Outside of the obsession with coke, like blowing it in “Superbad” co-star Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s face, one of the most memorable aspects of his character is the gaudy windbreaker he wears. According to Evan Goldberg, “We wrote this insane character for him, and his only note as an actor, which it’s rare to only have one, is ‘I want to wear this windbreaker,'” he said. “It’s his real-life windbreaker.”
Cena made the wardrobe choice thinking it would elevate his coked out body language, giving him something to play with to show how the drugs are impacting his behavior. “Michael was like a hurricane of hilarity,” said Goldberg. “All the other actors, he was the one they were looking at like, ‘This is, like, magical.'”
In one of his first scenes, comedian and actress Mindy Kaling talks about how badly she wants to f*** Michael Cera, and the camera cuts to him snorting lines and slapping Rihanna’s ass without consent before getting slapped upside the head. Obviously, the real Michael Cera knew better than to slap a woman on the booty without asking, so while the script called for the slap, he asked Rihanna for permission to actually swat her behind, rather than perform a stage slap. As Goldberg tells it, Rihanna told Cera he could do it, but said she was going to hit back way harder. “She hit him the first time, the second time, and we were all laughing, and Michael was like, ‘Oh, it hurts,'” said Goldberg. “She was laughing and he was laughing, and the third time I think she cupped his ear, and it messed him up.”