WWE legend John Cena has been making waves in Hollywood ever since his debut in 2006. Appearing in some of the biggest franchises in the industry like Fast and Furious and even making his DC debut has established him as one of the most sought-after actors in recent years.
As a result, his reprising his role in the upcoming Fast X has pleased his fans immensely. However, what came as a bigger and admittedly all the more pleasing surprise was his appearance in this year’s one of the most highly anticipated movies, Barbie.
But hold on, there seems to be more than meets the eye there. John Cena recently admitted in an interview that he initially got rejected from the movie when he auditioned by himself. And it was only his friendship with the movie’s lead actress Margot Robbie that landed him his dream Merman role in the movie.
John Cena to begged Margot Robbie to include him in Barbie
John Cena and Margot Robbie became fast friends when they filmed The Suicide Squad together. Cena’s character became an immediate favorite which even landed him an HBO MAX prequel series called Peacemaker. Not only that but he is also reprising his role of Jakob Torreto in the first part of the Fast and Furious finale trilogy, Fast X releasing tomorrow.
However, there was one movie he really wanted to be involved in. And well, given the hype the movie has built up because of the subject’s influence and importance in pop culture, it is expected that he would want so. As a result, he laced his shoes up and tried his luck with auditioning for Barbie.
Unfortunately for him, though, he got rejected as there weren’t any fitting characters they could put him in that matched his stardom. Well, he moved on and started filming Fast X. Now coincidentally, the shooting for both Fast X and Barbie was happening across the street from each other.
And when the two friends ran into each other, to John Cena’s surprise, Margot Robbie offered him a role. Calling it a “Happy accident,” Cena explained,
“We literally randomly ran into each other as friends. ‘Fast X’ was filming across the street from ‘Barbie.’ And [she asked], ‘Why don’t you do “Barbie”?’ I said, ‘I’ve been trying!’ And Margot makes a lot of the decisions for that and I said, ‘Well, I’ll do whatever you need.'”
And so, he happily became a Merman when they asked him if he would be willing to do that. Because to him, no role, whether a cameo or a supporting character, is ever small.
Also Read: John Cena Snatched $6.3 Billion Franchise Role from Marvel Star Dave Bautista
John Cena wants to explore and experience all there is to acting
On the topic of his cameo in the movie, John Cena talked about initially getting rejected in the Barbie audition. He noted, “I get it, I wasn’t a piece for the puzzle.” However, according to him, there are a lot of parallel similarities between Barbie and Fast X. For example, he mentioned,
“Their cast list is amazing. The ‘Barbie’ cast list is amazing. The ‘Fast X’ cast list is amazing.”
So to him, it was mostly a chance encounter of going out on a limb and asking, “Hey, would you guys be willing to have me if I could do something?” as he added. He also mentioned that a lot of times people have these preconceived notions of what a person would be interested in and what not, which he finds absurd.
To him, an opportunity is an opportunity and he wants to explore all of them with the same enthusiasm and gratitude. He explained further saying,
“I think a lot of times people think, ‘Oh, he wouldn’t do that.’ I don’t think there are any small parts. A chance is a chance. An opportunity to show your skill or develop a new skill, that’s fantastic. That’s why I want to do all this stuff, so I think once they realized I would just be grateful to be involved, they were like, ‘Yeah, you can do this.'”
Thankfully that chance encounter with Margot Robbie landed him in one of his most coveted projects. And incidentally, it landed him in not only one but two of the most highly anticipated big-budget movies of this year, something the fans can’t seem to wait for.
Fast X is releasing at the theaters on May 19th, 2023 while Barbie is set for a release date of July 21st, 2023.
Source: YouTube
