Michael Cera is a flip phone kind of Ken (Allan)

The extremely offline actor revealed he was left out of the Barbie group chat as he doesn't have an iPhone.

By Hayley Peppin

Published: Jul 10, 2023

MICHAEL CERA has always lived off the smart phone grid. While Gen Z’ers continue to be romanced by the Y2K aesthetic, buying digital cameras, wired earphones and vinyl in bulk — Cera apparently never upgraded from the cute 2005 flip phone era. You know, the one which Motorola dominated? He’s quite literally offline by all accounts — social media included — so don’t expect him to pen his witty thoughts on Threads any time soon. This fantastically niche, yet on brand, Cera detail was first uncovered during a recent cast interview for People‘s special Barbie issue — with which Cera plays Allan, Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) seemingly doormat friend.

Cera’s mobile of choice came about after Barbie co-star Simu Liu opened up about some of the cast’s perfectly pink shenanigans, including a sleepover Margot Robbie organised for her dolls. As in, no Ken’s allowed. “Margot was so great. She had a sleepover with the Barbies before photography started, and the Kens were allowed to either visit briefly or to phone in and say hi,” Liu began, before explaining the whole gang started their own group chat — much like Tom Holland and the Spidey’s — so they could stay in (plastic) touch. “So we made sure to show our support but not be overbearing with our presence. And all the Barbies and Kens got in a group chat,” Liu continued.

But sadly Cera couldn’t show off his Ken-ergy or beach banter — Ken’s job is “just beach” — being a flip phone boy. “I don’t have an iPhone myself. … I have a flip phone,” Cera revealed to People, noting it’s probably pretty on par with Allan’s general befuddlement. “But I still think I wouldn’t belong on [the group chat] anyway, because [my character] Allan is sort of in his own little world. Greta’s gift for me when I arrived was a picture disc of NSYNC’s ‘No Strings Attached,’ which felt like somehow a real guiding light in the backstory of this character.”

So, while listening to NSYNC, and every other Cera-approved artist on likely his Walkman — he wouldn’t have Spotify for obvious reasons — the Superbad actor explained his smartphone “aversion” actually began pre iPhone days. “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,” the 35-year-old began. “Right when people started having smartphones, when it was Blackberries, I had lunch with a friend of mine who was my best friend at the time, and he’d just gotten a Blackberry, and for the whole meal he was typing emails, and I was sat there lonely and bored. So I had an early aversion to them.”

But while Cera couldn’t send Ken-moji’s or memesin the chat, he could participate in one particularly importantly Barbie bonding activity. According to Gosling, Robbie enforced a Mean Girls-esque “mandatory” pink dress code, which saw cast and crew “fined” if they didn’t show a little for Barbie’s favourite colour. “Margot had this pink day once a week, where everyone had to wear something pink. And if you didn’t, you were fined,” he explained. “She would go around collecting the fines, and she would donate it to a charity.” Wonder whether Cera’s a Valentino PP Pink kind of guy or prefers a super basic tee from H&M? We tend to think the latter. I mean, he’s playing Allan but he is Cera.

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