Here's What John Cena Was Saying to Amy Schumer in Mandarin During Their 'Trainwreck' Sex Scene
When it comes to WWE wrestlers transitioning into Hollywood superstars, there is one man and one man only—Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. (See: The running joke on the Internet that some people don't know Johnson and The Rock are the same person.) But even though The Rock appeared in one of 2015's biggest action movies, Furious 7, this year we favored the work of another WWE star—John Cena. He's featured in Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's new film, Sisters, which opens in theaters today, and over the summer Cena was hysterically funny in the hit comedy Trainwreck as an emotional body-builder bro who dates Amy Schumer's less commitment-prone Amy. What makes Cena's performance in Trainwreck so amazing is his willingness to poke fun at his own meathead persona—especially when you consider that his regular job requires him to be so humorlessly dedicated to macho-ness.
But it wasn't just on the big screen that Cena made people laugh this year. Over the summer, he was the star of a meme that exploded across the Internet, and it depicted him interrupting various bits of pop culture with his signature theme song. (Which, by the way, is his own song from a rap album recorded in 2005.)
To honor this banner year for the WWE veteran, we spoke to Cena about his acting career, The Rock, and how he feels about so rudely interrupting SpongeBob, Eminem, and even President Obama.
What made you, as a pro wrestler and action-movie star, want to start acting in comedic movies? Especially two this year that are female-driven?
It's always kind of been on the wish list. Being a pro wrestler can be kind of difficult sometimes. We have a perception about what we do—and I totally understand the perception, because we're a weekly episodic program and we're having fun all the time, so people think that's kind of the most talented thing I could do. But being in front of a live audience, and being creative every week, I just wanted to try something new. I've done some action movies but secretly always wanted to try comedy, and in general do some stuff that involved a different kind of creativity.
Did you audition for your roles in Sistersand Trainwreck?
The Sisters phenomenon was a byproduct of the Trainwreck deal. I had to do the normal auditioning process for Trainwreck. I was extremely nervous for it, because you plan for this one event, and you get the opportunity. And it finally comes and you can't even believe it's real, and I just really didn't want to F it up. Luckily, I didn't F it up, and got to be in Trainwreck, and because of that I got to be in Sisters.
There's a great sex scene in Trainwreckwhere you bust out some Mandarin Chinese. Was that improvised? I know you learned some Mandarin and have used it in WWE matches before, but...
Yeah, I was just trying to think of the most unsexy stuff possible, 'cause that was kind of the whole scene. And I was just saying the most Rosetta Stone things, like "China is an important country." I was just trying to go off the theme of "dirty talk going horribly wrong."
As someone whose weekly job requires him to be so macho, was it hard to get in the headspace of someone who has this not-so-macho side?
Nah, it was easy. I'm a 38-year-old grown-ass man. I've done some things in my life that are very emotional. At my age, I'm not trying to score cool points. I'm just excited when I can speak to younger members of our audience in the WWE. I just get to be a superhero to kids, but I'm not trying to be on the cutting edge of style or anything like that. Once you reach that point of deprivation, you don't mind it. But week to week, we don't really get to do that [at the WWE]; it's just good guys vs. bad guys.
As for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, what was your favorite part of working with those two?
The résumé speaks for itself. You can just tell that they go really deep in terms of being invested in the material and every facet of the production. I look at everything as a learning experience, so to go from one movie where I was surrounded by such wonderful people to another movie where I was surrounded by wonderful people...for me, as a guy who's admittedly just trying to figure all of this out, I can't think of a better scenario. I got thrown into the deep end with concrete shoes, but that's why it was so great to be able to learn from them. When I was first starting to achieve success in the WWE, I got to be surrounded by the last class of true greats, and they all had little tips and secrets. You learn a lot from watching somebody work.
How did they help you, as someone who's new to the whole comedy experience, be comfortable in the role and be funny?
That was the most rewarding and humbling feeling. It's not like they were trying to be negative at all. They just wanted me to be funny, and wanted me to be me. I can't thank them enough for helping someone like myself, who felt truly nervous, feel comfortable.
Do you think about having to balance both of your personas at once? John Cena the wrestler and John Cena the actor?
