“That is the wrong approach”: the 2010 role that saved John Cena from making “a lot of bad movies”
In the long and proud history of professional wrestlers making the leap to Hollywood, only a handful of stars have actually made it work, and while Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson obviously sits atop that list, second place arguably belongs to John Cena.
While he is far from the best wrestler-turned-actor (that honour falls to Dave Bautista), the 17-time WWE world champion has been in some huge films, making some savvy choices over the years, from the Fast & Furious franchise to The Suicide Squad to his cameo in Barbie.
However, things weren’t always so peachy, for at the start of Cena’s acting career, he was in a lot of crap. His first starring role was in the WWE-produced action film The Marine, a completely forgettable affair that has somehow spawned five sequels. More dull action fare followed, as did the dire sports drama Legendary, and of course, who could forget the double whammy of Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery and The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! What a time to be alive.
Years later, Cena sat down with Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast to discuss this miserable period of his career. He revealed that he had taken the job on The Marine on short notice, after fellow grappler ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin pulled out at the last minute. WWE’s chairman at the time, the ever-controversial Vince McMahon, told his golden boy that, if he starred in the movie, it would drum up more interest in his wrestling empire.
“I started out doing movies as a business decision,” he explained, “That is the wrong approach to take, but I continued to take that approach to the movies and, in turn, I did a lot of bad movies.”
After starring in a bunch of other WWE-affiliated films that were all total garbage, Cena decided to start doing movies that he was actually interested in. “Fred was a cameo, Trainwreck was a cameo, Sisters,” he continued, “I did a bunch of other small cameos where I stop looking at it as a vehicle and start to look at this as creative fun.”
For those of you who don’t remember (and how could you forget), Fred was a character created by YouTuber Lucas Cruikshank in the very early days of the site. After gaining popularity online, Fred (stylised as ‘FЯED’) was approached by Nickelodeon with the offer of a TV movie.
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Starring Cruikshank as his creation, Jennette McCurdy as his weird friend, and British singer Pixie Lott as his crush, the film premiered on the kids’ channel in 2010. Cena had a brief appearance as Fred’s father, which mostly involved him beating his son to a bloody pulp.
FЯED: THE MOVIE might be a stain on the very fabric of cinema, but it clearly inspired Cena to look at acting in a brand new way. He never forgot what the series did for him, as he reprised his role in the short-lived FЯED TV show and two subsequent movies. That’s right, there’s an entire trilogy of FЯED movies, do with that information what you will.
