John Cena Reveals That He Was Advised Against His 'Barbie' Cameo

John Cena had a brief but memorable role in last year’s Barbie. However, if his agency had their way, someone else might have been playing the merman version of Ken alongside Mermaid Barbie Dua Lipa.

The 46-year-old actor revealed that he was advised against accepting the role and explained why he took it anyways during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show.

Read more about John Cena’s Barbie role…

Speaking to Howard Stern, John explained that his team is small and committed to getting him new roles.

He said that the team has a simple approach: “They’re 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.’”

“But I’m not a commodity. I’m a human being, and I operate under the construct of every opportunity is an opportunity,” John said.

When he saw the script for Barbie, he decided to give it his all to land a role. However, he was filming Fast X at the same time, which meant that his schedule was jam-packed.

“Margot [Robbie] was like, ‘We’ll make you a mermaid. You’ll be in it for half a day.’ Yeah, sure. But I think the perspective from an agency standpoint was, ‘This is beneath you,’ which I get that,” John reflected. “But also to the agency’s credit, immediately they acquiesced.”

He said, “I was like, ‘No we’re going to do it.’”

While they were concerned that it would affect his bottom dollar, John didn’t see it that way.

“I’ve always operated under the philosophy of good work gets you another chance,” he said.

Did you see what John had to say about working with Dua?

Press play on John Cena’s interview below…