John Cena on ‘Jackpot’ (And ‘Coyote vs. Acme’)

Contrary to his WWE catchphrase, you can see John Cena practically everywhere these days. In addition to his continuing appearances for the pro wrestling giant — he recently appeared at WWE’s Money in the Bank event to announce his retirement from the ring at the end of 2025 — he’s become a consistently funny and likable presence in movie theaters and TV screens in a string of action movies and R-rated comedies. (If you missed Ricky Stanicky earlier this spring, it’s still streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video and he’s hysterically good in it as a struggling actor who accepts a job portraying a group of friends’ imaginary buddy.)

His latest movie combines both genres. In Jackpot!, he plays Noel Cassidy, who offers his services as a bodyguard to a woman (Awkwafina) who is the unlucky winner of the “California Grand Lottery” in a dark future where landing this contest’s prize means in order to collect your millions you have to survive until sundown. Anyone who kills you before then gets to keep the cash themselves. (Think The Purge meets Death Race 2000.)

Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy), Jackpot! combines absurdist social commentary with surprisingly elaborate fight sequences (one of the few rules of this lottery is that you can’t shoot the lotto winner, which leads to a lot of hand-to-hand fighting for her millions). That makes Noel an ideal role for Cena, whose muscular physicality belies his warm screen presence and absurdist sense of humor.

During a conversation over Zoom, I asked him what drew him to Jackpot! and to the string of R-rated comedies he’s made in the last few years. As a wrestling fan, I was also interested to hear his thoughts comparing these two different worlds — wrestling and acting — where he’s achieved significant success. Finally I asked him for his thoughts on Coyote vs. Acme, the live-action/animated Looney Tunes hybrid Cena starred in that was shelved, seemingly forever, by Warner Bros. as a reported tax write-off.

What was it about this particular project and this premise that appealed to you?

The script was a great read. That’s always my first jump-off; I’ve gotta like the book. That’s what I say to myself; “I’ve got to read and like the book.” And this one read particularly well. It was a very easy read and a concept that, while a dystopian view of the future, is easy to understand.

You’ve really stood out in a bunch of R-rated comedies in the last few years, at a time when it seems like there are fewer of those kinds of movies being made. Are you a fan of those sorts of films — and why do you think they’re maybe not as prevalent as they once were?

I’m certainly a fan of R-rated comedies dating back to like Animal House, Airplane! — actually Airplane! is PG, which is an amazing accomplishment for them and that movie. Um, Caddyshack … all the way up to Step Brothers … Bridesmaids by our director, Paul Feig.

But I think the genre’s always been there. I don’t know, I’m grateful to be in movies that are brave enough to push the limits of R-rated comedy but I think they are out there if you look for them. I’m just happy to be a part of the ones I have been in.

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My favorite line in the movie is when you and Awkwafina are in the panic room, and your character, describing himself, says “Every week I buy a bag of salad. I don’t touch it, it turns to mush, I throw it in the trash.” Was that in the script or improvised? And: Do you, like me, buy a bag of salad every week, not touch it, and throw it in the trash?

So… that’s not my weekly routine. [laughs] That was absolutely in the script. And it’s stuff like that that helps you develop how these characters are going to be. So I guess I was able to pull from your personal experience to build my character, so thank you very much.

So your screenwriter and I share dietary habits, I guess that’s what I’m learning here, okay. I’m curious about the look of your character. You’re doing all of this action and these stunts in a three-piece suit — actually not that much different than the suit you’re wearing today. Do you have any input into Noel’s costume in the film?

So everyone has their own process. I don’t want to say anyone is wrong. I like to let those people who make it their life’s work to create, I don’t want to clip their wings. So what I do when I get to makeup, hair, costume design, I just trust the process. And that can get me in a brown suit, it can also put me in the Oscars wearing an index card.

[laughs]

I can be a merman [in Barbie]. I can be in The Suicide Squad in my tighty-whities. I like to allow the people who made it their profession and their life’s work to do what they want. If I go in and tell them how I want to look and tell them all of my character traits, it kind of clips their wings a little bit. And these are really creative people, and they’re really good at what they do. I want to see what they come up with, because then maybe I’ll get more information and more ideas.

Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a clean-cut vision on who you want to be. But I like the surprise of: “Here, you’re another creative mind. Come up with what you want, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got.” All I ask for is that it’s comfortable. We didn’t rip a seam on a suit, so they delivered in that aspect. I thought we would destroy multiple suits. We had nine suits made. We never ruined a brown suit. So they did great there.

How does the physical toll of doing a stunt-heavy action movie like Jackpot! compare to the physical toll of being a wrestler?

It’s completely different. In WWE, you have one performance — sometimes multiple performances a night, but they’re small bursts. Live, as it happens. No reruns, no repeats, no mistakes, because it’s live. And then, when it’s over, it’s over.

When you film action, it’s small bursts, but everything has to be precise. A lot of things can go wrong. It’s a lot of moving parts, and you do the same stuff over and over and over again. I thought The Fall Guy was a great depiction of all of that. You don’t just do one gag, you do the one gag from multiple angles, multiple setups, multiple lenses. So you’re getting the crap beat out of you all day. It’s a lot more arduous than WWE.

