10 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Were In Oscar Nominated Movies
It's not quite a Slammy, but...
When they're not being undermined by the mainstream media as 'sweaty men in Spandex', professional wrestlers are most favourably described as multi-talented performance artists who need to combine an impressive mélange of athleticism, athletics, and acting to succeed - only to then be dismissed by their colleagues elsewhere in the entertainment industry.
That said, though wrestlers have consistently excelled in the first two departments, we've rarely seen Laurence Olivier reincarnate between the ropes. The thespian demands of the sport generally fall between high-school production and daytime TV novella, and any superstar who demonstrates aptitude beyond that narrow spectrum of badness is generally held up as a mummer sans pareil.
As a result, a handful of grapplers have swapped the squared-circle for the silver screen, their ability to spout catchphrases and cut promos apparently adequate for major motion picture releases. More often than not, reaction to wrestlethesps has been tepid, to say the least. That The Rock, a man whose acting ability does his nickname justice, is considered the finest cinema crossover, is telling.
That's not to say grapple-actors haven't on occasion flirted with critical prestige, if mostly by association. This year, a very unexpected bone-bender could even take home a Best Picture award. It helped that he wasn't in a film about a muscular nanny.
10. John Cena (Ferdinand)
Nominated For: Best Animated Feature
Blue Sky Studios' bovine apologue might be a load of old bull, but it was still nominated for the Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards, ultimately losing out to Pixar's much better Día de Muertos tearjerker Coco.
John Cena - perhaps now an actor as much as he is a wrestler - takes on the role of the eponymous hero (it's not clear whether he's named for the ill-fated Archduke Franz, or brill-footed Sir Les), a bull more inclined to smell flowers than fight matadors. The film says bully to bullying as much as it does bull-fighting. Just nobody tell Primo and Epico.