Globe and Mail's Arts Persons (Triple Threat) of the Year
Everything outside of the cut is about Michael. The whole article can be found beneath the cut. Since the triple threat is Michael Cera, Seth Rogan, and Ellen Page - I think it's worth a full read.
Rogen's cohort in crime is Michael Cera, the 19-year-old - 19! - with a helium voice and a body that looks like it's made of pencils held together with rubber bands. He's a Brampton boy, and I mean that literally - he still lives with his parents in the Toronto suburb. In his two films this year, Superbad and Juno, and in his beloved turn as George-Michael on the comedy series Arrested Development, Cera has perfected the role of kindly observer of chaos. He delivers his lines the way Frank Sinatra sings lyrics, always sitting a bit behind the beat. And he emanates a moral rightness - but without judgment - that is essential in keeping the comedy around him from turning too mean.
ESSENTIAL FACTS
MICHAEL CERA
BORN
June 7, 1988, Brampton, Ont.
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Evan in Superbad
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Paulie Bleeker in Juno
WORD ON THE STREET
"Michael is someone we're all in awe of. We don't understand how it works; he's a little bit of a savant. I like that he's so funny and has such a great sense of comedy, almost a Bob Newhart sense of comedy. But at the same time, he's a very good actor." - Producer Judd Apatow
December 29, 2007
I've never been comfortable with our national penchant, in entertainment coverage, for ferreting out anything that smells vaguely Canadian and making that the story: "Hey, there's one local character actor in the corner of the frame, we've got a Canadian hook, let's milk it." And I'm not crazy about stories that insist on defining our national culture by what we're not: "We're not American in the following ways, and we're not British in these other ways, so we must be something else! Let's milk it."
But 2007 has been a banner year for Canadians in the entertainment business, for real this time. David Cronenberg released Eastern Promises, a terrific movie that's an exploration of the Russian mob in London, starring Australian, New York and French actors, made by a Toronto director - and authentically Canadian precisely because it's such a mishmash of sensibilities.
Sarah Polley wrote and directed a movie, Away From Her, as if she's been doing it all her life (which isn't that long to begin with, just shy of 29 years), and it turns out to be the very model all first-time filmmakers should study: Adapt a Canadian story (this time by Alice Munro, whose work has never had to define itself as "being" anything). Use a Newfoundland actor at the peak of his powers, Gordon Pinsent. Entice a legendary, stubborn Brit, Julie Christie, out of semi-retirement. Shoot it in Ontario,
for a laughably small budget, and end up
with something universal.
Ryan Gosling made a believable character study out of the surreal Lars and the Real Girl, and Celine Dion killed 'em in Vegas right to the end of her run, and any one of the above would qualify as The Globe and Mail's Arts Person of the Year.
But we've chosen to bestow that title to a
triumvirate of (shockingly) young actors who, separately and together, shook up Hollywood this year: Michael Cera, Ellen Page and Seth
Rogen.
It doesn't hurt that, collectively, their three big films this year have grossed $280-million, and made millions more on DVD.
At 25, Rogen is the old man of the bunch, and honestly, the mind can't help but reel when it thinks about what this slightly chubby, affable Vancouver dude has accomplished this year. Rogen came out of the comedy petri dish of Judd Apatow, the writer / director whom Entertainment Weekly recently named the smartest person in Hollywood. (Apatow wrote and directed several episodes of the cult TV fave Freaks and Geeks, which starred Rogen, and then made movies for every hot comedian out there, including Will Ferrell in Anchorman and Talladega Nights, and Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.) Rogen could have had a sweet, steady career doing amusing cameos (Eager Cameraman in Anchorman), funny friends (Cal in The 40-Year-Old Virgin; Neil in You, Me and Dupree) and voice-overs (Ship Captain in Shrek the Third).
Instead, he found himself a lead role, and what a role, clambering all over the glorious Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up. The movie would have been off-puttingly sexist, were it not for Rogen's self-deprecating presence. "Yeah, guys can be idiots," he seems to be saying, "but I'm hopeful I can grow up." For me, the whole thing came down to that scene in the baby store where he tries on a white, frilly bonnet and natters charmingly, "See this?" (Or words to that effect.) "This is what's coming out of you in a few months. Are you ready for this?" If you buy that scene, you buy the movie. And buy we did: Knocked Up was the 12th-most-profitable movie of the year.
