Will John Cena Run For President In Real Life?

ODE

WWE star John Cena's latest film sees him play an all-action President of the United States in 'Heads of State' but has it inspired him to run for President in real life? The American actor spoke about his collaboration with Idris Elba at the UK Special Screening of the film, and even tried out a Scouse accent after filming scenes for 'Heads of State' in Liverpool.  He was joined by his co-stars Priyanka Chopra and Sarah Niles, as well as director Ilya Naishuller, and writers Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec.     British actress Sarah is fresh off the back of another starring role alongside Brad Pitt in F1: The Movie, and finds herself on another red carpet at the BFI Southbank in London. Meanwhile the writing duo of Josh and Andre reveal what projects they're working on next, which includes a live-action 'Scooby Doo' for Netflix, and a 'Rainbow 6' adaptation starring Michael B. Jordan.    'Heads of State' will release exclusively on Prime Video on 2 July Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00I want some chicken and a kind of coke.

00:05Of course I can.

00:06Thank you so much John.

00:10That's a very funny thing to transition into because hey, it is lovely to see you.

00:13Hey, how about that?

00:14Are you in on the joke? Do you love that crap that you have with fans or are you sometimes like them?

00:19No, of course. I think it frustrates other folks more than it does me.

00:24Gosh, I'm grateful for it. It's kept me doing what I love for 25 years.

00:29How could I be angry at that?

00:31I love that.

00:32Hey, it's wonderful to see you and Idris.

00:34Kind of a surprise reuniting for YouTube after the Suicide Squad.

00:38But we do know that the best things come in threes.

00:40Have you already talked about how you're going to complete the trilogy?

00:42What's the perfect project for you and Idris to do next?

00:44Well, so it seems as if audiences liked us in the Suicide Squad.

00:48And gosh, we have got a good buzz around heads of state.

00:52I'm one of those guys who in WWE when you get a good dance partner,

00:57as long as the audiences are entertained, dance as long as you can.

01:00So I would love to do another movie with Idris, and I hope we have that opportunity.

01:03Can we spit more? What is the project that you would love to see?

01:06Are we thinking of maybe like a secret rom-com, another action film, what do you reckon?

01:10Gosh, if I make movies that I want to see, that's called a home video.

01:13I want to make movies that audiences want to see.

01:16So you guys will tell me what movie to make next.

01:19This is a really fantastic action set piece for you and Idris.

01:24The most impressive one about all of this being the Air Force one.

01:27Yeah, yeah.

01:28Which we see in the trailer.

01:29Looks like the most fun though, you know, like kind of anti-gravity moving around and stuff.

01:32What were your memories from shooting that massive set piece?

01:34I couldn't believe they built it practically.

01:37And they built the fuselage in three large chunks.

01:40A chunk that didn't move, a chunk that did move, and the lower half after we parachute out of Air Force One during some of the stressful moments.

01:48It was incredible to see it on set.

01:51And you just walk into this warehouse and this large tube surrounded by so much steel.

01:58And then you open the door and it's Air Force One.

02:00And you're lost.

02:01Your disbelief is suspended.

02:03You're a man who's no stranger to action set pieces in films and TV shows.

02:07Any lasting aches and pains from this one?

02:10Any injuries?

02:11Oh, man.

02:12If I did, they're all fixed by right now.

02:14And being in front of an audience that's excited to see the movie.

02:16These are the moments you work for.

02:18It's a good night.

02:19And finally for me, is this film perhaps a soft launch of John Cena, the politician, the president?

02:25Would we like to see this?

02:27Not.

02:28A.

02:29Chance.

02:30Definitive.

02:31Thanks so much for joining tonight as well.

02:33Hi, John.

02:34Hey, let's all talk.

02:35Yeah, let's go for it.

02:36All right.

02:37John Cena, because that's for the new movie, Head of State.

02:41Thank you very much.

02:42You did some of the filming in Liverpool, didn't you?

