It’s time to be bad with Michael Cera’s suave look from Youth in Revolt

“In the movies the good guy gets the girl, in real life it’s usually the prick.”

You’re a 16-year-old outcast living with your mom and her boyfriends (brilliantly played by The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis and Ray Liotta) in a trailer. To make matters worse you’ve just met the girl of your dreams but she hardly notices you. So what do you do? Mindlessly shoot at computer generated people (while imagining the faces of everyone you hate on them) on your XBox 360 until you feel better? Listen to The Smiths in your room while trying to compose a poem? Not if you’re Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) in the movie, Youth in Revolt, based on the book of the same name. His solution to the problem is to simply create an alter-ego worthy of winning over the beautiful Sheeni (Portia Doubleday).

In the movie, whilst creating this character in a moment of desperation, Nick says:

“My one and only love needs me to be bad. To overcome the inhibitions that compel me to be law abiding, polite to my elders and excessively nice, I have decided to create a supplementary persona named François Dillinger. Bold, contemptuous of authority and irresistible to women. François is just the type of aggressive sociopath who can wage, and win, a war of nerves.”

Since François is suave, sexy and sophisticated, he wouldn’t be seen dead (although we’re not quite sure how alive he actually is) in the usual wardrobe of Michael Cera. The bright slogan T-shirts, hoodies, jeans and sneakers of the teenage Nick certainly wouldn’t do for a man like Dillinger. It’s not just the clothes that transform him into the smooth ladies man, oh no, he’s also got blue contacts and a moustache. And even Cera, who’s used to playing nerdy teens in hilarious sitcom Arrested Development and movies like Juno and Superbad, enjoyed transforming into his ‘supplementary persona’: “I was really excited to play that part and I had a lot of fun doing it. It was just fun to get to wear contacts, put a moustache on, transform how I looked, say really gross things and smoke.”

So to get this successful and desirable look costume designer Nancy Steiner picked out a simple blue Band of Outsiders shirt, white penny loafers from Zara and white H&H pants. However Cera recalls the first time he tried them on he said: “’The pants look great, Nancy, but we have to put a white lining underneath them.’ I think they were see-through at first, and they had a lining in them after that. I don’t think [the audience] is ready for that. That might have been a good choice, though." What really makes the look though are the mirrored, gold framed aviator sunglasses often used to reflect the destruction François has caused.

If you’re looking to grab the attention of the one that got away, why not pick up some of the lookalike products we’ve picked out? Whether you’re going all out with a Band of Outsiders shirt and Ray Bans or the slightly cheaper alternatives, we suggest you don’t blow up any buildings.