At this point, everyone knows WWE legend John Cena is a more than capable actor after first making a name for himself in wrestling. Cena's most recent project sees him appearing in Little Brother alongside Eric André.
Even with Cena's acting credentials well-established at this point, Little Brother director Matt Spicer was still “really surprised” by Cena. The 17-time WWE world champion has his real heel turn in Little Brother, and he gave everything to the part.
“John really surprised me. I know he's a multi-talented guy — he's really funny, [a] great athlete, but a lot of that emotional stuff we had to, just for scheduling reasons, film that in the first week,” Spicer recalled. “I was really nervous because usually the actors need some time to ramp into the movie and into their parts.
“And man, John and Eric just nailed it right out of the gate on like day four or five. I was like, ‘I think we're gonna be okay.' I was really impressed with how vulnerable they were willing to be on camera. It was cool,” he continued.
Who deserves credit for his performance?
As much as Spicer would love to take credit for Cena's performance, he can't. He waxed poetic about the retired WWE legend's preparedness.
“I would love to take more credit for it, but John, that's one thing I will say: he comes prepared,” he praised. “He shows up, he knows his lines front [to] back. He made choices as an actor, and I would say 99% of the time, they were exactly what I had in mind. And that 1% was where I would step in [and] say, ‘Hey, John, can you try it like this? We might wanna go in this direction.' And he was willing to.”
The “very malleable” Cena would always be willing to try whatever Spicer suggested. He would tell him, “It's your sandbox. I'm just here to play in your sandbox, show up and do what I need to do.” In turn, Spicer and his editor would usually use Cena's first takes “almost every time.”
Eric André's brotherly bond with Little Brother co-star John Cena
Like his character in Little Brother, André is a few years younger than Cena. He has a lot of respect for the WWE legend, and he respects all of the work he has done in every medium.
“John has so much experience in entertainment, and he's so highly intelligent, and he has such a wealth of knowledge,” André raved. “And he's done so many different mediums. He obviously had done two-and-a-half-to-three decades of professional wrestling; he has a platinum rap album; he can play piano virtuosically; he can speak Mandarin fluently; he's done movies [and] television.
“He's the hardest working man in showbiz after James Brown, so he's really good at articulating advice. I look to him almost as a mentor in a lot of ways,” he continued.
As for what “advice” he received from Cena, a lot of it had to do with “self-care.” Cena's character in Little Brother, Rudd, is fittingly all about “self-care.”
“A lot of it is about self-care and protecting yourself and loving yourself, proceeding with courage,” André recalled.
Plus, Cena gave him some pointers after he was attacked on WWE Monday Night RAW. However, we'll have to wait to hear that, as he said, “I can't divulge that information.”
Little Brother will be available to stream on Netflix on June 26.
