Ricky Stanicky Proves John Cena Is The Best Beefcake Comedy Star Since Arnold Schwarzenegger
John Cena certainly isn't the first wrestler to become a movie star. Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, and Andre the Giant brought their muscles to the big screen decades ago. The late '90s and early 2000s saw Bill Goldberg and Dwayne Johnson enter the fray, with the latter becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and he's still going strong. But it wouldn't be until the likes of Dave Bautista and John Cena that we'd get a pair of wrestlers who truly stepped into the world of acting without relying mostly on their muscular presence to do the heavy lifting on the big screen for them, both literally and figuratively.
Dave Bautista has proven to be a reliable supporting star in the superhero blockbuster franchise "Guardians of the Galaxy," but he's also delivered more haunting turns in the likes of "Blade Runner 2049," "Dune," and M. Night Shyamalan's "Knock at the Cabin." However, John Cena's career includes an ambitious transformation over the years that took him from being the star of generic action thrillers like "The Marine" and "12 Rounds," which would eventually get passed on to other wrestlers like Mike "The Miz" Mizanin and Randy Orton, to being a secret weapon of comedy with some bubbling dramatic chops to boot.
"Ricky Stanicky" is the latest film to show John Cena's versatility, as he plays a sloppy, down-on-his-luck aspiring actor recruited to help friends Trent (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino), and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) pull off a complex lie involving a fake friend who the guys have been using as a scapegoat so they can take sneaky dude excursions over the years. The result is seeing John Cena pull off what are essentially two different roles, and though on the surface they might not be dramatically different from one another, Cena's performance is striking in its attention to subtle comedic details.
From jizz jams to jovial jabroni
At first, we see Cena as Rod Rimestead, who moonlights as "Rock Hard Rod," a stage persona where he sings parodies of famous rock songs where the lyrics are changed to make the tunes about masturbation. Rod pulls off his "jizz jams" act in full costumes, with Cena providing both hilarious and commendable impressions of rock stars like Billy Idol and even donning a schoolgirl outfit a la Britney Spears from "Baby One More Time." But when the opportunity comes for Rod to portray the fictional Ricky Stanicky, in an effort to keep the friends' lie alive, he takes on a different persona that is funny in an entirely different way, fueled by an earnest and authentic performance that's also full of charm.
When Rod becomes Ricky Stanicky, he's all-in on the role, even going so far as to become sober overnight. Since he's a functioning alcoholic, that means he shows up to the airport sweaty and sunken-eyed, and he can't help but piss his pants right in the middle of the arrival terminal. Of course, it's a small hurdle in what becomes Rod's dedicated and wholly convincing portrayal of the fake Ricky Stanicky. Cena goes from looking sheepish and pathetic to being confident and affable, spurning any suspicion that Ricky Stanicky wasn't real and winning over pretty much everyone he comes in contact with. The performance ends up going a step further, when Rod decides he'd much rather live in the shoes of Ricky Stanicky, even going so far as to take a job at Wes and JT's company, and more complications and hilarity ensues.
Not since Arnold Schwarzenegger have we seen such a hulking heap of muscles deliver such committed comedic performances. Sure, Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista have been funny on film before, but there's something about Cena that resonates in a different way. There's a sincerity that makes Cena's on-screen presence shine even more, which is why the more heartbreaking elements of something like "Peacemaker" work on a dramatic level, even when they're surrounded by dark comedy. We can see this in "Ricky Stanicky" too, because Cena plays Rod as being so pathetic and desperate that you can't help but feel sorry for him, and he actually ends up being a nice guy, even when he's trying to stay in Ricky Stanicky mode.
John Cena is 'the most prepared actor'
It's these striking skills and a level of dedication on par with "Rock Hard Rod" that make Cena something special. We've got our own interview with "Ricky Stanicky" director Peter Farrelly (director of "Green Book") on a new episode of the /Film Daily podcast below, but Mike Ryan at Uproxx also spoke with the co-director of "Dumb & Dumber" too, and he said something surprising about Cena. Farrelly called Cena "the most prepared actor I ever worked with." When compared to Farrelly's other acting collaborators, ranging from Viggo Mortensen to Matt Damon, the director doubled down on this claim:
"Nothing against those guys. Those guys are all incredibly well-prepared, but he takes it to an OCD level where he memorized the entire script. The entire script. I remember one day we got ahead and we shot a scene that we thought was going to take eight hours, but it took like four hours, so we would have been done for the day. But I thought, well, we could hop over to this other scene? And I came over to him and I said, 'Hey, do you want to take an hour?' He goes, 'I don't need an hour.' I said, 'Well, we're going to skip to a scene like 40 pages later.' He started rattling off the dialogue."
Farrelly even echoes the comparison to Arnold Schwarzenegger. While Cena started his career with action roles, he shared a similar embarrassment from early critical reactions to his acting skills. The filmmaker recalled:
"I've asked him how did this start. He did a couple of little parts and I said I've got to look at them. He goes, 'No, no, no. Please don't look at them. They're just awful. I didn't know what I was doing. And then I realized, okay, you're a real actor, you better f***ing get your s**t together. Then I started working on my craft and learning how to act, and I got so much better.' It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger, for a long time had that insecurity, because he was mocked. He was mocked when it started, but then he went so far past that."
Indeed, Cena has gone on to deliver stellar comedic performances in the likes of "Trainwreck" and "Blockers," and his turn in "The Suicide Squad" followed by "Peacemaker" added a level of darkly comedic drama to the equation. With this much dedication, I feel like it's only a matter of time before Cena gets the chance to prove himself even more, perhaps leaning into awards territory. After all, Dwayne Johnson is doing an A24 movie, and John Cena isn't bound to get left behind.