Rogen's reaction to his success was adorable, modest bemusement. "I am on a movie poster. This is the face on a movie poster," he repeated to all the daytime and late-night talk-show hosts, all the magazine and newspaper journalists. Then, savvy devil, he quickly made Superbad, a script he wrote just long enough ago that he could no longer play the lead and that no one would finance until Knocked Up gave him cred. It did, oh, pretty well - the 18th-most-profitable movie of 2007 - and, together with Knocked Up, created the template for a new kind of humour, one that somehow merges gross-out physical comedy, unabashed sentimentality and an abiding love of linguistic play.
Rogen's cohort in crime is Michael Cera, the 19-year-old - 19! - with a helium voice and a body that looks like it's made of pencils held together with rubber bands. He's a Brampton boy, and I mean that literally - he still lives with his parents in the Toronto suburb. In his two films this year, Superbad and Juno, and in his beloved turn as George-Michael on the comedy series Arrested Development, Cera has perfected the role of kindly observer of chaos. He delivers his lines the way Frank Sinatra sings lyrics, always sitting a bit behind the beat. And he emanates a moral rightness - but without judgment - that is essential in keeping the comedy around him from turning too mean.
Cera and Rogen will have long careers playing versions of themselves, but to my mind, the actor of the bunch is Ellen Page, 20, a one-woman Chamber of Commerce for her native Halifax. Brainy, tiny, articulate and frighteningly gifted, she's being compared to Jodie Foster, even though she's already better than Foster at comedy. I can think of no one else who could have infused the mood swings required by her character in Bruce McDonald's film The Tracey Fragments with such deep, unfussy sadness, and who could deliver the wonky rat-a-tat of screenwriter Diablo Cody's dialogue in Jason Reitman's current hit comedy, Juno. I haven't seen her work in the reportedly harrowing An American Crime, where she recreates the true story of an Indiana girl tortured by her foster mother (played by Catherine Keener), but I expect she'll raise the hairs on whoever has the stomach to see it.
For Juno, Page has been nominated for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Independent Spirit Award, and been showered with accolades from the U.S. National Board of Review and nearly every film critics' association. And Oscar buzz pits her against Julie Christie in Away From Her as top contenders for best actress. How cool is that?
Unlike previous generations of Canadian talent, who seemed required to choose either a career of commenting on American culture from an outsider's perspective, or seamless assimilation into it, Page, Cera and Rogen are 21st-century Canadians: They live here, they work there, and it's no big deal. They don't have to insist on being Canadian, they just are. They're not reshaping "their" culture versus "our" culture, but culture. It's a brave new world, and right now, it's all theirs.
ESSENTIAL FACTS
MICHAEL CERA
BORN
June 7, 1988, Brampton, Ont.
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Evan in Superbad
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Paulie Bleeker in Juno
WORD ON THE STREET
"Michael is someone we're all in awe of. We don't understand how it works; he's a little bit of a savant. I like that he's so funny and has such a great sense of comedy, almost a Bob Newhart sense of comedy. But at the same time, he's a very good actor. - Producer Judd Apatow
SETH ROGEN
BORN
April 15, 1982, Vancouver
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Wildly immature daddy-to-be Ben Stone in Knocked Up
Officer Michaels in Superbad, which he co-wrote
HIS VIEW ON FAME
"My actual life has not changed all that much. I bought a house, that's nice. But I don't all of a sudden have a mink car. I like complaining about other people being a-holes. And if I'm an
a-hole, I can't do that." ELLEN PAGE
BORN
Feb. 21, 1987, Halifax
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Tracey Berkowitz in Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments
Pregnant teen Juno MacGuff,
in Juno
HIGH PRAISE
"The second we'd go into a scene, she was brilliant, incredible. She can do anything. On a set, everyone can see when an actor is nailing a part. We all knew she was killing it."
