John Cena has been synonymous with his Peacemaker costume for almost one year. Former WWE Champion wore it to virtually every public appearance and interview. He promoted both The Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker-TV series that recently concluded the show’s first season on HBO Max. He said that he was accustomed to dressing up in costumes throughout his time in WWE and was always sporting his gear for wrestling and the appropriate merchandise for interviews.
Cena said that The Suicide Squad has lots of characters, with so many personalities. I just wanted to try to familiarize the audience with my little piece, pun intended. This is quite similar to the method he used in WWE. During that time he was in his iconic John Cena outfit; A ball cap and a T-shirt, as well as shorts and wristbands. People started to associate with the character and became familiar with the persona. It’s the exact method he employed in Peacemaker. Many people might be hesitant about this approach because it doesn’t express the actual persona, one wants to present. It isn’t an indication of who they are. The actor claimed that:
it’s not my identity, It’s Peacemaker’s. But I wanted the audience to be familiar with Peacemaker. Whether that’s what worked or not, I don’t know.
“Man, I remember when we released a teaser at San Diego Comic-Con,”
He also stated that there was already Peacemaker cosplay and Peacemaker fan art. If you watch The Suicide Squad, this is from a character that isn’t on-screen that much. So I was trying to get people excited for the movie, and certainly, when we had when James had the idea for the spinoff, I wanted to go forward to do my part to familiarize people with the character.
Cena spoke that training to be a part of Peacemaker that recently received the nod for Season 2 was significantly different from the training required for WWE. He explained that it’s completely different, movie coordinator stunt performers are massive amounts of repetition not only through practice but also through performance. Whereas you can practice your craft in WWE, once you’re out there live, it happens once, and there is no wrong. It just is. There’s also no enormous, energetic, unbelievable crowd cheering. You have to do all this stuff, from many angles and many perspectives. He added:
It’s nuts. I remember when I started to do movies in 2004, ’05, and really got frustrated with the process because as a young man, I really wanted to be in that ring as there really isn’t much of anything that compares to the sensation of being in that ring performing in front of a live audience, for me. it’s not the same. I’ve found a much greater appreciation for it now. Maybe that’s because I’m working with great people and I’m a part of fantastic stories. I’m finding my stride as a performer but it’s very different and if given the choice, I think 10 times out of 10 I would rather be in a ring performing action than on the screen performing action.”
