Add as a preferred source on Google John Cena received major praise for his conduct away from the WWE ring, this time involving his work as an actor.
During an appearance on What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Cody Rhodes, Brian Koppelman, the co-creator and showrunner of Billions, talked about working alongside Cena on the set of The Bear, the FX series that streams on Hulu in the United States.
Koppelman said Cena has created a difficult standard for anyone working in Hollywood because of the way he prepares for every shoot.
“John has made it a little difficult though because if you work with anyone in the Hollywood side of things who’s, ‘Yeah, I worked with John.’ Oh, okay. So I’ll be first on set by 40 minutes. I’ll have more improv ready. I’ll be last. He is such an insane hard worker and I saw this firsthand because we’re on an episode of The Bear together. We’re both on the same episode of The Bear. […] So I walked on and I had just heard that morning that John was doing that part and I love being on that show. It’s an incredible thing. But there he and I were sitting at a little table before that scene started and yeah, he was so prepared and so ready to go and had so many ideas and everyone loved him.”
Cena appeared in the third season of The Bear as Sammy Fak, showing up in the episode Children. Koppelman, meanwhile, played Nicholas “The Computer” Marshall, a character tied to Jimmy Cicero who analyzes the restaurant’s costs.
In addition to Billions, Koppelman is also known for his work on Rounders and Ocean’s Thirteen, making the praise even more notable.
Cena officially ended his WWE in-ring career in December 2025 after losing to Gunther in his final match.
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