Filmmaker Renny Harlin has worked with some of the best actors in the business - Geena Davis, Bruce Wilis, Samuel L.Jackson, Sylvester Stallone, Val Kilmer - so it goes without saying he was a little skeptical about working with wrestler John Cena on a movie.
"I think he was planning for the worst", says Cena, star of Harlin's new film 12 Rounds. "He thought he was going to be working with a walking broomstick".
A couple of coffee's later and Harlin and Cena, a Massachusetts born athlete who claimed fame in the ring in the early noughties, were not only on the same page - but good friends.
"We laugh about it now, but he really didn't know what he was going to get with me" laughs the actor. "He didn't even know who I was. So it goes without saying that what attracted Renny to the project was the script".
It was the script that also caught Cena's attention.
After starring in the popular action movie The Marine, the actor was hurriedly looking for a follow-up vehicle. He discovered it over coffee with producer Josh McLachlan.
"When I heard the premise, I was sold. [Josh] gave a great pitch. It sounded great", he says.
In the film, Cena plays a detective who discovers his girlfriend has been kidnapped by a ex-con tied to Baxter's past, and he'll have to successfully complete 12 challenges in order to secure her safe release.
It goes without saying that the film doesn't have a lot to do with the in's and out's of being a police officer - but Cena still wanted to bring some sort of credibility to the role of.
"Well, firstly we did tactical training and so on, but this guy is uncertain in his life and uncertain with his girl. When someone in his life dies he doesn't cope well. He's not supposed to be to the best cop around. But the movie isn't really about being a cop. Having said that, my brother has been an officer of the law for many years and I drew inspiration from him. I'd see him come home after a terrible crime or a murder and how that affected him. That's what I took in. It's not so much about being able to read rights to criminals correctly - it's the stuff you see that makes the cop."
Needless to say, the wrestling superstar is one of the fittest looking coppers we've seen on film in quite some time. And Cena didn't go to any extra effort to look the part.
"I didn't change my training one bit. I worked on core stability strength training a bit, and lost a bit of weight here and there if I felt I need to, but mostly, I didn't do anything different. In fact, the producers were more worried about me just getting through the film - I'd only just recovered from an injury; I'd torn my right pectoral muscle in September. I was just out of rehab. They were a bit iffy as to whether or not I'd make it".
Producers - and the insurance company - were even more alarmed when Cena decided to do his own stunts. "Most of the stunts are reality based - there's No CGI - and I believe you've gotta see the person doing it to believe it.''
Make it though he did, and he also had a blast along the way. In addition to Harlin, Cena enjoyed working with co-star Ashley Scott, who, ironically, previously played fellow wrestler Dwayne Johnson's love interest in Walking Tall.
"We shared some great stories" Cena says, in response to stealing The Rock's on-screen girlfriend. "She's cool. A real fun girl. A great actress too. She was perfect for the part because she's, like [Molly] in the movie, afraid to pull the trigger in real life."
Speaking of, Cena's keen to work with Dwayne ‘The Rock' Johnson in the future.
"I would love to. He's a great actor. I've talked to him. I'd like to get him in the Square Circle first", he says.
There doesn't seem to be any competition between Cena and Johnson either - whilst the latter seems content doing family films like Race to Witch Mountain and The Tooth Fairy, Cena wants to do anything but.
"I'd like to continue to do action stuff. Sure, those films can be funny at times but I'm excited about staying in the action game. We need an action hero. I don't think you need be concerned that I'll be leaving action [films] behind any time soon".
Proof in the pudding? Cena's just signed to star in another full-throttle actioner ("It's confidential at the moment, but we hope to film in June/July. We're in pre-production now"), is already talking about doing a sequel to 12 Rounds ("It's totally based on the consumer but if this does well, Renny and I look forward to doing another - 13 Rounds"), and wants Twentieth Century Fox to know he's waiting for the call to do the Predator remake.
"Just to be a part of that team would be awesome", Cena says of the 1987 film's core cast of characters. "I'd be happy playing Governor Ventura's character - the gum-chewing gun-toting Blain."
And hopefully, one of his future projects brings him back to Australia - where he shot his first movie, The Marine.
"I love Australia. I was so spoilt - I was on the Gold Coast", says Cena. ‘'But we love it whenever we come back there on tour. We'll see if we can't bring 13 Rounds down there. I'll work on that". - CLINT MORRIS
- ONLY AT THE CINEMAS MARCH 19
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