They play kissing cousins on Fox Television's Arrested Development, but Alia Shawkat and Michael Cera behave a lot more like brother and sister. There's constant teasing, the ability to finish each other's sentences, and a palpable desire to try to embarrass each other as much as possible. Not unlike George-Michael Bluth and Maeby Funke, their onscreen personas, the actors are prone to snappy one-liners and finding comedic gold in such mundane items as a traffic cone or the criticism of a morning deejay.
Cera, 16, and Shawkat, 15, carry themselves with the skill of actors twice their age in the uproarious ensemble comedy from creator Mitchell Hurwitz. Dealing with twisty and twisted storylines that include George-Michael's ongoing crush on Maeby, a family patriarch (Jeffrey Tambor) on the run from the law and living in the family's attic, and a wannabe actor (David Cross) who always has to wear tiny cutoff jeans--even in the shower--Cera and Shawkat are one of the reasons the delicately balanced comedy never misses a beat. As Jason Bateman's sweet and clueless son, Cera's George-Michael manages to keep the most decent character on the show compelling. Shawkat's Maeby is George-Michael's polar opposite, delightfully devious and constantly out-manipulating her scheming parents (played by Cross and Portia de Rossi). It's not surprising to note that, even at a young age, the two are already industry veterans: Cera has a lengthy resume of TV shows and commercials, mostly from his native Canada, and Shawkat made her film debut at age 9 in a pivotal role in director David O. Russell's Three Kings.
Back Stage West sat down with the young performers on the Fox lot during one of the final shooting days of Season Two, when it was still undecided whether the critically acclaimed but low-rated program would be returning for a third season. With tongues firmly planted in cheek, Cera and Shawkat gave their thoughts on awards shows, saving puppies, and keeping a straight face during some of the most outrageous scenes on television.
Back Stage West: How did you come to play George-Michael and Maeby?
Alia Shawkat: I paid numerous amounts of money to different people, including Michael, actually.
Michael Cera: Well, I wanted to help her get back on her feet. We don't need to get into the details.
Shawkat: Thank you for that.
Cera: Okay, seriously, I sent in an audition tape from Toronto.
Shawkat: I auditioned; I just went in. I think Mitch [Hurwitz] had seen me on a tape from a Michael J. Fox project he was doing--a pilot that didn't go. He said, "I remember you." I thought that would get me in. I did the screen test with Michael [Cera].
Cera: That's when she gave me the money.
BSW: How did you first become involved in acting?
Cera: I was doing it since I was 9, a lot of Canadian work, mostly commercials and TV movies. I've been working steadily and staying in school and doing it part-time. This was the first time I had to move to L.A. part-time. My mom came with me, and we still live in Toronto; we're going back next month.
Shawkat: I did a Barbie commercial for my first job. A week later, I got Three Kings.
Cera: Tell them how you got your SAG card.
Shawkat: Right. We were at the SAG Awards, and everyone kept asking every single person how they got their SAG card. I had to repeat the story of my Barbie commercial every single time.
Cera: And I had to listen politely every single time.
Shawkat: So I did Three Kings as my first movie when I was 9. I live in Palm Springs, which is two hours away, so I always had to drive in for auditions. While I work, my mom and I stay at a hotel in town and drive back on the weekends. I have two brothers, so my dad has to stay back in the desert while she's here with me. But Three Kings was a great first experience; everyone was so wonderful to me. I had to speak Arabic, but I'm half-Arabic. My dad's Arabic, so he speaks it fluently. He actually was the dialect coach and had a small part in the movie.
BSW: Rumor has it Three Kings was a tough set, but it was a completely positive experience for you?
Shawkat: Well, there were some fights going on, but I didn't really notice. I was just playing patty-cake in the background.
BSW: When did you realize you wanted to be an actor?
Shawkat: Today.
Cera: Yes, the day Back Stage West phoned us. I said, "Today, I am an actor."