Because I've been in it so long, and if you look at Dwayne ["The Rock" Johnson], he had tremendous success in the WWE, but his success was short-lived when he left full-time for Hollywood. I think he had to do a tremendous switch, but I know he had the ultimate goal for coming back to the WWE and making it a better place. But for me, at this point, so much of our audience loves me, and so much hates me, I kind of just realize I am who I am, and I am John Cena, I'm not "The Rock." So, yeah, that gray area gets super gray, so it's challenging at times.
Is Dwayne's career something you look at to model your own after?
He's sort of in a universe by himself, and I don't know if that kind of success is achievable by anyone else. The work ethic of that young man and the desire he has to just keep moving is... I talk to him every so often and tell him he truly sets the pace and the rest of us are just trying to not lag too far behind. I'm really happy to have had the success I've had and do the things I've been able to do, and excited for some things coming up, but it's all way too new for me to say, "Oh, yeah, I'm definitely going to do this." I really love being in the WWE, so it would have to be something where I get to work with a Judd Apatow or Amy Schumer, or an opportunity with Tina and Amy, to pull me away for a small period of time to do something.
Your song "The Time Is Now" [from your 2005 album You Can't See Me] has become such a big part of your persona. Can we expect more rap music from you any time soon?
That's a young man's game. If you're gonna expect music, it would be a soul, R&B, rat-pack-type of thing. Maybe classic. Every once in a while I'll listen to hip-hop, but it's all stuff from the early '90s and late '90s. I'm kind of out of touch with everything. The song is definitely part of what launched me on this journey...but I think had I just kept being "the rap guy," I think that would have been short-lived, because it's so one-dimensional. I've never lost my connection to hip-hop, I just don't know what's popular today.
The thing I've been dying to know for a few months now is if you're aware of, and what you think about, the "Unexpected John Cena" meme that got popular earlier this year.
This right here is the litmus test. Because I'm kind of aware of what's going on, and I'm fascinated with pop culture, and you can't dictate pop culture. So when pop culture is kind enough to let you in, exploit you, and in a lot of cases make fun of you, and you're just gonna be the vehicle to push this new gag, I totally embrace it. Whether it's in praise or total humor, I don't care. Just to be accepted at this point in my career, I think it's pretty special. At the end of the day, I am overwhelmingly honored to interrupt such historic events.
When it comes to WWE wrestlers transitioning into Hollywood superstars, there is one man and one man only—Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. (See: The running joke on the Internet that some people don't know Johnson and The Rock are the same person.) But even though The Rock appeared in one of 2015's biggest action movies, Furious 7, this year we favored the work of another WWE star—John Cena. He's featured in Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's new film, Sisters, which opens in theaters today, and over the summer Cena was hysterically funny in the hit comedy Trainwreck as an emotional body-builder bro who dates Amy Schumer's less commitment-prone Amy. What makes Cena's performance in Trainwreck so amazing is his willingness to poke fun at his own meathead persona—especially when you consider that his regular job requires him to be so humorlessly dedicated to macho-ness.
But it wasn't just on the big screen that Cena made people laugh this year. Over the summer, he was the star of a meme that exploded across the Internet, and it depicted him interrupting various bits of pop culture with his signature theme song. (Which, by the way, is his own song from a rap album recorded in 2005.)
To honor this banner year for the WWE veteran, we spoke to Cena about his acting career, The Rock, and how he feels about so rudely interrupting SpongeBob, Eminem, and even President Obama.
What made you, as a pro wrestler and action-movie star, want to start acting in comedic movies? Especially two this year that are female-driven?
It's always kind of been on the wish list. Being a pro wrestler can be kind of difficult sometimes. We have a perception about what we do—and I totally understand the perception, because we're a weekly episodic program and we're having fun all the time, so people think that's kind of the most talented thing I could do. But being in front of a live audience, and being creative every week, I just wanted to try something new. I've done some action movies but secretly always wanted to try comedy, and in general do some stuff that involved a different kind of creativity.
Did you audition for your roles in Sistersand Trainwreck?
The Sisters phenomenon was a byproduct of the Trainwreck deal. I had to do the normal auditioning process for Trainwreck. I was extremely nervous for it, because you plan for this one event, and you get the opportunity. And it finally comes and you can't even believe it's real, and I just really didn't want to F it up. Luckily, I didn't F it up, and got to be in Trainwreck, and because of that I got to be in Sisters.
