The agency for John Cena was hesitant to let him enter the Kendom. In the 2023 summer blockbuster Barbie, the actor played merman Ken in a brief but memorable sequence alongside Dua Lipa’s mermaid Barbie; however, if he had followed his agency’s advice, the “Dance the Night” pop sensation would not have served him a brewski.
“[The agency is] 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,'” During a recent visit on The Howard Stern Show, Cena revealed. However, I’m not a product. As a human, I live by the philosophy that “every opportunity is an opportunity.”
“I studied the screenplay and made every effort to appear in it,” said Cena, who was also filming Fast X in the building next door. Margot (Robbie) said, ‘We’ll turn you into a mermaid. You’ll spend about three hours there.Yes, exactly. However, I believe the agency viewpoint was, “This is beneath you,” and I understand that. To their credit, the agency also gave in right away.”
“No, we’re going to do it, I said, but all they could do was provide advice. They don’t really get to make the decision,” Cena remarked. “And what they advise is that you might lose these lead jump slots due to trickle-down economics. And I understand everything. I’ve always operated on the tenet that hard work earns opportunities.”
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Greta Gerwig’s Blockbuster Movie
Barbie, an existentially tinged film directed by Greta Gerwig, surpassed $1 billion worldwide at the box office and established Gerwig as the first female director to accomplish this feat working independently. Robbie, star and producer, previously remarked of the proposal meeting that cemented the success, “I believe I told them it would make a billion dollars, which I may have oversold, but we had a movie to make, okay?”
Additionally, this year’s Academy Awards included eight nominations for the blockbuster, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), and Best Supporting Actress (America Ferrera). Additionally nominated for Best Original Song were the lament “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell and the anthem “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling.
Barbie went on to become the largest film of 2023 and received eight Oscar nominations, including those for best picture, Adapted Screenplay (Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach), Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), and Supporting Actress (America Ferrera).