One of the surprising cameo appearances of last year was John Cena’s in the film Barbie. But initially, his team was against it.
While speaking on the Howard Stern show, Cena shared the reason why his team thought he should pass on the movie.
“So… It’s not a big team, which I’m grateful for. I don’t have a publicity department, I don’t have… I have a manager only because it’s me and him. We are kinda like a just a two-pronged fork. And an agency that goes out and tries to look for work and I don’t put it past them. They’re just going on what they know. And what they know is, this entity, this commodity, gravitates towards these things. We should stay in this lane. But, I’m not a commodity, I’m a human being. And I operate under the construct of ‘every opportunity is an opportunity’. And I read the script of the movie. I tried my hardest to be in the movie.
“But we were filming Fast, filming next door. And when I finally got connected with the people who could make the decisions and Margot was like, ‘We’ll make you a Merman. You’ll be in it for half a day.’ ‘Yeah. Sure.’ But I think the perspective from an agency standpoint was, this is beneath you. Which I get. I get that. But also to the agency’s credit, immediately they acquiesced and I was like, ‘No, we are going to do it.’ But all they can do is offer their guidance. They are not ultimately making the choice. And their guidance is, ‘Hey, truly trickle-down economics from this, might take you out of these lead lap slots.’ And I get all that. I’ve always operated under the philosophy of good work gets you another chance,” John Cena said.
Cena ended up doing the cameo as a merman. Barbie ended up grossing $1.446 billion, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023 and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time.
Did you enjoy John Cena’s cameo in Barbie?
