John Cena Trashes His Early Movie Career and Says He Should’ve Been ‘Run Out of Town’

John Cena isn’t sugarcoating his past film work. During a new Vanity Fair interview reflecting on his career, the WWE legend turned Hollywood star opened up about why he initially hated the movie business — and why it took years before he learned how to respect the craft.

While discussing his action-packed experience filming Fast 9, Cena compared it to his first major movie role in The Marine, and he didn’t hold back about how bad it really was for him at the time.

“Big action like this is actually what kind of soured me on the movie business early on in my career. When I went down to film ‘The Marine’ in 2004 or 2005 — gosh — I’d just gotten a fiery start in WWE, I’m world champion, I’m going to a different town every night, 320 days a year, audience is just going nuts…”

“And then I fly all the way out to Australia to library silence to shoot one explosion a day. Like, I hated it. And I hated it ’cause I just wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t appreciate the patience of it.”

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Cena admitted that he was doing movies more to boost WWE ticket sales than to actually build an acting career — and he says that lack of passion showed in his performances.

“But when I reflect back on my career, that’s like, I didn’t appreciate those opportunities. And by the way — I did a lot of shitty movies, and that’s why I didn’t do movies for a while. I should’ve got run out of town.”

“I wanted to be elsewhere, and I was doing movies as a vehicle to sell more tickets for wrestling. That’s okay… but I wasn’t putting my heart where it needed to be — and that was in the character, on the set, and appreciating everybody’s role in the process.”

It’s rare for a major star to own up to early missteps, especially as bluntly as Cena just did. But it’s also a clear sign of how far he’s come — from WWE headliner to someone who now truly values the art of performance.

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.