Edge Explains How WWE Prepared Him For Acting, Talks Upcoming Vikings Role

– Edge discussed getting prepared for acting via his WWE career, his upcoming role on Vikings and more in an interview with Sports Illustrated. Highlights are below:

On how WWE prepared him for acting: “WWE is entertainment boot camp. It prepares you for pretty much anything you want to try in entertainment. WWE is live and you have a live microphone with time to fill. There are no real time cues, you have eight cameras on you, and you have to keep track of which camera is hot while still interacting with the audience. If you flub a line or lose track of what you’re saying, the crowd is going to jump on you quickly. It’s amazing training, and Vince is the head of that training. There are not many with Vince’s work ethic, and I think what that does is breeds it in a lot of his performers, especially the ones that make it to the top,” explained Copeland. “If it isn’t already in you, it will be taught to you by Vince, whose go-to was usually to push, not praise, but that was OK with me.”

On his role in the upcoming season of Vikings: “I auditioned and read for the show, I had the right look for it, and a week later I was in Ireland for filming. All the pieces fell into place at the right time, and there are a lot of unique challenges I’ve never faced in this profession with Vikings. I’ve never done historical drama with accents, and there are other challenges I have yet to tackle, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this show. I knew it would be a massive challenge. I’m hungry to tackle new challenges…I really enjoyed building this character, and we built it as we went. It’s this simmering, slow storytelling, and it won’t be the initial direction that my fan base thinks it will be. It’s a very cool progression to watch where Flatnose starts, where he goes, and where he continues. It’s been a fun experience to peel the layers back on this character, which is what I did with Edge for all those years with new opponents and storylines. It leaves so many places to go with the character.”