John Cena Was ‘Run Out Of The Movie Business’ After WWE Studios Films

WWE

John Cena has opened up about his early acting roles in films under the WWE Studios banner, saying he was “run out of the movie business” after his performances.

In 2025 John Cena is a top Hollywood star with high profile acting roles in DC’s Peacemaker, Fast & Furious and Heads of State among others to his name.

While his WWE success made him a household name, Cena’s early acting roles did not to do much to give him credibility within Hollywood, in fact, according to Cena, his early movies in the mid- to-late 2000s severely stilted his career as an actor.

Appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience, John Cena spoke of how he “wasn’t invested” in his early roles, which began with 2006’s The Marine:

“Vince opened WWE Studios with the idea of, if we make these guys movie stars more people come to the arena. Now as a young 20 something on the road people chant your name every night, I’m like that sounds f**king great.

“His first movie was supposed to be with Steve Austin and it fell through, they were about to shoot in two weeks, so movie pre-production is way longer than that, but he was like you’re going to Australia to film this movie The Marine.

“And it was tough, I went from arrive in a town at noon, work out, get a good meal in, crush the show, have some beers on the bus to the next town, fall asleep do it all again and its like this whirlwind of electricity. To ‘Ok you’re at hair and makeup at six o’clock, we’re doing an explosion today, so the lights are going to be weird and we probably will get to you about 5:30pm.’ ‘You just said it’s 6:00 in the morning.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘So what the f**k do you want me to do until 5:30?’ ‘Just hang out.’ And as a young 20 something I wanted to be in the electricity, I couldn’t handle the nature of the business. And therefore my passion wasn’t in it. I wasn’t fully invested in it.

“I am f**king here with you guys right now. We are talking about this. My mind isn’t elsewhere on other s**t. I want to give you all I got so I’m here with you. I was never there in those movies. I was always back in, ‘F**k, maybe if I have a feud with this guys, or if I could have done this.’ I was never there, and you could see it in the performance.

“So I kind of got run out of the movie business. I did so many shitty movies in like 2009/10, my best friend and agent Dan Baime at the time I was like ‘Man, we’re never doing movies again right?’ And you know, an agent is supposed to be the guy to pick me up, he looks at me dead, he goes, ‘Nope, we will find another way though.’ He was honest, we were run out of town but we’ll find another way, and we did.”

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Cena would then go on to credit Jud Apatow and Amy Schumer for giving him a small role in 2015 comedy Train Wreck, which then led to more opportunities afterwards.

As well as The Marine, Cena also appeared in WWE Studios’ 12 Rounds, Legendary and The Reunion.

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