After 1 / 4 of a century in wrestling, John Cena is retiring from in-ring motion later this yr. Nevertheless, the longtime WWE famous person (and up to date Hollywood mainstay) has no dearth of tasks to maintain him busy. He is been part of Vin Diesel’s Quick & Livid household for 2 (occurring three) entries. He is hosted a number of recreation exhibits, together with Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, Wipeout, and American Grit. He even has a number one function within the superhero sequence Peacemaker, which returns to Max in August. Nevertheless, his newest sequence — Roku actuality present What Drives You, which he additionally govt produced — stands aside.
The present, a mixture of Comedians in Vehicles Getting Espresso and MTV Cribs, is not precisely unique in format, however with Cena on the helm, it is surprisingly enjoyable. With the snappy modifying and thumping soundtrack of mid-2000s VH1, Cena briskly introduces the idea at the beginning of every 20-minute episode, then picks up his superstar visitor at their house and has them drive him to a spot they like to go to. That is it. However the simplicity leads to stunning intimacy, a lot of which is owed to Cena’s self-deprecating appeal.
Because it occurs, the primary 4 visitors on the present are very similar to Cena himself: individuals whose careers have hopped the road between wrestling and different Hollywood ventures. There’s YouTube star Logan Paul, who discovered current in-ring success as WWE’s United States Champion. There’s Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, who began out on MTV’s The Actual World, broke into wrestling by means of WWE’s actuality present Robust Sufficient, and ultimately competed in the principle occasion of WrestleMania (towards Cena, no much less). There are additionally musical artists like nation rapper Jelly Roll and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, who’ve carried out on a few of WWE’s largest phases.
However does that make What Drives You a wrestling present, or perhaps a wrestling-adjoining one? Not fairly. Cena had some attention-grabbing opinions on the topic throughout our chat, lots of which he expressed in distinctly automotive metaphors; for example, wrestling occupying a “parking spot” in individuals’s brains. (Whether or not it’s media coaching or just Freudian, it’s a pleasant quirk.) He additionally had illuminating ideas on how the sequence’ digicam setup bolsters its authenticity — and what that phrase even means within the age of actuality TV and, as WWE is usually known as, “sports entertainment.”
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Mashable: Wrestling is in every single place, particularly with the current enlargement of WWE to Netflix, nevertheless it’s been in every single place for some time. Your 4 preliminary visitors on What Drives You all have one thing or the opposite to do with wrestling. Was that your intent getting in as an govt producer, or is that simply the way it labored out?
John Cena: It is extra the second, I believe. WWE, and sports activities leisure on the whole, casts a really extensive internet and impacts lots of people. Man, I’ve by no means met anybody who hasn’t had some type of wrestling story, or sports activities leisure story. They could speak about a sure period, like “I remember Hacksaw Jim Duggan, or Hulk Hogan, or the Undertaker.” However it looks as if everybody has a parking spot of their mind for sports activities leisure. It simply reaches a whole lot of of us, and it is also an setting the place we welcome any and all visitors to come back in and be a part of the vitality and enthusiasm.
The present makes use of vehicles as an inroad to individuals’s lives. Do you see vehicles as an expression of individuals’s personalities, virtually in the best way {that a} costume or a theme music could be in wrestling?
You are near the mark with me. I believe we’re all human, and on this human a part of our mind system lives snap judgment. So that you see a automotive, see somebody driving it, and make assumptions about them. And I actually like with the ability to subdue your snap judgment, particularly if it is in a case that is nonthreatening to your existence, since you’ll find yourself studying one thing. You study in case you are completely proper, or when you have been misguided a bit of, otherwise you did not get the entire image.
Mashable High Tales
I consider a automotive is sort of a style alternative, and it does say one thing about us. It doesn’t suggest you must drive a Hypercar or a pickup truck or, heck, even personal a automotive. You’ll be able to take a rideshare and you may have individuals make assumptions. However so long as you do not communicate in absolutes, and ask questions, you give your visitors an opportunity to reply. And in that backwards and forwards is the place you get to know individuals, and that is what the present’s all about.
Previous that snap judgment, the outside of the automotive, you could have the inside the place these intimate conversations happen. What’s it like so that you can must create that sense of intimacy? You have hosted exhibits earlier than, however that is one the place you are ceding area for different individuals’s tales. How do you make individuals really feel comfy sufficient to speak in confidence to you?
The setting does a whole lot of the work. If we do an in-person press interview for, for instance, a film junket, there is a digicam pointed at me, a digicam pointed at you. There’s an individual behind my digicam, there’s an individual behind your digicam. They’ve us each lit fairly brightly. The seat could be comfy, it won’t be comfy. There is a increase mic hanging over every of us. Folks do not perceive, as a result of they only see the good shot. However as a result of we filmed this all in a automotive, the cameras have been tremendous small. They’re mounted in a spot that may’t block the driving force’s imaginative and prescient. The automotive’s mic is deep within the console. We are able to get sound, nevertheless it’s not obstructive. And it is an setting that our visitors are conversant in.
You simply lose your self within the drive. Actually, it’s one of many best environments, since you overlook you are even being filmed. I believe that is what led to some nice dialog. You do not really feel the brilliant lights as a result of it is not that sort of present. I am not making an attempt to place stress on [the guests] to do a bit, or entertain the viewers. When you shut the doorways of the automotive, man, it was simply us.
It was placing how private and genuine a whole lot of it will get. Between your appearances in movies, in wrestling, and in addition what we’re doing now, the media sit-downs, there is a must be genuine. However on the identical time, do you ever discover there being stress to place forth a manufactured authenticity? You have come up in wrestling, the place there is a very bizarre blurred line between actuality and fiction.
I have been lucky sufficient the place leisure has been actually good to me. I am lastly retiring from the WWE after virtually 25 years. And after that period of time, when you’re placing on a veneer, individuals ultimately see by means of it. I do not assume there may be such a factor as manufactured authenticity. I believe these issues are so juxtaposed that it might both be manufactured or genuine.
We now have a saying in WWE: The individuals who join with the viewers probably the most are individuals whose personalities you get, simply type of turned as much as 11. I actually assume that rings true. I believe the people who join with the viewers probably the most are their most genuine selves.
As a result of in case you are successful within the WWE, you spend a whole lot of time with the viewers, and our viewers is basically good, and so they’ll be capable of see by means of it.
I have been fortunate sufficient to be on an extended drive, and over that course of time, perhaps I’ve tried out sure aspects of a persona, or made some errors once I’ve made selections that weren’t precisely genuine. However over the lengthy haul, as a result of it has been such a journey, you type of get me for who I’m.
What Drives You premieres Jan. 21 on the Roku Channel.
