John Cena on Vacation Friends, The Suicide Sqaud, WWE return and the world’s hardest partiers

John Cena says he’s had some pretty wild times down under with the WWE, which prepared him perfectly for his new comedy.

John Cena says he was very well rehearsed for the wild partying scenes in his new comedy Vacation Friends thanks to his frequent trips down under with the WWE.

The fighter turned actor has been a regular visitor to these shores – most recently helping pack the MCG for the 2018 WWE Super-Showdown, the biggest wrestling event ever held in this country – and ranks the locals’ ability to have a good time as truly world class. Podium level partiers in fact.

“I would say UK, Italy and Australia are neck and neck – it’s like a photo finish,” he says over a Zoom call from the US. “The fans are just insane – the crowds are crazy, it’s a special experience.

“I have had many a night where I’d bond with some wonderful Aussies and then I’d be like ‘man, what happened? How am I going to make it to the airport?’ and I never know if I am going to see them again.

“But that’s what’s great about the WWE audience, when I return to Australia, to Sydney or to Melbourne or to Perth, you really see the same audience so you can relive those moments and see people again and have that wonderful bond – and maybe one too many pints.”

Meredith Hagner as Kyla, Yvonne Orji as Emily, Lil Rel Howery as Marcus and John Cena as Ron in a scene from Vacation Friends.

FUNNY BUSINESS

In Vacation Friends, the hulking but unfailingly affable and polite Cena continues to flex the comedy muscles he has showcased in movies such as Trainwreck, Sisters and Blockers and further cements his status as man of the hour following his successes this year in Fast and Furious 9, James Gunn’s critically adored The Suicide Squad, TV game show Wipeout and a triumphant return to the ring. He plays eternally optimistic, live-in-the-moment former soldier Ron, who, along with his equally up-for-it partner, leads a straitlaced couple astray on holidays in Mexico, and then crashes their lives – and wedding – once they return home. While Cena admits “there’s a lot of Ron in John”, and his Twitter feed is packed full of positive thoughts and life lessons, he says he’s not always the ray of sunshine he appears to be on screen.

“I’m a human being,” he says. “We all have bad days and a lot of irritable moments and I think a wonderful challenge is to find optimism when you are irritated.”

SHUT-DOWN, UPBEAT

Vacation Friends was one of many movies shut down by the coronavirus pandemic last year. The holiday scenes – actually shot in Puerto Rico – were filmed just before the world ground to a halt but the scenes set in the US were among those to be made under Covid-safe conditions once restrictions lifted.

Cena says that two polar opposite experiences bonded the cast and crew in a way he hadn’t experienced and says he was philosophical and upbeat as the industry went through one of its darkest hours, even recording a video refuting coronavirus conspiracy theories for the Last Week Tonight With John Oliver show. He also married his girlfriend of more than a year, Shay Shariatzadeh, in October.

Shay Shariatzadeh and John Cena tied the know last year. Picture: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

“James Gunn has a very unique saying that obstacles are opportunities and I really admire that,” Cena says. “The pandemic can be grouped into that but that’s a pretty decent sentence to take into life. It’s just a matter of perspective. I don’t want to say that I am an unabashedly positive man – there were and still are some very tough moments because of all this. It sucks. It does. But you can’t just kick the can down the road, you have to find something in there that makes the journey worth having and makes life worth living.”

Cena’s douchey, helmeted, gun-toting killer Peacemaker was one of the best things about The Suicide Squad, and Gunn was so taken with the way the pair made the character come to life that he wrote an eight-part spin-off series, which will screen early next year. Cena is tight-lipped on the details but says he jumped at the chance to spend more time with a director who “takes some big, brave swings and takes superhero movies and turns them on their head”.

“He made me so much better over the course of nine months,” he says of Gunn. “I didn’t take it as validation, I took it as a wonderful opportunity to up my game. I just like the fact that everyone got what we were going for with Peacemaker and I can’t wait until they see the series.”

James Gunn and John Cena at the premiere of The Suicide Squad in Los Angeles this month. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Also not shy of taking big swings, Cena recognised a kindred spirit in Gunn, and puts a lot of his success down to not being afraid to fail through his long and varied career in wrestling, acting and even music.

“I have always been weirdly brave,” he says. “I took some bold chances early on in WWE and I certainly didn’t have the skill everybody else has. I came out with a rap album, when I wasn’t a glorified MC. It’s just being comfortable in your own skin and believing in what you do. And comedy is the same situation, it’s not ‘man, let’s compare jokes and see who’s the funniest’. It’s ‘OK, this is who I am and what I bring to the table’. I am not afraid to bomb – I know that’s inevitable.”

When suggested that kind of attitude takes a lot of confidence, Cena demurs.

“A lot of it is stupidity,” he says. “Just outright stupidity. And also, I have never really been cool. I got picked on as a teenager and still had a group of eclectic friends as a young adult. I have had a broad range of connections but have never really been cool, so I don’t necessarily care about any of that. I just care about enjoying the journey and enjoying life.”

John Cena at the WWE Super Show Down Wrestling at the MCG in 2018. Picture: Mark Stewart

RING MASTER

Cena’s career journey has this year taken him back to where it all started – the wrestling ring. Last year, the now 44-year-old said he was stepping back from what he was “essentially a younger man’s game”, but when the planets aligned and he found himself between film projects, the lure of the squared circle proved too strong. His return to the Money In the Bank event last month was greeted with thunderous applause and set the stage for his showdown with Roman Reigns at SummerSlam on the weekend.

Cena clarifies now that he’s never really wanted to leave the wrestling family, rather that insurance constraints won’t let him make movies and signature moves like the Attitude Adjustment at the same time.

“It’s very difficult to take a $200 million or more movie like The Suicide Squad and say ‘yeah, but on the weekends, is it cool if I go and throw my body around and possibly get injured?’. You can’t do that. They don’t allow it.

“For all of these opportunities, I am so grateful to the WWE because they could have just chewed me up and spit me out for jumping ship but they understand you can’t do both.”

Cena says after worrying about the reception he might receive after a few years away, he was overwhelmed by the love he felt at Money In the Bank.

“It’s really emotionally satisfying. It’s like, ‘no man, go and do your thing and come back when you can and we’ll be here for you’. The term family truly has depth when it comes to the WWE Universe. They treat me like I am part of the family.”

Vacation Friends streams on Disney+ from Friday.