Randy Orton will go to the papers if he has to, but he’s much happier being a pro wrestler than an aspiring actor.
Randy Orton was a guest on Thursday’s new episode of The Pat McAfee Show and spoke about Triple H’s in-ring retirement and what “The Game” meant to him. Orton said that Triple H helped him out tremendously over the years and hope to set the same example for the future that Triple H set for him.
“Triple H just retired the other day and it was emotional for me. That man, if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here right now. I believe it, he’s that kind of man and on a personal level there’s that, but then he saw something in me for the business’s sake, he wanted to help the business and the industry that had given him everything that he loved from a kid. His way of doing that was helping guys like me, and that was twenty years ago. If you think about it, when he gave me that push in Evolution, he was only in his early 30s. So I think about when I was in my early 30s, where I was in the business,” Orton said. “I was nowhere near that level of maturity and understanding of psychology. I’ll reiterate maturity — he was a man at 32 and I remember looking up to him. It’s just funny when I think of myself when I was 32, f-ck, I had nowhere near my shit together like he did. But it’s motivating to look at that and set that as the example of what I’d like to do for the business that gave me so much.”
McAfee noted that Orton hasn’t really done much professionally outside of WWE, but did still do a few acting roles several years ago. Orton said that he still does auditions from time to time, but he didn’t really enjoy actually making movies and it’s not something he wants to pursue on a bigger level.
“I did those, I’ve auditioned for stuff and I still do. Hate it. Love watching them, hate the f-cking process. I don’t watch any of the movies I’ve been in, they’re just not good,” Orton stated. “But I didn’t audition for those projects, I was told, ‘Hey, so you’re injured, while you’re healing you’re going to star in this movie.’ ‘OK, do I have any say in this? Can I at least learn how to act first?’ [And they react] ‘Hey sure, let’s get you an acting coach the day before you start shooting.’” [laughs]
Orton said he did 12 hours of acting classes but ultimately resorted to using his experience in WWE to fall back on, noting how being on live TV helped him adapt to a movie set. He closed by saying he loves what he’s doing now and hopes he can continue to wrestle for a very long time.
Early in his WWE career, Orton was featured in the WWE Studios films That’s What I Am and 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded. More recently, he played roles in the TV series Shooter and the Seth Green/Breckin Meyer film Changeland.
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