Cena gets to grips with Hollywood

After shaky start, WWE star is blossoming on the big screen, Associated Press reports

John Cena doesn't believe in ego. How could he when he's used to tens of thousands of World Wrestling Entertainment fans chanting "John Cena sucks" every time he walks out to the ring?

It's a philosophy that's helped him survive both the demands of professional wrestling, where he was never supposed to be a success, and now Hollywood, where he's made a miraculous comeback from some terrible films in the earlier 2000s.

In the past three years, Cena has become a reliable highlight of whatever project he's in, whether as a boyfriend who bares it all in Trainwreck, as an overprotective father to a teenager in this year's Blockers, or even as a military man with some great one-liners in a big-budget Transformers spinoff like Bumblebee, which hits theaters Friday.

"I'm not afraid to fall on my face, I'm not afraid to look ridiculous," Cena said on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles. "My ego lies with the moviegoer. I want to entertain folks. I want to make people happy."

And Cena is finally achieving that goal in films after a rocky start. Up until a few years ago, Cena's scores on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes for forgettable action pics like 12 Rounds, The Marine and Legendary barely broke 30 percent. But ever the athlete, he didn't crumble under the weight of negative reviews, he learned from it.

"My heart wasn't in them. I wanted to be somewhere else. I did those movies because it was good for a business model," Cena said. "What I learned from that is do what you love."

And he got his chance with the 2015 Amy Schumer relationship comedy Trainwreck, which, following a divorce, he found he "totally related to". That breakout role as the sort-of boyfriend of Schumer's character put him on the map as not only novelty casting, but a veritable talent as well, leading to roles in Sisters, Daddy's Home 2 and Blockers.

And now there's Bumblebee, his biggest and, at 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, highest-rated movie yet.