02:44Yes.

02:45Yeah, we did.

02:46Yeah.

02:47Can we hear a bit of a Scouse accent from you?

02:48Oh, man.

02:49I would not be doing it any favors.

02:51I'm still working on my proper way of speaking English, which I butcher the language to begin

02:56with, so allow me to climb that hill first.

02:58Okay, no worries.

02:59If I give you a phrase though, could you try it?

03:00I'll tell you what you can try.

03:02I want some chicken and a can of coke.

03:05I want some chicken and a can of coke.

03:07There we go.

03:08I didn't say that was boss.

03:09I was great.

03:14Hi, Sarah.

03:15I'm very excited to get a piece of your time across these two weeks because what a bloody

03:19fortnight you're having.

03:20Yet another week, another red carpet.

03:21Is this just real life at the moment?

03:23I don't know what's happening.

03:24I can keep going.

03:25I don't actually know what's really happening.

03:27It's a bit mad.

03:28I was so excited to see you in this film as well because it's such back-to-back success

03:31after F1 because we've seen you previously in projects with your own accent.

03:36Yeah.

03:37And then in F1.

03:38And now you're American.

03:39How easy or hard was it to master America?

03:40How are you the master of accents?

03:41America's pretty hard because I was having too much of a laugh and I should have just

03:44kicked to the character and sort of jokes with those guys.

03:47But you know, she's very serious.

03:50She's very like, you know, she's keeping him in his place, you know, otherwise he's

03:53going to go rogue.

03:54So she just has a bit of a laugh.

03:56Yeah.

03:57How did you feel that essentially playing like the straight man to John Cena's kind

04:01of hilarious and I dare say potentially improvising presidents at times?

04:05Yeah.

04:06How did you find that experience?

04:07No, it was fun.

04:08I desperately wanted to join on the, you know, the fun camp with him.

04:10But you know, I had to be serious.

04:11It's a serious, serious business and we've got to take hold of.

04:14And yeah, but it's good fun to be with those guys.

04:16Yeah.

04:17I know that you shot a good few scenes together in Liverpool.

04:20Was it?

04:21Yeah.

04:22I know Liverpool very well.

04:23Oh, how come?

04:24I used to do theatre there.

04:25Oh, fast.

04:26I'm in Liverpool.

04:27I've got some friends there as well.

04:28So it was good fun.

04:29And I noticed there's a little scene of, because I'm originally from South London, Fortnheve.

04:31And I saw, I was like, that is when I was a kid, I should go down Croydon.

04:34There's an actual scene.

04:35You wouldn't know unless you know Croydon.

04:37I lived in Croydon.

04:38Tell me where.

04:39So there's a scene in there.

04:40There's the three of them.

04:41They're all going down this like, I don't know, it looks like a bit of a tunnel kind

04:45of building.

04:46It looks like disused buildings.

04:47And you'll see it.

04:48And it's like, that is Croydon.

04:49I'm watching out for that.

04:50Thank you very much.

04:51Hey, tell us why audience should switch onto Prime and watch Heads of State.

04:54Please tell us.

04:55Because it's fun.

04:56And it's violent as well.

04:57There's a little bit of violence in there.

04:58So really good fight scenes.

05:00It's good fun.

05:01Them two together are just brilliant.

05:02I really saw the joy in your eyes when you said it's violent.

05:04I know.

05:05I like a bit of that.

05:06I like a bit of action movies.

05:07And it's not taking itself too seriously in that sense.

05:09So yeah.

05:10How are you doing, guys?

05:11Good.

05:12How are you?

05:13Other than inordinately warm today.

05:14Yeah.

05:15And you guys obviously have worked together on many projects over the years.

05:17Who had the brainchild of a president who can kick ass?

05:20Where did it come from?

05:21He has all the good ideas.

05:24No, it was just having the opportunity to work on a movie.

