WWE legend and 17-time world champion John Cena appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast to discuss various topics, including his beginnings in acting.
Cena said, “Vince opened WWE Studios and with the idea of, ‘If we make these guys movie stars, more people come to the arena.’ Now as a young 20-something on the road? People chant your name every night? I’m like, ‘More people in the arena? That sounds f**king great.’ And his first movie was supposed to be with Steve Austin, and it fell through. They were about to shoot in two weeks. So movie pre-production is way longer than that. But he was like, ‘You’re going to Australia to film this movie The Marine.’”
On the challenges of transitioning to acting:
“It was tough. I went from, arrive in a town at noon. Work out, get a good meal in, crush the show, have some beers on the ride to the next town, fall asleep, do it all again. And it’s like this whirlwind of electricity to, ‘Okay, you’re in hair and makeup at 6:00. We’re doing an explosion today, so the lights are going to be weird. And we probably will get to you around 5:30 p.m.’ ‘You just said it’s 6:00 in the morning.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘So, what the f**k you want me to do from here until 5:30?’ ‘Just hang out.’ And I couldn’t — as a young 20-something, I wanted to be in the electricity. I couldn’t handle the the nature of the business. And therefore, my passion wasn’t in it, I wasn’t fully invested in it… I was never there in those movies. I was always back in, ‘F**k, maybe if I had the feud with this guy, or if I could have done this.’ And I was never there. and you could see it in the performance.”
On getting ‘run out’ of films:
“So I kind of got run out of the movie business. I did so many s**tty movies in like 2009, ’10. My best friend/agent Dan Boehm at the time, I was like, ‘Man, we’re never doing movies again, right?’ And you know, as an agent he’s supposed to be the guy to pick you up. He looks at me dead, he goes, ‘Nope. We will find another way, though.’ He was honest. We are run out of town, but we’ll find another way.”
On making his comeback:
“So we did. Hosted some live shows, hosted some game shows. Did little appearances here and there. And then Judd Apattow and Amy Schumer gave me a chance on Trainwreck. And it was a very small part, but again like, ‘Just get out in the arena and do your best.’ And look, I was in a f**king room with comics, like funny people. I don’t belong there. But they created an environment where I wasn’t judged. They only showed the good jokes. They didn’t show the f**king 20 takes where I tried to tell jokes that sucked. The only ones that made the final cut were the ones that made people laugh. So they they provided an opportunity for failure. And at that point I’ve been playing the same character — this is 2014, ’15. I’ve been playing the same character on TV for 15 f**king years. And now I’m like, ‘Yo, I get to do something different? I can do this for 12 hours. You want me to sit? I’ll go f**king read a book. I don’t care, I’m in.’ So I accepted the patient process of movies. And then after that, I got a little bit of noise in Trainwreck. And then Judd sent word to Tina Fay and Amy Poehler, who were filming [Sisters] up the road in Long Island. Like, ‘If you got a spot you should hire the kid.’ And they made me a drug dealer in their thing. And then like, things started to roll downhill. But it was very, very small parts at a time.”
On where he is at now and what he learned:
“And here I am, that was 2015. Here I am a decade later, and I’m still trying to advance to fluency. By no means am I like, ‘I’m the the 17-time champ of the the acting community.’ Those were the motherf**kers I was looking at when I was naked [at the Oscars]. I’m aspiring to try to be that. But it’s — basically, the pivot happened when I was like, ‘If you just invest in this, the hustle and patience you put into wrestling? At least you know, you gave it your all.’ Be coachable, be professional, be reliable, be interested, and see where the chips fly. And f**king say ‘Yes.’ I wasn’t [in there mentally], and I got run out of town. I lost the job. So, like — here’s that mulligan. ‘I’ll never work in this town again.’ ‘I will? All right, let’s go, let’s try. What else could go wrong? They’ve already fired me.’ So again, an environment — and no one does it alone. The people I was around, Tina and Amy are the same way. Only show the funny s**t, but try whatever you want. Like, fail, It’s okay. And just because you’re around people who do comedy for a living, ‘All we need is three seconds, and we’ll be patient enough to give you what you need to give us that three seconds.’”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
