Material:
Deborah Solomon's (The New York Times Magazine, Jan. 10, 2010) interview of actor Michael Cera.
Genre:
A mash-up re-interview -- in which the interviewee's responses are arbitrarily matched against actual and virtual questions.
Notation:
DS (Deborah Solomon - asks actual questions), MC (Michael Cera - a Canadian Zen Master, nonanswers questions exactly as they are stated, more or less), ZS (Zen Student - asks virtual questions and provides sideline commentary)
Question Quest 1
DS: Critics describe you as sweet, bumbling, baby-faced and dweeby. Did I leave any adjective off the list?
MC: Maybe. Maybe confused.
ZS: Makes sense: confusion is enlightenment (or, at least, a prerequisite for it).
Question Quest 2
DS:You starred in a Pillsbury commercial... Does the Doughboy exist in physical space?
ZC:And, yes, if I may jump in here for a second... Michael, what is the nature of reality and self, if that's not too much to ask?
MC:There was nothing there. I just had an eye line and had to stick my arm out and do it a million times until they said it looked good.
ZS:Makes sense: dough is a process.
Question Quest 3
DS:Do you see yourself as fundamentally Canadian?
MC:I don't feel like anything other than myself, basically.
ZS:Go, Master Mike, un-state the question!
Question Quest 4
DS:At 21, what do you do when you're not filming?
MC:That's a good question. Right now I am at home with my family.
ZS:Ground of being swells...
Question Quest 5
After Michael shares that he had broken his nose and had a concussion as a kid skiing...
DS:Do you think any trace of the break is still visible? Maybe that's what gives you so much character.
MC:I don't think you could ever tell looking at me where it was broken, but the concussion might have had some effect.
Unable to trigger Zen Master's non-existent neurotic defenses, the interviewer nose-dives into a compliment.
DS:It gave you more depth as an actor?
MC:Or less. I don't know.
ZS:Yes, yes... all world is but a boundless surface. Que Cera, Sera: whatever is, is.
Set check:
Green sweater matches a green Nike swoosh completing the green screen. Fade to blank to begin another intra-view.