WWE star John Cena recently spoke with Al Arabiya English to promote his new movie “Ferdinand”, and below are some interview highlights:
When you were about to sign on for the film, were you concerned about capturing that same spirit?
“No, I guess it’s just a weird sense of confidence that I have in the folks around me. They came to me, wanted to know if I would be Ferdinand, and I said I would be honored to be Ferdinand. The reason I didn’t read the book before is that the book is very short and the movie is very long and I didn’t want to get too held down by the book to put any inhibitions or preconceived notions in my head about the movie. They created a bunch of new characters for the movie, and they created a different world for the movie, but it really is fantastic. It was a great honor to be chosen and it was something I went into with zero inhibitions.”
What did you originally intend your film career to be? Did you think that you were going to be a Marine action hero the entire time?
“Originally my film career was a direction from upper management in WWE—like, ‘Hey, go do movies.’ Originally what I wanted my film career to be was an extension of the WWE business model. I understood. WWE studios opened in 2003/2004, they began to film movies, and the model of the business was, ‘if we can make our stars bigger stars, they will come to see WWE’. Well, that’s what I wanted, but I didn’t want to go do movies.
The process of making a movie is so different. It takes a long time, it takes a lot of people, and there’s nobody cheering you on. As a younger man I really was drawn, and still am, to the dynamic of a live audience, and the live experience of ‘just out there and see what happens’. But 15 years of telling stories in the WWE ring, the constant passion, loving my job every day, I began to ask why.”
Al Arabiya English