Michael Cera has been spending the last few weeks on a global press tour for “The Phoenician Scheme,” which marks his first time starring in a Wes Anderson movie. The same is true of Jackie Chan, who has been on his own promotional tour this month on behalf of “Karate Kid: Legends.” The two actors recently found themselves at the same press stop, BBC Radio 2, but Cera told NME that Chan had no idea who he was.
“[A photographer] asked if I knew Jackie Chan, which I don’t, so she said ‘come meet him,’” Cera said. “That was that. When I met him though, he was like ‘who is this person, what’s going on?’ We took a picture but I think he thought I was a competition winner. He was like, ‘Ok, let’s do a picture real quick. Come on.’ Not rudely. But I felt like I was invading his little personal time with his team before he goes on the radio.”
Cera, who spoke to NME only 20 minutes after meeting Chan, added: “I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’ But everyone was very sweet and I got to meet Jackie.”
“The Phoenician Scheme” and “Karate Kid: Legends” share a May 30 release date, although Cera’s Wes Anderson film is only in limited release and will expand nationwide June 6. Cera attended the film’s Cannes Film Festival world premiere, where he spoke to Variety about making his Wes Anderson debut.
“It’s so specific and very exacting, but so much fun. Such a spirit of fun, all the time,” Cera said about Anderso’s set. “Never feels negatively charged or pressurized, it always felt like we’re just having a great time, even though we’re working hard at it. It always felt very optimistic and I was totally in love with the movie as we were making it.
“Wes has sort of the luxury of doing as many takes as he needs to, so around 20 takes in you go, ‘OK, we kind of have it, so now let’s try something else and keep experimenting just for the sake of it,’” Cera added. “It’s just a nice way to work, where you feel like, ‘Everything else from here is gravy.’ There are little happy accidents in the movie, for sure. Obviously, I just hope to continue working with him any chance there is.”
