John Cena has met John Cena. He's a pretty self-aware guy. He's a budding blockbuster movie star, and he seems to think he has the perfect background for said job -- because of his WWE experience. He had this classic response when CinemaBlend's own Dirk Libbey asked him about working around the CGI in Bumblebee:
You're asking me if it was difficult or not to pretend to make something real that isn't really real? I think I'm the right guy for that job.
Nice. Yes, John Cena is still best known to many as a professional wrestler -- a polarizing one -- with personas as a trash-talking rapper, and then more in the military zone after his film The Marine came out. He may not be knocking on Oscars' door, but the man knows how to put on an entertaining show. He could probably even sell the John-a-tron.
John Cena was candid about his strengths and weaknesses as a wrestling performer, in a 2016 talk with Complex:
I'm certainly not the most mobile guy out there. I'm not really good with the high flying agility stuff. I'm good explosively. I'm good with energy. I certainly can take your best shot and get back up. And I certainly have that innate ability to get people interested because I am energetic about what I do. I have this conversation often with a lot of the superstars. They ask me why have I been able to do what I do for so long, it's because I believe in who I am. Here I'm just a dude in a suit talking shop, inside baseball stuff about WWE. My music hits, those meme trumpets hit, I go through the curtain and I'm mother-fudging Superman. And there's no one alive that can tell me differently.
He's mother-fudging Superman! Speaking of "fudging" -- or other ways to say that -- John Cena also recently told CinemaBlend he cussed a lot on the Bumblebee set to try and find his character, another military man, Agent Burns. But on the Superman front, Cena has also been open about wanting to be the next Captain America, should Marvel be into that. He knows it's unlikely, but he's not exactly bashful with his opinions, so why not put it out there.
John Cena is now 41-years-old, so it makes sense that he might be thinking about the next phase of his career. He had a busy 2018 with the comedy Blockers and the Transformers prequel/spinoff Bumblebee. He told CinemaBlend he'd love to come back for a Bumblebee sequel, if they make one, but he also wants to stick with the WWE as his acting career takes off.
And since he's putting himself out there as the right guy for CGI jobs -- where you have to pretend you're talking to someone even though there's maybe a ball or a screen in front of you -- it does seem like we'll probably see him back in that zone, either for another Transformers movie or something in the superhero realm. After all, he's mother-fudging Superman!
John Cena co-stars alongside lead Hailee Steinfeld in Bumblebee, which is now playing in theaters. (Hailee had an even bigger job reacting to CGI, so she might actually be the better choice for CGI movies. Sorry, man.) Here's what else is out in theaters as we welcome 2019.
