John Cena Is Going Places!

With his movie career taking off, the wrestler turned actor reflects on his wild ride

- Conchita Widjojo

Looking at John Cena – all 1.8m, 111kg of him – you’d never guess that he was once bullied for being scrawny. But the wrestler and movie star, 42, recently revealed that when he was 11, he was picked on for his slender frame, which inspired him to start hitting the gym. “By the time I was 17, I was 225lbs [102kg],” he told Jimmy Fallon. “Needless to say, I wasn’t being picked on.”

Cena went on to join the WWE, where his square-jawed charisma made him one of pro wrestling’s most popular stars for nearly two decades. In the past few years, though (like his one-time WWE rival Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson before him), he’s left the ring to concentrate on his growing movie career. In his new family comedy ​Playing with Fire (out December 12), he plays a smoke-jumper – and learning about the real-life job left him in awe. “These are elite firefighters, and they jump out of planes and helicopters to contain natural disasters,” he says. “In no way, shape or form could I ever do that. Not with a month’s or three months’ or a year’s worth of training – what they do is on another level of dedication and heroism.”