John Cena Reveals Reason for Taking Specific Movie Roles During His WWE Career

John Cena has made a name for himself in Hollywood, and fans can see him in the new film F9 with Vin Diesel. However, in the early stages of his movie career, Cena was taking roles to help WWE. The WWE legend recently spoke to Dermot & Dave and talked about the roles he took while being the top Superstar in the company.

“I don’t think we find opportunity, I think opportunity finds us,” Cena said as transcribed by Fightful. “When it finds us, you have to be brave enough to jump. I certainly had a wonderful existence in WWE with no sense of slowing down. I took bit parts here and there where I had to expose a lot of myself on screen and redefine myself to be the butt of the joke for five years running now to try and get another chance. It started off as me doing a parody of myself on kids movies with a YouTube character called Fred. Then I got another opportunity and another. The conundrum is, WWE is constant. To be able to step away – you can’t step away to film Fast.”

Cena went on to talk about how he felt like he owed WWE whenever he would take a movie role. “I took those small parts and could film in a weekend, then come back and make my dates,” he said. “You have to find that balance. When I did those movies in the early 2000s – if anybody saw them, I’ll mail them the check because I owe them some money – the reasons behind it were wrong. I was doing it to try and get WWE more popular rather than wanting to do it.

“Every second I was on one of those movie sets, I wanted to be back in WWE. Now, I truly enjoy everything that comes with the movie. You can’t have fear of missing out or wanting to be in all places at once. As performers in WWE, we fancy ourselves as versatile and want to be everywhere.”

Cena hasn’t competed in a WWE match or been on WWE TV since April 2020 when he took on “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36. He confirmed he would return to WWE, but it’s unclear when. Along with F9, Cena is set to star in The Suicide Squad and Vacation Friends. Both movies will be released in August.