Cody Rhodes Recalls Moving to Hollywood at 19 To Pursue Acting, Discusses His Role as Guile in Street Fighter

Former WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes recently joined Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where he discussed his career and how he attempted to get into acting at 19 years old. Rhodes recalled moving to Los Angeles at 19 years old to pursue a career in acting.

Rhodes also discussed his major role as Guile in the new big-screen reboot of Street Fighter. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Cody Rhodes on Moving to Hollywood at 19

“I didn’t even go on an audition. I didn’t book any roles. I didn’t go on an audition. I got my Challenge for the Actor by Uta Hagen book, and I attended Comprehensive Technique with Howard Fine, and then instead of moving on to scene study, I became a stage manager at the Howard Fine Studio just to do Comprehensive Technique again, because I needed the kindergarten level, the first grade level. I needed to completely build up, which was something I was saying on the carpet the other day for the premiere.

“I hope there’s so many more things for me to do in this world because I need to flex the muscle. Wrestling can do so much for you as a storyteller, but the transition is different. You’ve seen it with John, you’ve seen it with Dwayne, you’ve seen it with Batista. My gosh, and some of the material he’s taking on. This isn’t a walk in the park. This is challenging. I was very challenged by Street Fighter, and you need those reps, and you need that time.”

On Receiving Advice from John Cena, The Rock, and Steve Austin About Transitioning From Wrestling to Acting

“Well, particularly with John and Rock, I feel like there’s a ton of advice, and not just a ton of advice. Those guys are money where their mouth is type. They both are very big on the resources that they have can be your resources. I know that’s rather inside baseball, and it’s the classic case of this might be where you click this thing up right here, and it becomes a classic CVV 27-seconder. But I mean, they really do their resources. Brad Slater and I work together now. Brad Slater has been with the final boss long enough. He’s won Super Bowl after Super Bowl, box office with DJ, and then John is the forever. You’ve sat here with John; he’s a mentor to everybody who is worthy of the time, and some even who aren’t. He really wants to pass something on. So they’ve both been wonderful, hands down, wonderful.”

On If Acting Was His Original Dream Career

“I’m usually really quick to say no, because I grew up loving wrestling so much, and that was all I ever wanted to do. The story about seeing the picture at eight years old and wanting to win the WWE title-it’s a real story. But there’s a couple quotes from a 19-year-old where I might have said acting was the first dream, and even my brother has gone on to, you know, Dustin’s good for a hot moment on social media, as you know. I think he’s gone on to say, oh, he always wanted to be an actor. I always wanted to be in entertainment, and the first love I had in the whole world, other than my mom, my sister, and my dad, was wrestling. So I think wrestling was always the thing.”

On When He Decides To Dress as Guile at Events

“This is going to sound crazy, and no, it won’t sound crazy. But Guile, when I do Guile, I want to respect the writers on the movie, because the writers did such an incredible job putting Street Fighter together and the character. I also want to respect Capcom in that I don’t ever want to catch myself creating dialog for Guile. I’m an actor on this beautiful piece of business right here, and I was honored to even don that flat top and be part of this. But I don’t want to add any context or equity because my hope is this becomes Street Fighter One turns into Street Fighter Two. Every one of us had a blast playing these characters, and I think we want them to grow.

“So I keep it very limited. A lot of grunts, a lot of thumbs up, a lot of Uncle Sam points, a salute occasionally. But yeah, it’s limited things that I do as Guile would be tough, because then your question about when are you not in character? Well, what are we doing? It’s one thing if you’re wearing a helmet or a mask because you can almost be you under it and explain it. Guile is such an iconic thing. This is a scary thing about this movie, and it was always going to be a scary thing.

“I can’t imagine how Callina [Liang] felt, or [Andrew] Koji, or Noah [Centineo]. These characters mean so much to people, and you see them and generational feelings, and cosplay and the fighting game community-they mean so much, man. We cannot do this wrong. Which is thank gosh we had Kitao [Sakurai] to direct this movie because it was about getting it accurate and Capcom being there as a partner. It’s a big amount of responsibility.”

His Thoughts on the Guile Popcorn Bucket

“Is it the first ever wearable popcorn bucket? If we’re gonna Guinness this thing down, I think it might be the first ever wearable. I heard about it and thought they can’t do that. That doesn’t work. You’re gonna wear it? Then when I saw it, it works. It’s functional. There’s the strap. It can act as a Halloween costume as well. What I would recommend to people is not to get angry at the popcorn bucket in front of them if they can’t see over it, and do not reach in the back of people’s heads because that’s going to be a thing.”

Street Fighter, featuring Cody Rhodes as Guile and Roman Reigns as Akuma, is in theaters now. You can check out 411’s official Tomatometer-approved review of the movie RIGHT HERE.