Michael Cera & Michael Angarano Talk Sacramento’s Surprising Superbad Comparisons
Sacramento stars Michael Cera and Michael Angarano, who also co-wrote and directed the film, spoke to ComingSoon about the movie‘s themes of fatherhood, its prophetic real-life similarities, and comparisons to Superbad. Also starring Maya Erskine and Kristen Stewart, the film hits theaters on April 11.
“Following the death of his father, energetic and free-spirited Rickey (Michael Angarano) convinces long-time friend Glenn (Michael Cera) to go on an impromptu road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento. Frustrated by Rickey’s Peter Pan complex, Glenn is encouraged by his pregnant wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart) to go on the adventure to reconnect. In the worn yellow seats of Glenn’s old college convertible, the two men confront their anxiety-ridden lives, addressing past mistakes and questioning what their futures hold,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Michael Cera, your character, Glenn, is becoming a father. You’re a proud dad yourself. So, how was it tapping into those insecurities of a first-time father-to-be? Because Glenn’s clearly going through a lot and his mind is just racing throughout this entire film.
Michael Cera: Well, it’s funny because when we made the movie, my wife was pregnant actually with our second child, so we were going, we were in the middle of a pregnancy while making the movie, which, uh, which is kind of, which is very scary sometimes. Everything worked out great, and our son is all great and everything.
But pregnancies are stressful, and you feel very out of control. You just hope that everything goes the way it should. So, it’s totally immediate to me and relatable and very real. All of the things that Glenn goes through, I’ve gone through myself pretty much. You just want everything to go well, and you have no control over any of it.
Michael Angarano, I wanted to ask you about the themes of fatherhood in Sacramento, especially because you worked with your wife, Maya, on this. I saw your Stockholm Film Festival intro, where you said you actually met her due to this film. I know the pandemic delayed production, and it’s taken a few years, but did the subject matter morph any, or was it like oddly prophetic for what wound up being in your real life?
Michael Angarano: Yeah, it was oddly prophetic. Maya, I was just a big fan of Pen15, and when we were going out and trying to package this film five or six years ago, we asked Maya to attach herself to it because we were such big fans of the show. She said yes, and then we wouldn’t meet till months after that. Then we finally met, and then the movie didn’t get made for three or four years. Just so happens, by the time the film actually got made, we were engaged with a baby boy. So, it was weirdly prophetic. Also, when we were able to make the movie together, we just kind of felt so lucky that we were able to have that and do it.
That’s so magical and beautiful.
Michael Cera, Superbad is one of my favorite movies ever. Sacramento has been compared to it quite a bit. They’re both about characters really struggling with coming into that next stage of their lives. Did you ever feel those similarities while working on it?
Michael Cera: No. I mean, that never occurred to me, but I see what you mean. It’s just very different points of life. Obviously, we’re sort of like twice as old as the characters in Superbad.
Michael Angarano: Were you like 15 in that movie?
Michael Cera: 18. So we’re actually literally twice as old.
Michael Angarano: Literally. Yeah. That’s crazy.
Michael Cera: But I see what you mean. But other than that, I mean, we are not trying to get alcohol as we’re not underage, and we’re not chasing high school girls. Thankfully, that’s not the journey you wanted to go on [laughs].
Thanks to Michael Cera and Michael Angarano for taking the time to talk about Sacramento ahead of opening weekend.
Source: Comingsoon.net