I’m not saying WWE isn’t physical, but at least you know hey: You’re gonna be on at 7 and be done by 7:30.

You’ve worked with some really big comedy directors in the last few years: Judd Apatow, Peter Farrelly … what does Paul Feig bring to the table that makes him a special filmmaker?

Man, I think the human being that you are makes you special. Paul’s a very special human being. So is every other accomplished comedy director I’ve worked with, and they all have their own process. Paul’s is he sticks to the story. He loves a good punchline. He’s extremely creative. He wants to bring out the best of his actors, and he wants to create that environment where they can flourish. So he goes into everything with an open mind. He’s very talent-friendly. He wants to make an environment that, again, is comfortable for us — because the more comfort we have, the more hilarious we can try to be, and then maybe the more fun of ourselves we’re willing to make. He’s great in that regard.

He runs a great set, he’s great with his crew. He continuously works with the same crew and they know if there’s a project with him, it’s gonna be fun, funny, and they’re gonna be taken care of by an outstanding human being. And a lot of those traits are common in a lot of great comedy directors.

The film is set in the near future and it does not paint the most flattering portrait of where our country might be headed. How you personally view the future? Do you worry about it or are you optimistic about it?

So I know that no one knows it. We have a bunch of information where we can make an educated guess. I like to believe in the good in humanity.

I think maybe that’s why it was so fun to play Noel Cassidy. I think he believes that there is still good in humanity, and he controls his environment and controls what’s within his graps. And if every day I can try to do my best to be the best human I can, even on the tough days, and apologize for when I’m not perfect and mean it … whatever happens in the future, I can sleep okay at night.

Obviously, when you started acting you were already pretty well established in WWE, and you were mostly wrestling with occasional acting gigs. Now you’re very busy with Hollywood, but you still go back to WWE from time to time. When you return to WWE now, is there anything that you’ve learned from all the acting you’ve done that has changed how you perform as a wrestler?

Amazingly enough, it’s the opposite.

I used to always think about how WWE is different from acting because WWE is so big and so theatrical. There are so many more moments now that I’m like ‘Man, this parallels my existence in WWE.’ And they do run a whole lot of parallel lines. And gosh, am I grateful for the 22 years so far that I’ve had in WWE, and as I retire next year, I’m really excited for that tour and to close that chapter. I will never forget the wisdom I’ve received from that, and it helps me in my everyday professional and personal life.

Speaking personally as a movie fan and a wrestling fan, I’m sometimes frustrated by the lack of good wrestling movies. There are a few, and certainly some very good wrestling documentaries. But fiction films, for whatever reason, there’s not a ton of really memorable ones. Why is it so hard to get wrestling right in movies? And do you have a favorite movie about wrestling?

Those are great questions. I think for the longest time, possibly it was just because of the misunderstanding that everyone had, or maybe the cloak of secrecy that the business itself tried to cast. I think now a lot of that cloak has been lifted.

As a matter of fact, as we see more and more behind-the-scenes footage from WWE, and they’re doing more and more documentaries, I think the more information that gets out there and the more stories that the world knows, the more movie ideas are out there and the more series ideas are out there.

There’s been a few that have been really good. I really did like The Wrestler. I thought it was just so sad and emotional. And I remember starting out on the independent circuit and wrestling a lot of guys who had been in the industry for a long time. That movie struck a chord on the beginnings of my career. So it allowed me to look back and romanticize a little bit of that, but also it was a very well done performance [by Mickey Rourke].

When it came out, of course, I’m in WWE, and everyone’s like “What did you think of The Wrestler?” I thought it was a sad movie. It could have been called The Rockstar or The Baseball Player, but I was so glad they chose wrestling to use as a forum to tell that story because it made a good movie about wrestling. And then with one that’s a success, people were like “Oh man, maybe we can do something with this.”

Iron Claw was another one that just came out, there was a really good one. There’ve been scattered ones, but gosh, what a treasure chest of stories WWE and professional wrestling is in general. So who knows? Maybe there’s a bright future there.

Selfishly, the #1 movie of yours that I want to see is Coyote vs. Acme. It just sounds like a great concept for a movie. I was really disappointed when I heard that we probably wouldn’t get to see it. Did you get to see it? And what are your thoughts about that whole situation?

No, I never got to see the movie. And my thoughts are I operate under the construct of you can control the controllable. I don’t own the movie. I didn’t write the check to finance the movie. I was called upon to be in the movie. I gave my heart and soul to it. I think that’s what’s so tough, especially with folks like [co-stars] Will Forte and P.J. Byrne, and [director] Dave Green, who absolutely crushed it, and our whole entire cast, and certainly all the people in visual effects that spent all the time to make those Warner Bros. characters come to life. I think that’s where that attachment is.

But at the end of the day, it’s the movie biz. And I totally, completely respect Warners’ choice to do what they did with the movie, because I want the business to go on. I regret folks who got the chance to shine in the movie, because when you do good, you get another opportunity. So that’s the only thing that kind of stinks. But gosh, if you buy it, you own it, and you can do whatever you want with it. And that’s how it works.

Jackpot! premieres on Prime Video on August 15.