Michael Cera: Just call me Beyoncé

Michael Cera has joked that he gets compared to Beyoncé Knowles "for a lot of reasons".

The 26-year-old star has released a folk album called True That, doing so on the sly several days ago. His friend Jonah Hill tweeted a link to the tracks earlier this week and since then it's picked up pace.

Michael was happy to keep his record low key, much like Beyoncé did when she released her self-titled last record onto iTunes with no promotion last year.

"I mean, it does feel good to get the comparison," Michael told HuffPost Entertainment, after people likened him to the pop superstar.

"I get compared to her for a lot of other reasons and it's nice to finally get compared to her musically."

The actor remains modest about his musical talent, admitting he is overwhelmed by the praise his record has received.

"I'd never had the courage to release anything I'd made musically, and finally a friend said that he thought I was being too careful with my music," he explained. "I mean, it takes a bit of a leap of faith when you're giving something to the whole world to p**s on and talk about and pull apart, but at one point I felt totally OK with it."

In the end the star took "a bunch" of his songs, came up with an album name and then put them on his Bandcamp - an independent artists' platform - page. When Jonah used social media to promote it on Tuesday some accused him of spoiling Michael's surprise. The comic star has no problem with his pal promoting his work, insisting he just wanted people to find it organically and had no masterplan.

"When you approach a project, usually you have this delusion it'll be really, really good, or tell yourself that it's going to be completely terrible," he said. "I always say it's somewhere between those two extremes."