Miguel Arteta has directed two Michigan based films in the past two years. Youth in Revolt released in January 2010 and Cedar Rapids which wrapped the end of 2009. Arteta’s prior directorial work includes three Sundance Film Festival successes, Star Maps (1997), Chuck and Buck (2000), and The Good Girl (2002) starring Jennifer Anniston. Arteta also directed episodes of TV productions Homicide: Life on the Streets, Snoops, Freaks and Geeks and HBO’s award winning Six Feet Under.

Arteta has a knack for entertaining audiences with the full range of comedy, tragedy, eccentricity and deviance in the lives of real people. Youth in Revolt continues to showcase Arteta’s skill in developing endearing and “odd” characters that collectively display such a range of deviance as to force anyone to look in the mirror at least once or twice in 90 minutes.

Viewing the movie in a theatre with 16-30 yearsolds, our only complaint was that laughter in the theatre occasionally drowned out lines of the script. Michigan Movie Magazine had the opportunity to speak with Miguel Arteta about Youth and Revolt and Cedar Rapids.

MMM - This is the first major feature film you have directed since The Good Girl. How did it feel to be directing again and what special things did you want to accomplish with Youth in Revolt?

Arteta - I really wanted to be directing but I wanted to find something that I loved and it was hard to find something that I really, really loved. Basically I’m a humongous fan of Michael Cera. I love him and I love what he does. When I heard that he was attached to the project I just jumped on it. And when I saw the material and saw that he loved this book and realized this could be a great Cera movie, I just jumped right in. What I really wanted to accomplish was to make Michael shine.

MMM - Did the film provide the medium for you to accomplish what you wanted in returning to major feature film direction?

Arteta - Definitely, I love actors, all my movies are character driven, and they are just about people. I want to find the tragic comic elements of life in stories about people and this was perfect. It’s a really funny story about a kid with tragic parents and the comic life in which he copes to try and find himself. There is this intelligence and naughtiness hiding behind Michael’s smile, and I knew that with this character François, I could actually physically, personally find that naughtiness. So I was thrilled. I thought this is the perfect movie for me, and it has one of my favorite actors out there.

MMM - It really does have a stellar cast with Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Zack Galifianakis, Jean Smart, Erik Knudsen, Justin Long, Adhir Kalyan, Steve Bucsemi, and Ray Liotta. Tell us about the casting process for Youth and Revolt? Was it difficult or time consuming to lock everyone into this production?

Arteta - Well it’s always a puzzle putting it together and having everyone be happy, but Michael had a real vision and was a real collaborator for this movie. He helped me to re-write it, and to cast it, he even did some of the music.

MMM - The script was written by Gustin Nash, and revised by Michael Cera and yourself. What revisions did you make?

Arteta - There were characters from the book that had been omitted like Fred Willard’s character Mr. Ferguson. Michael said, “That’s one of my favorite characters. That’s the only sympathetic adult in the whole movie. We need to have Mr. Ferguson!” So we included that character and omitted some characters that we didn’t think were right. Michael collaborated and even helped with the casting, I also brought him to the screening room. This is his very favorite book, so he really had a vision for it.

MMM - Michael’s alter ego Francois demonstrates a new dimension of the actor’s capabilities. How do you feel about Michael’s versatility and the implications for him down the road?

Arteta – I think he’s as brilliant as Peter Sellers. We’re in for quite a ride with this actor. Peter was a very subtle performer but a large commercial audience got it. They understood what was going on behind those eyes, and Michael has that. There are a lot of indie actors who are this subtle but they don’t reach a wide audience. There is something about Michael’s talent that he’s able to be that subtle and yet be absolutely attuned to a wide audience. What he’s thinking, what he’s doing, I haven’t seen that ability since Peter Sellers.