There's a great sex scene in Trainwreckwhere you bust out some Mandarin Chinese. Was that improvised? I know you learned some Mandarin and have used it in WWE matches before, but...
Yeah, I was just trying to think of the most unsexy stuff possible, 'cause that was kind of the whole scene. And I was just saying the most Rosetta Stone things, like "China is an important country." I was just trying to go off the theme of "dirty talk going horribly wrong."
As someone whose weekly job requires him to be so macho, was it hard to get in the headspace of someone who has this not-so-macho side?
Nah, it was easy. I'm a 38-year-old grown-ass man. I've done some things in my life that are very emotional. At my age, I'm not trying to score cool points. I'm just excited when I can speak to younger members of our audience in the WWE. I just get to be a superhero to kids, but I'm not trying to be on the cutting edge of style or anything like that. Once you reach that point of deprivation, you don't mind it. But week to week, we don't really get to do that [at the WWE]; it's just good guys vs. bad guys.
As for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, what was your favorite part of working with those two?
The résumé speaks for itself. You can just tell that they go really deep in terms of being invested in the material and every facet of the production. I look at everything as a learning experience, so to go from one movie where I was surrounded by such wonderful people to another movie where I was surrounded by wonderful people...for me, as a guy who's admittedly just trying to figure all of this out, I can't think of a better scenario. I got thrown into the deep end with concrete shoes, but that's why it was so great to be able to learn from them. When I was first starting to achieve success in the WWE, I got to be surrounded by the last class of true greats, and they all had little tips and secrets. You learn a lot from watching somebody work.
How did they help you, as someone who's new to the whole comedy experience, be comfortable in the role and be funny?
That was the most rewarding and humbling feeling. It's not like they were trying to be negative at all. They just wanted me to be funny, and wanted me to be me. I can't thank them enough for helping someone like myself, who felt truly nervous, feel comfortable.
Do you think about having to balance both of your personas at once? John Cena the wrestler and John Cena the actor?
Because I've been in it so long, and if you look at Dwayne ["The Rock" Johnson], he had tremendous success in the WWE, but his success was short-lived when he left full-time for Hollywood. I think he had to do a tremendous switch, but I know he had the ultimate goal for coming back to the WWE and making it a better place. But for me, at this point, so much of our audience loves me, and so much hates me, I kind of just realize I am who I am, and I am John Cena, I'm not "The Rock." So, yeah, that gray area gets super gray, so it's challenging at times.
Is Dwayne's career something you look at to model your own after?
He's sort of in a universe by himself, and I don't know if that kind of success is achievable by anyone else. The work ethic of that young man and the desire he has to just keep moving is... I talk to him every so often and tell him he truly sets the pace and the rest of us are just trying to not lag too far behind. I'm really happy to have had the success I've had and do the things I've been able to do, and excited for some things coming up, but it's all way too new for me to say, "Oh, yeah, I'm definitely going to do this." I really love being in the WWE, so it would have to be something where I get to work with a Judd Apatow or Amy Schumer, or an opportunity with Tina and Amy, to pull me away for a small period of time to do something.
Your song "The Time Is Now" [from your 2005 album You Can't See Me] has become such a big part of your persona. Can we expect more rap music from you any time soon?
That's a young man's game. If you're gonna expect music, it would be a soul, R&B, rat-pack-type of thing. Maybe classic. Every once in a while I'll listen to hip-hop, but it's all stuff from the early '90s and late '90s. I'm kind of out of touch with everything. The song is definitely part of what launched me on this journey...but I think had I just kept being "the rap guy," I think that would have been short-lived, because it's so one-dimensional. I've never lost my connection to hip-hop, I just don't know what's popular today.
The thing I've been dying to know for a few months now is if you're aware of, and what you think about, the "Unexpected John Cena" meme that got popular earlier this year.
This right here is the litmus test. Because I'm kind of aware of what's going on, and I'm fascinated with pop culture, and you can't dictate pop culture. So when pop culture is kind enough to let you in, exploit you, and in a lot of cases make fun of you, and you're just gonna be the vehicle to push this new gag, I totally embrace it. Whether it's in praise or total humor, I don't care. Just to be accepted at this point in my career, I think it's pretty special. At the end of the day, I am overwhelmingly honored to interrupt such historic events.
Makes the shoot promo the Rock put on Youtube all the more powerful 
