did good. He was really delicate.
Dennings: He made me feel comfortable -- as comfortable as I could feel.
Cera: But it's just acting, you know? It's all -- it felt like the rest of the movie.
RC: You guys didn't practice before? You just kind of went for it?
Dennings: In rehearsal, on set, we would hover about this far away from each other and go...
Cera: I remember, yeah, that was the rehearsal.
Dennings: It was mostly me trying to get him to laugh or something.
Cera: Yeah, it helps if you can find the humor.
Dennings: Most of the humor was 'cause Rafi [Gavron, who plays Dev] and Johnny [B. Wright, who plays Beefy Guy] were standing right there. The Beefy Guy and Dev were next to us. I could feel Rafi's breath on me...
RC: What's the top two you have on your infinite playlist?
Cera: Top two songs? Top two songs...
Dennings: "My Sharona"
Cera: "Across the Sea" and..."Sea Ghost."
Dennings: Really?
Cera: "Across the Sea" and "Sea Ghost," yeah.
Dennings: "My Sharona" and "All Along the Watchtower" -- it just popped into my head right now. I don't know if it's true. I'm going to go with it, just say it.