Michael Cera as Allan was a standout in Greta Gerwig's Barbie. However, he nearly didn't take the role in the Margot Robbie-led film.
While discussing his most iconic characters with GQ, Cera spoke about the process of joining Barbie.
“It was a kind of very last-minute casting,” Cera recalled. “My manager got a call checking on my availability for it, and he called me and he said, ‘I got a call about this movie — it's the Barbie movie, Greta Gerwig's directing it, and it's filming in London for four months or something. So I told them you probably wouldn't want to do it, 'cause you probably don't want to go to London.'”
“I was like, ‘What? What do you mean? Call them back,” he continued with a smile.
He clarified, “I mean, he didn't blow it or anything, but he's like, ‘I managed their expectations, that you might now wanna do it.' And I was like, ‘How can I not do it? I need to do it.'”
Once he decided he wanted to be in Barbie, Cera took an unconventional route in talking to Gerwig. “I somehow got Greta's email address, I think through a common friend of ours, and I emailed her. I was like, ‘Can I do that part?' And she was like, ‘Let's get on a Zoom [call] right now. Here's a Zoom link. I'll be on there for the next hour.'”
After joining the Zoom call, “it just all happened really fast from there,” Cera revealed.
And thankfully, Michael Cera did get that part as he was a standout amidst a large ensemble.
Barbie is in theaters now.