Barbie Star Cera: No Smartphone for Me, Thanks

Actor's flip phone kept him from taking part in film's group chat
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 10, 2023 12:02 PM CDT
Barbie Star Cera: No Smartphone for Me, Thanks
Michael Cera arrives at the premiere of "Barbie" on Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

If you happen to spot someone these days who's still carrying around a flip phone, they're likely either an AARP member or trying to be retro. Michael Cera is neither, and proof that, per CNN, "sometimes stars aren't just like us." The 35-year-old Arrested Development actor, now appearing in the Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie, tells People that some of his co-stars in the movie—including Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and Issa Rae—took part in a group chat during filming, and that he couldn't participate because he doesn't own any sort of newfangled communications device.

"I don't have an iPhone myself," he confesses. "I have a flip phone." Cera had previously admitted to not having a smartphone during a February interview with the Hollywood Reporter. "That is a conscious choice, because I feel a bit of fear about it honestly, like I'd really lose control of my waking life," he said at the time. He noted that his "aversion" to smartphones came about when the BlackBerry came out and a friend who had one ignored him during lunch, leaving Cera "lonely and bored" while he typed out emails on the device.

As for missing out on the Barbie group chat, Cera is shrugging it off—mainly because he thinks it syncs up with how his character is in the film. "Allan is sort of in his own little world," he tells People. "[Gerwig's] gift for me when I arrived was a picture disc of 'N Sync's No Strings Attached, which felt like somehow a real guiding light in the backstory of this character." The much-hyped movie is out July 21. (More Michael Cera stories.)

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