Michael Cera Reveals How Superbad Nearly Drove Him to Quit Acting

Superbad is largely responsible for turning Michael Cera into a household name, quickly becoming a classic in the coming-of-age zeitgeist after its release. Surprisingly enough, the movie almost forced Cera to quit acting because of the sudden fame that came with the success of the R-rated comedy. 

"That was sort of overwhelming," Cera told The Guardian of his overnight fame in a recent profile. "I didn't know how to handle walking down the street. Fame makes you very uncomfortable in your own skin, and makes you paranoid and weird. There were lots of great things about it, and I met a lot of amazing people, but there's a lot of bad energies, too, ones that I was not equipped to handle."

After dealing with "toxic" drunk fans that made situations uncomfortable, Cera added that he was prepared to depart a life of fame for much smaller roles nobody would see.

"There was a point where I wanted to stop taking jobs that would make me more famous.. I was kind of having a bit of a crisis … I was really not enjoying the level of heat," the actor continued. "I really didn't know if I was going to keep being an actor."

Is there going to be a Superbad 2?

Given it's been nearly 16 years since Superbad was first released, most—Judd Apatow included—think it's far past time a sequel could come to fruition.

"I always wanted them to do a sequel to Superbad," Apatow said on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast. "I know that Jonah said 'Oh it'll be funny to do it when we're 70 or 80,' but I really wanted them to do a Superbad in college where Jonah flunks out of college and just shows up and visits Michael Cera at college. But everyone was like 'Nah we don't want to screw up Superbad by accidentally making a crappy second one' and I would always say the same thing, 'Well that's like saying don't make the second episode of the of The Sopranos. Like, so why do you think we would screw up the second one?'"  

Superbad is now streaming on Prime Video.

Do you want to see a Superbad 2 all these years later? Or do you agree with everyone else that worked on the movie that it shouldn't be touched? Let us know in the comments below.