Shawkat: Oh, hold on one second.
(Shawkat stops a passing motorist who has driven over a traffic cone. She pulls it out from where it's lodged under a tire.)
Cera: Be sure to write she saved an innocent victim's car. No, say she lifted the car up on two wheels and saved a puppy.
Shawkat: And that I'm pregnant. So, when did I want to be an actor? Actually my grandpa was an actor. It wasn't because of him [I got into acting], but I thought that was cool. I used to see kids on TV and be, like, "Why can't I do that?"
BSW: So it was jealousy?
Shawkat: In a way, maybe. It's weird; a lot of people come up to me and say, "My kid is just a ham. I want to get him into acting." I was never like that. I was always really shy, and I never really liked talking to many people. But I loved the idea of pretending to be somebody else. I don't know if that's good or bad; it's kind of disturbing.
Cera: When I was 3, I got a bad case of chicken pox and watched Ghostbusters all the time. I think that's what did it. I loved Bill Murray, and I had that movie memorized word-for-word by the time I was 4.
The Deal With 'Development'
BSW: There's a lot of talk about how mature you both come off on Arrested Development, and how well you handle adult material. Do you ever need storylines explained?
Cera: A lot of the time Mitch will come up and explain the plots to us, only because you can get totally lost reading the scripts until you see it all. But other than that, no.
Shawkat: Every time you get a script, you laugh so hard.
BSW: What's the most embarrassing thing you've had to do on the show?
Shawkat: I've had to kiss a lot of people on this show. That's kind of embarrassing and awkward.
Cera: I had to do a thing where I was wearing cutoffs: That was hard, only because I was in front of, like, 500 extras. Other than that, not too many things. Usually it's me watching other people doing something embarrassing, like watching David Cross disrobe in front of me.
BSW: How do you keep a straight face during scenes like that?
Cera: That's the hardest part.
Shawkat: It's very hard.
Cera: You just think of dead puppies.
Shawkat: You're sick. I save puppies from cars, as you all know. It's hard, but I've been surprised we can keep a straight face. I think after you see it a couple times--it's still funny every time--but the first time you break a smile. By the fourth time, you think, "Hey, I'm getting paid. Get to work."
BSW: The last time I was here, guest star Martin Short was being thrown around the set and everyone, the cast and crew, couldn't stop laughing.
Cera: That was hard. That was one of the first times I laughed out loud on camera. I was supposed to exit and turn and leave the scene, but I was laughing when I was doing it, and I ruined it.
Shawkat: Yeah, I remember that. You wasted thousands of dollars.
Cera: Right. That was the day film cost $1,000 a second.
But Seriously...
BSW: When did you first become serious about acting and see it as a career?
Cera: When I was, like, 4, I would always say, "When I'm an actor..." to my parents. When I was around 9, I was taking classes on the weekend, and a drama teacher of mine told my mom I should probably look into getting an agent.
BSW: She never tried to talk you out of it?
Cera: No. At first I would have this weird dream where she was sitting over my bed, trying to talk me out of ever doing this, but then in the morning she'd convince me it was just a dream.
Shawkat: Actually it was really similar for me. I used to tell my parents, and my mom would kind of brush it off when I was younger. She never really took it seriously, but she was, like, "Okay, I'll see if I can get her an agent, and that will shut her up for a while." Then I did, and it was like a snowball; it just grows. You get an agent and you get an audition, and if you get that, it just keeps going. It seems like you go from one part to the next.
BSW: Is there anything about acting or the job of being an actor you don't like?
Shawkat: It can be hard to manage time. Sometimes you have meetings, auditions, a party to go to that night, and you have to fit it all in. On top of that you have to work and do school. I always feel really awkward on the red carpet.
Cera: It can be stressful, too, because we have to do three hours of school every day, on top of the labor.
Shawkat: Publicity is hard for me sometimes, like the red carpet.
