Starring in the action comedy “Project X-Traction”, currently on Netflix, John Cena amazes with his polyglot talents. But does the former wrestler turned actor really speak Mandarin?
Former professional wrestler, who had already achieved international fame during his time of activity, John Cena succeeded brilliantly in his retraining in cinema and series. Whether in The Marine, Trainwreck or his Peacemaker series, he has shown his acting skills beyond his impressive physique.
For the past few days, Netflix subscribers have been able to discover him in the action film Project X-Traction alongside Jackie Chan, a Sino-American production which was first intended for the big screen and which almost never made it to the General public.
This is where his experience as a wrestler came in really handy since his character, Chris Van Horne, speaks Mandarin.
Indeed, when he competed for WWE, the largest wrestling company in the world, John Cena learned the language. For the good of the company and the export of its events.
John Cena explained why he chose to learn Mandarin repeatedly. He explains in particular in an interview for Fighting that he decided to learn the language to communicate in China, a market which at the time represented enormous growth potential for WWE.
And John Cena is one of the few WWE affiliates whose ability to speak Mandarin could be a game-changer in exporting matches and getting them broadcast.
During this interview, he explained that he had already studied Mandarin for five years, but was still in the learning process and far from fluent. He also explained that rote learning and immersion were two of his main approaches.
Gradually, he was seen participating in weekly WeChat videos to gradually win over Chinese viewers to WWE’s cause.
John Cena speaks Mandarin at WWE press conferences
Although John Cena is not fluent in Mandarin, it should be noted that he managed to deliver entire speeches at press events targeting Chinese media.
This includes a two-minute speech in Mandarin he gave in Shanghai, impressing onlookers with the ease with which he pulled through. Here is the video:
In addition to putting his new skills to work for WWE, John Cena took the opportunity to serve his own interests. As his new movie career kicked off, he was able to do some Mandarin media for the promotion of Fast and Furious 9.
Except he came across a Taiwanese media outlet and referred to Taiwan as the country. It was enough to trigger the ire of China insofar as the question of the formal independence of Taiwan vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of China is thorny… After an apology, it is the ire of Taiwan that he provoked afterwards.
It would therefore not be surprising to see John Cena have Mandarin dialogues, perhaps even an entire role, in another production!