At the height of his fame around 16 years ago, with the acclaimed films Juno and Superbad, actor Michael Cera had “a bit of a crisis” that almost derailed his career.

The actor shared in a new interview with The Guardian that the profile he took on given his acting work was, at the time, “overwhelming.” Said Cera, “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.” He went on to acknowledge that there are “lots of great things” about this sort of experience, which has allowed him to meet “a lot of amazing people,” while at the same time discussing the “bad energies” it exposed him to, which he didn’t feel “equipped to handle.”

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One example of this kind of exposure, which occurred repeatedly, was an encounter with “drunk people.” Said Cera, “If people are drunk, and they recognize you, and they’re very enthusiastic…it can be kind of toxic too. When you’re a kid, people also feel they can kind of grab you — they’re not that respectful of you or your physical space. I didn’t know how to respectfully establish my own boundaries.” The actor recalled going to a bar with friends shortly following Superbad‘s release and finding the decision to be “a mistake.” Explained the actor, “It was like a burning feeling the whole time, just like everybody was so aware of me.”

Cera also revealed that “there was a point where I wanted to stop taking jobs that would make me more famous,” naming an SNL hosting opportunity as just one of those that he turned down with this in mind. “I was kind of having a bit of a crisis. … I was really not enjoying the level of heat,” he said. “I really didn’t know if I was going to keep being an actor.”

What wound up keeping Cera going was the fact that he already was under contract for Edgar Wright’s beloved graphic novel adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. “I was already committed to it, and went and did it, and obviously feel so grateful that that happened,” he said.

Going through the gauntlet with fame before moving on to enjoyable new opportunities was helpful for the actor in the end, he said, in the sense that it allowed him to reflect on what he did and didn’t want from his career. “I knew that it wasn’t just like constantly fanning the flames to get bigger and bigger. I knew that wasn’t really my goal,” he said. “I think I wanted to be a working actor who can enjoy my day-to-day life, and the world that I’ve created for myself. I think that was the overall thing I was trying to figure out.”

Cera’s Guardian interview came in support of his appearance in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which hits theaters Friday. In the Warner Bros film, which opens opposite Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the actor plays Allan, the best friend of Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) boyfriend Ken (Ryan Gosling) who was introduced in toy form all the way back in 1964 but was “somewhat of a marginalized figure,” in the actor’s words, never catching on as a character in the way his plastic friends did.

Cera also recently played a version of himself on Netflix’s Black Mirror.

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