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Warning: Film spoilers regarding John Cena's character, but not to the plot of the film itself
The first ever industry screening of Judd Apatow's film "Trainwreck" was held last night. The Universal Pictures film is slated to be released in July 2015 and will feature John Cena in a major supporting role, playing the boyfriend of lead Amy Schumer, who also wrote the script, during the first half of the film, which is Cena's first major film role outside of WWE Studios productions.
According to a Hollywood source that was at the screening, John Cena "nailed it" in terms of his performance that was described to me as, "Funny. Charismatic. Borderline X-rated."
In "Trainwreck", Cena plays Steven, described as a dim-witted health and Cross-fit obsessed gym rat. Over the course of the film, the script and Cena's performance plays up the fact that he actually be a closeted homoesexual, which got a great reaction out of the audience last night and with one scene in particular, ended up with Cena getting the loudest laughs of the screening.
That scene features Schumer's character asking Cena's Steven to speak dirty to her while they are making love. Our sources notes that, "Steven at first resists, though eventually settles on, "you looked so hot when I first met you...wearing those jeans that I love...that make your a** look great...from behind you look like a...a...duuuuuuuuude!!" The emphasis on "dude" is written as such because that is at that point where Cena's character has an earth shattering orgasm."
Over the course of the film, Cena and Schumer have the one graphic sex scene while other scenes feature Cena doing full nudity from behind and the aforementioned "bringing down the house" scene where Cena's character, after having sex, is seen fully nude, with a dampened washcloth covering (but being held up) by his male parts, which got a huge reaction from the audience.
The source, who I obviously cannot name, has a great grasp on the Hollywood world from working in that industry for many years, compared the role to Dave Bautista's role in "Guardians of the Galaxy" in that when the film comes out, Cena's work is going to catch a lot of people off-guard and surprise them.
Those who see the film will be especially surprised if they walk in expecting Cena to be close to his WWE persona as I was told it's not that style of performance, but a very adult, racy, explicit character completely unlike anything WWE audiences have come to expect from Cena. The role is said to be far bigger over the course of the film than one would expect as well.
It should be noted that a private screening of this nature is held by Studios to gauge what is working and not working in the film in advance of initial edits before the final product hits theaters. Judd Apatow, who was in attendance at the screening, referred to the film as a "work in progress" So, Cena's role could always end up being smaller by the time the film is released.
That said, I was told that if the work seen in the early cut last night makes it to the theaters, the doors may be open for Cena to get a lot more serious Hollywood work, similar to the attention Dave Bautista is now getting post-Guardians.
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