John Cena on Being a Storyteller at Heart, Putting on His Suicide Squad Costume for the First Time

– Collider recently interviewed WWE Superstar John Cena, who was promoting his new film Dolittle. Cena discussed his transition to his movie career, being a storyteller, and more. Below are some highlights. Dolittle features Cena as the voice of a polar bear named Yoshi. The film arrives in theaters on Jan. 17.

Cena on his film career: “Dude, it’s a… I don’t know how any of this is happening. I mean, I’m promoting a movie with Robert Downey Jr. I’m currently filming a movie, a superhero movie, with James Gunn.”

Cena on how he’s a storyteller at heart: “When I watch Guardians [of the Galaxy], immediately I’m connected to these people and I walk away with a certain takeaway from that movie. It has nothing to do with the preconceived notions of the comic book characters. I watched the movie for the movie and I enjoy it. I’m also a storyteller at heart. I got to go out there on a nightly basis in WWE and entertain Birmingham, Alabama and make them want to believe that they want to see a WWE title switch or that so-and-so hates so-and-so or whatever story we’re trying to put together for that night. So I tip my cap to a great storyteller. James [Gunn] is a writer and a developer and he has great vision.”

John Cena on how it felt to wear his character’s costume for the first time for Suicide Squad 2: “Awesome. Awesome. There’s folklore about like, ‘Yeah kid, wait till you do a superhero movie.’ I guess I’m used to my costume being jean shorts and a tee shirt. So, it’s a nice little change up that I didn’t have to wear a ball cap and wristbands, but it was really cool.”

Cena on filming the action scenes for the next Fast and Furious movie: “On film, I will cheat death but it’s so safe. I had no fear in any of the processes. When I saw small renderings of what it’s going to look like, I’m like, ‘What the f–k?’ It’s awesome and I think by making the actors feel that sense of like, ‘Hey man, we’ve set this up so you are going to be all right. Just go for it.’ You get the best performance from your actors rather than somebody going, ‘I don’t know about this.’… It was unbelievably safe but also unbelievably creative.”