Cera: Every [reporter] has the same question.
Shawkat: And it's hard to feel comfortable. They keep shooting you these questions, and you're supposed to be funny.
Cera: It's easier when we do it together.
Shawkat: And we're not well-known, I mean, no one knows who the hell I am. So when they see a glimpse of Paris Hilton, they suddenly lose interest in you and start going, "Paris! Paris!" Seriously.
Cera: At the SAG Awards, we were in the middle of an interview with some woman, and we were answering and halfway through the answer, and she goes, "Thanks, yeah," and ran down the carpet to find someone more important.
Shawkat: I felt like saying, "And, yeah, my dog died," just telling some depressing story so they'd feel bad for cutting me off.
Cera: Again with the puppies.
Not another 'E! True Hollywood Story'
BSW: The relationships on the show feel authentic. Is that something you had to work to achieve, or was there an instant connection with your onscreen family?
Cera: I think so. They had me come in and read with Jason [Bateman], and we seemed to get along right away.
Shawkat: They have what you call "onscreen chemistry." You get to know everyone; we've all become so close. It'll be hard leaving again, hoping that we come back.
BSW: Speaking of, has there been any word?
Shawkat: We're not cancelled. Oh, tell them what [former child star and L.A. radio personality] Danny Bonaduce said.
Cera: Today on the radio he said something like, "Oh, Closer was a terrible movie." The other girl on the show said, "They've won all sorts of awards." And he said, "So? Arrested Development was up for five Emmys, and they're cancelled, and they still suck." He just heard that the ratings on our show weren't great, and therefore we're not good.
Shawkat: Forget it. He hasn't had a real job since The Partridge Family.
BSW: That brings up a question: How do you, as young actors, avoid falling into the traps young actors have and keep from ending up an "E! True Hollywood Story?"
Shawkat: Well, I go back to Palm Springs as much as possible to stay grounded. He goes to Canada.
Cera: I think it depends on the parents. We're lucky that way.
BSW: Is acting something you hope to do with the rest of your life?
Shawkat: I hope so. Sometimes I'll wake up in sweats, like, "Oh, my God, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?" I hope to go to college. I don't think college is necessary, but I know that I want to go.
Cera: I think I want to continue acting. Or maybe I'll want to take a writing course.
Shawkat: He's a good writer, this one, and a reader. We've taught him to read.
BSW: What sort of roles do you look forward to doing in the future?
Shawkat: When it comes to television comedy, this is the cream of the crop. We're just so lucky. And this is my first big network series. It's so weird, because I like drama and movies, and I always work in TV comedies. Which I guess proves I can't act in drama, but I love doing drama, as well as comedy. I would never want to do a drama series, because I think that's draining. And I don't want to hit it too big when I'm young, because then you have nowhere to go. So where I'm going right now, on such a great show, at a slow pace, I'm happy. Hopefully, I'll work up to dramatic movies and other great roles, but mostly I hope to do this show for a long time to come.
Cera: Whatever comes along I'll audition for. Those are the parts I was born to play, the ones where I audition.
BSW: Is there anyone who's career you'd like to emulate or that you use to model your work on?
Shawkat: David Cross. He has a great career. And I like that people know him for such great stuff; he's not like a Paris Hilton, if you will. He's not known in the publicity aspect, he's in it for the craft, which sounds really corny, but it's true. And I like Natalie Portman; she's been doing great work since she was young.
Cera: Bill Murray. He's honestly one of the reasons I think I'm an actor.
BSW: Is there any advice you would offer to young performers looking to break in or last in the industry?
Cera: Just always try to look for quality scripts. There are a lot of bad movies that I think can almost hurt people's careers.
Shawkat: I think a lot of actors try to push it too much, and you can tell they're acting. The thing that's so great about Arrested is, they're so open to being real. I think that's a big part of acting. Any audition, they love realness, as long as you're not thinking about your acting too much. BSW