- Jennifer Garner, on acting
with Page in Juno
SOURCE
Rogen's cohort in crime is Michael Cera, the 19-year-old - 19! - with a helium voice and a body that looks like it's made of pencils held together with rubber bands. He's a Brampton boy, and I mean that literally - he still lives with his parents in the Toronto suburb. In his two films this year, Superbad and Juno, and in his beloved turn as George-Michael on the comedy series Arrested Development, Cera has perfected the role of kindly observer of chaos. He delivers his lines the way Frank Sinatra sings lyrics, always sitting a bit behind the beat. And he emanates a moral rightness - but without judgment - that is essential in keeping the comedy around him from turning too mean.
ESSENTIAL FACTS
MICHAEL CERA
BORN
June 7, 1988, Brampton, Ont.
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Evan in Superbad
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Paulie Bleeker in Juno
WORD ON THE STREET
"Michael is someone we're all in awe of. We don't understand how it works; he's a little bit of a savant. I like that he's so funny and has such a great sense of comedy, almost a Bob Newhart sense of comedy. But at the same time, he's a very good actor." - Producer Judd Apatow
December 29, 2007
I've never been comfortable with our national penchant, in entertainment coverage, for ferreting out anything that smells vaguely Canadian and making that the story: "Hey, there's one local character actor in the corner of the frame, we've got a Canadian hook, let's milk it." And I'm not crazy about stories that insist on defining our national culture by what we're not: "We're not American in the following ways, and we're not British in these other ways, so we must be something else! Let's milk it."
But 2007 has been a banner year for Canadians in the entertainment business, for real this time. David Cronenberg released Eastern Promises, a terrific movie that's an exploration of the Russian mob in London, starring Australian, New York and French actors, made by a Toronto director - and authentically Canadian precisely because it's such a mishmash of sensibilities.
Sarah Polley wrote and directed a movie, Away From Her, as if she's been doing it all her life (which isn't that long to begin with, just shy of 29 years), and it turns out to be the very model all first-time filmmakers should study: Adapt a Canadian story (this time by Alice Munro, whose work has never had to define itself as "being" anything). Use a Newfoundland actor at the peak of his powers, Gordon Pinsent. Entice a legendary, stubborn Brit, Julie Christie, out of semi-retirement. Shoot it in Ontario,
for a laughably small budget, and end up
with something universal.
Ryan Gosling made a believable character study out of the surreal Lars and the Real Girl, and Celine Dion killed 'em in Vegas right to the end of her run, and any one of the above would qualify as The Globe and Mail's Arts Person of the Year.
But we've chosen to bestow that title to a
triumvirate of (shockingly) young actors who, separately and together, shook up Hollywood this year: Michael Cera, Ellen Page and Seth
Rogen.
It doesn't hurt that, collectively, their three big films this year have grossed $280-million, and made millions more on DVD.
At 25, Rogen is the old man of the bunch, and honestly, the mind can't help but reel when it thinks about what this slightly chubby, affable Vancouver dude has accomplished this year. Rogen came out of the comedy petri dish of Judd Apatow, the writer / director whom Entertainment Weekly recently named the smartest person in Hollywood. (Apatow wrote and directed several episodes of the cult TV fave Freaks and Geeks, which starred Rogen, and then made movies for every hot comedian out there, including Will Ferrell in Anchorman and Talladega Nights, and Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.) Rogen could have had a sweet, steady career doing amusing cameos (Eager Cameraman in Anchorman), funny friends (Cal in The 40-Year-Old Virgin; Neil in You, Me and Dupree) and voice-overs (Ship Captain in Shrek the Third).
Instead, he found himself a lead role, and what a role, clambering all over the glorious Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up. The movie would have been off-puttingly sexist, were it not for Rogen's self-deprecating presence. "Yeah, guys can be idiots," he seems to be saying, "but I'm hopeful I can grow up." For me, the whole thing came down to that scene in the baby store where he tries on a white, frilly bonnet and natters charmingly, "See this?" (Or words to that effect.) "This is what's coming out of you in a few months. Are you ready for this?" If you buy that scene, you buy the movie. And buy we did: Knocked Up was the 12th-most-profitable movie of the year.
