Did John Cena successfully parlay a meme into a successful movie career?
I had never really heard of him outside of wrestling until the memes, and since then his movie career has actually been on a pretty impressive trajectory.
I had never really heard of him outside of wrestling until the memes, and since then his movie career has actually been on a pretty impressive trajectory.
Nah, the memes weren't really present until after he started acting.
A lot of wrestlers try to branch out because the business of wrestling, and the performance itself are brutal. So as soon as anyone gets a little fame out of it, they'll start looking for endorsement deals, acting, whatever. In fact, the wwe has its own movie thing, and that's where Cena's first movie was.
Cena was pretty damn popular in wrestling before the memes. He debuted in 2000, iirc, and his first movie was out in 2006. The Marine had been filming well before he got to be a big meme outside of wrestling.
Now, I firmly believe the memes helped him gain awareness outside of wrestling, which allowed him to transition to bigger and better roles, but he's also been pretty smart about what roles he took in movies and TV, building success among fans, and building his acting to a more acceptable level.
I can't say he's a great actor, he's limited in range, and kinda lacks dramatic chops that could make him an actor first. But he's also not bad. He has steadily worked at it, improving a lot.
So I would have to say that the memes only boosted him after he already was on his way.
Tbh, his turn as Peacemaker has been his best work so far, and he was flirting with some good dramatic work with it. He's still better at the comedy and action than serious acting, but he might be able to get there in a way other wrestlers haven't because they can't. Wouldn't bet on him developing enough craft to be considered a great actor, but he's got a certain degree of nuance to him that surprised the hell out of me. If he works at it, he might end up doing something truly lasting as an actor.
I wouldn't give the credit to the memes, is what I'm getting at. He's worked at it steadily.
I didn't mean to say that the meme opened the door to film, I meant to say that it got him attention so that his film career took off more than the average wrestler.
He, like a bunch of wrestlers, are given bad parts... But since Unexpected Cena, it feels like his career trajectory accelerated; landing bigger parts in bigger movies more frequently.
So he used the meme to move from a The Hulk career path to a The Rock career path, is what I was trying to get at.
John Cena was/is one of the biggest names in wrestling, is beloved by kids, and has a face Hollywood can work with. I don't think it goes deeper than that.
What I mean was that before the Unexpected Cena meme, he had a smattering of mediocre movie parts, like other wrestlers.
But after the meme, his career started looking more like Dwayne Johnston's, with more and more major parts in bigger movies.
He used his acting skills honed the ring and adapted them to the movies. This isn't uncommon, as off the top of my head Andre the Giant, The Rock, and Dave Bautista have all done so to great success. HHH was in a Blade movie, and I'm sure there are a lot more.
I don't even watch wrestling, the first three are widely known and I looked up the actor from the Blade movie because he looked like the others who came over from wrestling.
I was thinking of the rock when I posted this.
I'd say Andrew the giant and Dave Bautista had careers similar to Cena before the meme: mostly wrestling with a sprinkle of mediocre movie parts.
But after the meme his career seems more like the rock's, with more and more major parts in major movies.
Dave is killing it though. He has range, and is taking advantage of it by playing very different characters in wildly successful movies.
The rock also has range as shown in a few scattered roles but has appparently decided to limit himself to his family friendly light comedy action movie 'brand' more recently.
Cena is on his way up for sure.
“Did John Cena’s agent and publicists spend a shit ton to keep him relevant as he changed careers?”
Yes