John Cena Talks Voicing Ferdinand, On Getting to Pick His Own Roles, More

– John Cena recently spoke with Digital Spy, here are some highlights…

On what WWE experiences he pulled from for his role voicing Ferdinand: So many times in WWE, the audience tells me – at the top of their lungs – that they want me to change. But over the years I’ve learned that, if I change, they’ll just rag on me about something else. I’m never gonna please them and, at the same time, I would be turning my back on those that I care about. So it couldn’t have been a better situation for me to be involved with this movie.

On Cena wanting people to know he’s “more than a ball cap”: I am a 40-year-old adult – there’s a man behind the hand. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for this [the hand] and I have great perspective of that. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for those things. But it’s always a challenge to let people know that there’s a little more to me.

On being at a point in his film career where he can starting picking his own roles: I’m fortunate enough to be able to choose stuff that resonates with me, whereas before, when trying to help launch WWE Studios, I was pretty much told to just go and do these movies. The Marine [Cena’s first film with WWE Studios] was a fun ride, but as more movies got made, it was more like, ‘We need you to do this, we need you do that…’ Now because of the fortunate run I’ve had with WWE, I’m able to read something and think, ‘Wow – I really like this, I’d like to be part of it’ – and going into the process happy to be a part of it is great, because it helps your performance… and it helps because I’m happy to talk about the movie, because I’m very proud of it.