Rogen's reaction to his success was adorable, modest bemusement. "I am on a movie poster. This is the face on a movie poster," he repeated to all the daytime and late-night talk-show hosts, all the magazine and newspaper journalists. Then, savvy devil, he quickly made Superbad, a script he wrote just long enough ago that he could no longer play the lead and that no one would finance until Knocked Up gave him cred. It did, oh, pretty well - the 18th-most-profitable movie of 2007 - and, together with Knocked Up, created the template for a new kind of humour, one that somehow merges gross-out physical comedy, unabashed sentimentality and an abiding love of linguistic play.
Rogen's cohort in crime is Michael Cera, the 19-year-old - 19! - with a helium voice and a body that looks like it's made of pencils held together with rubber bands. He's a Brampton boy, and I mean that literally - he still lives with his parents in the Toronto suburb. In his two films this year, Superbad and Juno, and in his beloved turn as George-Michael on the comedy series Arrested Development, Cera has perfected the role of kindly observer of chaos. He delivers his lines the way Frank Sinatra sings lyrics, always sitting a bit behind the beat. And he emanates a moral rightness - but without judgment - that is essential in keeping the comedy around him from turning too mean.
Cera and Rogen will have long careers playing versions of themselves, but to my mind, the actor of the bunch is Ellen Page, 20, a one-woman Chamber of Commerce for her native Halifax. Brainy, tiny, articulate and frighteningly gifted, she's being compared to Jodie Foster, even though she's already better than Foster at comedy. I can think of no one else who could have infused the mood swings required by her character in Bruce McDonald's film The Tracey Fragments with such deep, unfussy sadness, and who could deliver the wonky rat-a-tat of screenwriter Diablo Cody's dialogue in Jason Reitman's current hit comedy, Juno. I haven't seen her work in the reportedly harrowing An American Crime, where she recreates the true story of an Indiana girl tortured by her foster mother (played by Catherine Keener), but I expect she'll raise the hairs on whoever has the stomach to see it.
For Juno, Page has been nominated for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Independent Spirit Award, and been showered with accolades from the U.S. National Board of Review and nearly every film critics' association. And Oscar buzz pits her against Julie Christie in Away From Her as top contenders for best actress. How cool is that?
Unlike previous generations of Canadian talent, who seemed required to choose either a career of commenting on American culture from an outsider's perspective, or seamless assimilation into it, Page, Cera and Rogen are 21st-century Canadians: They live here, they work there, and it's no big deal. They don't have to insist on being Canadian, they just are. They're not reshaping "their" culture versus "our" culture, but culture. It's a brave new world, and right now, it's all theirs.
ESSENTIAL FACTS
MICHAEL CERA
BORN
June 7, 1988, Brampton, Ont.
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Evan in Superbad
Awkwardly sweet high schooler Paulie Bleeker in Juno
WORD ON THE STREET
"Michael is someone we're all in awe of. We don't understand how it works; he's a little bit of a savant. I like that he's so funny and has such a great sense of comedy, almost a Bob Newhart sense of comedy. But at the same time, he's a very good actor. - Producer Judd Apatow
SETH ROGEN
BORN
April 15, 1982, Vancouver
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Wildly immature daddy-to-be Ben Stone in Knocked Up
Officer Michaels in Superbad, which he co-wrote
HIS VIEW ON FAME
"My actual life has not changed all that much. I bought a house, that's nice. But I don't all of a sudden have a mink car. I like complaining about other people being a-holes. And if I'm an
a-hole, I can't do that." ELLEN PAGE
BORN
Feb. 21, 1987, Halifax
KEY ROLES THIS YEAR
Tracey Berkowitz in Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments
Pregnant teen Juno MacGuff,
in Juno
HIGH PRAISE
"The second we'd go into a scene, she was brilliant, incredible. She can do anything. On a set, everyone can see when an actor is nailing a part. We all knew she was killing it."
- Jennifer Garner, on acting
with Page in Juno
SOURCE