Lana On Why Her Current Character Is More Challenging, Playing a Babyface

Lana’s latest character arc has her playing a babyface for the first real time in WWE, and she discussed the challenges of that in a new interview with Digital Spy. You can check out some highlights below:

On her character work in WWE: “I think the biggest misconception about WWE is, people don’t realise that we are actors and we are storytellers. Yes, it’s a professional sport but we are characters out there and that’s what I actually love about my job in WWE.”

On the evolution of her character: “Over the years I’ve been able to play all these different things. Yes it’s the same character Lana, but different chapters of her life. From being an ice-cold Russian to right now, a good guy who is being bullied and overcoming her enemies. I like to look at my career in WWE as chapters, different chapters of Lana’s life. I feel like this chapter of Lana is a lot closer to C.J. in the sense of the way we’re even packaging her versus when I first came on the scene with Rusev and I talked with a very thick accent. Yes, that was an extension of myself, I grew up in Russia, I grew up with a lot of features that I drew my inspiration from and I coated it with a Russian accent. So the packaging was a little bit further [from C.J.] but there’s a lot of elements of myself that I could identify with. Then when I was doing the Bobby Lashley and Rusev story, that’s further. That’s was an adulterous chapter in Lana’s life, so that is very different to who I am, but it was exciting to play.”

On her current babyface role: “This is much closer to me. But sometimes it’s a lot more challenging mentally because the line is a little bit more blurred but I love it. What I really enjoy is, basically for six years I was a villain. There were little pockets here and there when I was a good guy but really diving into this chapter where I need to be more vulnerable and need to get people to root for me is different. It’s definitely a lot more challenging as an actor because I think I just felt so comfortable in that villainous role but I love challenges and it’s really exciting.”