05:28It was in the spirit of lethal weapons and the bad boys and all the movies that we grew

05:33up on.

05:34It was just always something we really wanted to do.

05:35And when this project kind of came around to us, it was just impossible to not want to jump

05:39on board and kind of have a ride with it.

05:42I know that obviously, guys, when you write something you must have in your head about

05:45this character, oh, let's go for an Idris type or a John Cena type.

05:49Was that actually the words, the names that you wrote down in your writing?

05:52Well, they were on the movie pretty much the same time that we were brought on.

05:55It was all kind of sold as one big thing.

05:57So we had to write for them, which was incredible.

05:59Knowing that you're writing for those two guys is an incredible thing because they have

06:04such distinct chemistry, such distinct voices.

06:06So it made it such a pleasure to be able to go into the script knowing that it was your

06:11writing for those two.

06:12So that must make it easier then when you're writing, oh, would Idris say this?

06:15Would Jon say, would Priyanka say this?

06:16Were you writing like quips and lines basically?

06:19All of it, yeah.

06:20You can really hear the words coming out of their mouths as you're putting it on the page.

06:24So that was super exciting to do and weirdly a little bit easier.

06:29Yeah.

06:30There's so many like great, quippy, catchy earworms in this for me like Popcorn Presidents or Jim

06:35Strong and Strong Strong.

06:37Which kind of like phrases are in this film?

06:40Are you particularly proud of either of you?

06:42I think that was the whole Jim Strong thing.

06:44It was one of those early scenes that we wrote that we loved and you actually just identified

06:48two of them.

06:49Yeah.

06:50Cloud and the popcorn, all that stuff.

06:51Yeah.

06:52One of my favorite characters is Jack Quaid's turn in this.

06:55Was that the most fun character to write for?

06:57Because he's just so big and he kind of steals a scene.

07:00Tell me about the origin of that character.

07:02We literally thought like it's, we knew it was around the halfway point of the movie

07:05and we're like, let's just inject this jolt of energy into this thing.

07:08And that was one where originally it wasn't written for Jack.

07:11We were lucky enough to get him.

07:12And then he just came in and elevated the whole sequence and then Ilya came with his ideas

07:17in terms of how to make it this incredible action set piece.

07:20Yeah, that was.

07:21But we always knew that we wanted America's Nutter in that scene.

07:24Exactly.

07:25So that was really where the acting was born.

07:26Bernie Cohen would always be America's Nutter.

07:28Yeah.

07:29Another person who I would like to shine a light on, who's not here tonight, but it's

07:33Paddy Considine.

07:34Yeah.

07:35You know, you live in the UK.

07:36He's a national treasure for us.

07:37Talk about what he brought to his villainous role.

07:39You know, villains get the best lines, they say.

07:41Talk about Paddy and how we elevated the piece.

07:43He was great.

07:44I mean, he really just delivered in that cool, calculated, like just a man on a mission, driving

07:50forward with his idea.

07:51But we also wanted to make sure he had something underneath it.

07:54That, you know, the best villains are the ones that have the real pain.

07:57And so I think he landed all of that work really well.

08:00And it's always a pleasure to put something on the page and watch somebody bring it to

08:05life and, you know, really breathe into it.

08:07Congratulations on this film, guys.

08:09But I imagine you never stop working, do you, when you just have ideas permeating.

08:13Any that you're willing to share?

08:14Any of the things in production right now?

08:16All the things we're working on now?

08:18We're working on Rainbow Six based on a Tom Clancy book with Michael B. Jordan attached

08:24to a star in that, which would be amazing.

08:27We're in the very early, early stages of that.

08:29And we're working with Netflix on doing the first ever live action Scooby Doo show for Netflix.

08:36So as elevator pitches, those are two fantastic things that I'm just incredibly excited about.

08:41Thank you for bringing those into the world and to my attention.

08:43Awesome.

08:44Have a great day, guys.

08:45Thank you so much.

08:46You too.

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