John Cena has endorsed Cody Rhodes’ decision to promote the new Street Fighter movie dressed as Guile, the character Rhodes plays in the film.
Rhodes has appeared in character at several promotional events for the film. That included last weekend’s UFC 332 in Salt Lake City, where he promoted the movie in costume.
In a recent interview, ComicBook asked Cena about the comparison to his own decision to do press for The Suicide Squad dressed as Peacemaker. He traced the idea to a lesson he learned during his WWE career.
“Worse is like the half empty perspective. You know me, I’m a glass half full guy. What I admire about both of those things is when we were doing The Suicide Squad, from WWE I learned how important it is to show the character, be in character, show the uniform. The Suicide Squad was a movie with a bunch of superheroes, I chose to do all the media in character because nobody knew Peacemaker. Because of that, it might’ve been a small piece of allowing Peacemaker to exist in a universe beyond The Suicide Squad.”
Cena went on to praise Rhodes for taking the same approach.
“I champion Cody for his ability to lean into his part. People know Cody Rhodes, but maybe don’t remember Guile from Street Fighter. Maybe for people it brings out nostalgia to see somebody dressed as Guile from Street Fighter. Hats off to Cody for being brave enough to take a moment that could be focused on him as a person, and he realizes that it’s larger than that and the goal is to make sure that people enjoy the movie and know your character when they see it. I think it’s a heck of an idea by him. Whether I was where he got it from or not, I’m very proud of him for his choice and I think it’s a great decision for the movie.”
Rhodes himself pointed to Cena as an inspiration for the approach during an earlier appearance on The Tonight Show. On the show, Rhodes called Cena his mentor and brought up the times Cena appeared in character as Peacemaker.
Street Fighter is set to open in U.S. theaters on October 16.