Michael Cera versus the Internet

I've never understood hating actors. Never. My mother completely hates Adam Sandler, some friends of mine can't stand Seth Rogen and it appears that many of the "cool kids" don't really like Tom Cruise, but to my knowledge, nobody dislike Leonardo DiCaprio.

What a sweetheart.

When it comes to hating actors, I just don't understand why. To me, there are two reasons to hate an actor:

1) They are a complete jerk
2) They are such an objectively bad actor that them simply being in a movie makes it worse.

Yet, time and time again people will simply shrug and just say "I can't stand them". Usually, I believe it comes down more to the actor simply being in movies that the hate-ee hates, or more obviously; being type-cast in a role the hate-ee hates. I can sort of understand this - I've grown pretty tired of Jim Carrey silly-facing his way through his career, and we can all agree robin Williams has made some bad choices lately. However, I don't hate the actors, and when I see them on screen, I'm well-aware that they're both talented actors fully capable of playing a wide range of roles - it's just that more recently, they haven't been.

Now is when we get to Michael Cera. Several years ago, the Internet had the biggest boy-crush on Michael Cera you could imagine. He had just finished acting in the universally-adored series Arrested Development and was appearing in the majorly hyped Superbad. Sure, he was sort of playing George Michael Bluth in Superbad, but he was different enough from the character to still be funny and have plenty of memorable lines. You wouldn't catch 4chan admitting it now, but when Superbad came out they were pretty much ready to give Cera a shrine. So what happened? Well, that same year he was in Juno (which I've never really seen, but from what the Internet tells me it's Knocked Up with teenagers smarter than teenagers actually are)and then Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. To my knowledge, neither of these films were reviewed badly - so why the hate for Cera? Okay, yeah, he was in the awful Extreme Movie, I'll give you that, as well as the failure Year One. Was he really the same character in those two movies? Even if you give him those two misses, he has Paper Heart, which at the very least we can say was him at least trying to branch off.



I think Paper Heart may be a bad thing to list. You see, after me breaking one of my only life rules and actually going to 4chan (my shower is only 20 seconds away from my computer, I should be safe), I've discovered something. Something scary, ironic, and most of all; completely retarded. 4chan, and I believe the rest of the Internet, are in the middle of the Hipster Witch hunts. Paper Heart is fake documentary about some teenagers trying to find out about love? Hipster garbage. Juno had a bunch of songs on the soundtrack I hadn't heard of - Well they may as well have been wearing Che Guevara t-shirts! Here's a comment I read that I think pretty much sums up the movie going ignorance of hating actors:

I would consider seeing Scott Pilgrim, if I didn't hate Michael Cera with every fibre of my being.

Every fibre? Even the nice ones? If this hate stems from Cera playing similar/the same role, grow up. It's not his fault he's being type-cast, he's known for playing those roles, he plays them well, he makes everyone money for playing those roles. When he's well-known for making money with a certain type of role - hey guess what - he's going to get lets of offers for similar roles. Also, you know what? Cera is still a young guy. He's been being type-cast for what? Four years? That's nothing. How long has Will Smith been playing "the black guy who is charming enough to still attract a white audience?" Almost his whole career, and I bet you love him for it.

What a sweetheart.

Cera has his entire career to break away from the character's he's being cast as, and here's a hint - he's already done playing those characters. He is too gnarfing old too anymore. That's a flaw in the haters logic right there - it doesn't make sense to hate an actor for the roles they play, if they're no longer playing those roles. Refusing to admit that it is even possible for an actor to play a role other than the ones you are familiar with him playing shows your own stupidity, lack of faith and inability to understand how acting actually works.

Now onto the hipster debate; I dislike hipsters intently. I believe there is no such thing as intentional non-conforming, I hate the preaching-but-not-acting philosophy of hipsters and they just look silly. However, there's something I've noticed about the hipster hate on the Internet: nobody knows what a hipster is. Someone will make a topic about Scott Pilgrim, get a "hipster shit" reply, and the whole thread will turn into a back and forth about who in the topic is an actual hipster. It's basically the same as two white people yelling "no you're a racist" at each other. Why is Michael Cera a hipster? Because he's in Hipster films? What makes his films hipster films? Oh dang, too late, I'm a hipster for asking. "Hipster" was originally a term used by black jazz musicians to describer white Jazz musicians - a hipster is a poser. So... Why is Cera a poser, and no other actors are? He must dress like a hipster, his characters must say hipster things. Except, you kow, those things are both out of Cera's control. The instant knee-jerk "hipster shit" response almost seems one of self-defense, of the cliche gay-hating homosexual. I'm not calling hipster-haters hipsters, but I am saying that one shouldn't jump so quickly to a conclusion so baselessly.
If we take a "hipster movie" to be about non-conforming, about half thought-out philosophies, possible nihilism, anti-consumerism etc., you know what the first movie that comes to mind when I think of those things is? Fight Club. It has more "hipster" morals than I'm sure Scott Pilgrim does, anyway. It's still a damn fine movie, though, and I wouldn't even freaking accuse it of being a hipster movie. This leads into my next point...

Now, I am going to risk something here; something that may (if you're one of the witch hunters): So what if Michael Cera is a hipster? So What if Scott Pilgrim is a Hipster Movie? Why does it fucking matter? Why is a hipster movie instantly bad? Newsflash guys: You don't have to like the characters in a movie and still enjoy it. Show of hands, who really really liked Daniel Plainview? Who thought he was a swell guy?

What a sweetheart.

You don't have to agree with a films message. You don't have to like the characters. You don't have to see your own opinions and persona on the screen to appreciate a good movie. One of my favorite characters of recent films is Chad from In the Company of Men. I also find him one of the most disgusting chatacters ever put on film.
I saw Harry Brown, waiting for the film to give Michael Cane a good talking to - to tell him that revenge wasn't the answer, and that maybe the kids are just as much victims as the people they pick on. That maybe they're the way they are because they've never been offered help, or that it would be better to let the actual law handle this. It never did, though. Do I hate the movie for that? No. Does the director even have to agree with the characters? No.

Forgive actors you hate. Abandon the hipster-fear, and learn to actually enjoy movies again. Be a sweetheart.