With the Peacemaker Season 1 finale now out in the wild, series creator James Gunn has continued his knack for being an open book when it comes to his creative process. While The Suicide Squad director has previously talked about how he created the Peacemaker out of boredom during the early pandemic lockdown, he’s never fully revealed what made him decide to go big on the John Cena character, who Gunn has often described as “the biggest douchebag in the world.”
In a new interview, Gunn explains that the creative inspiration hit him after watching Cena display some surprising acting chops while filming a scene for The Suicide Squad. Via Vulture:
There’s one really specific moment with me and John that I can trace the origin of this show back to. It’s the moment in The Suicide Squad where Peacemaker is holding his gun on Ratcatcher 2 and he’s about to kill her. I went into this tight closeup of his eyes. On set, I’m always on the microphone talking over everything while we’re shooting. So I’m talking to John on the God Mic about what he’s feeling, and I see his eyes switch. I see him go to this incredibly sad, vulnerable place. We realize this character is a guy who’s doing something he doesn’t want to do at all, but that he’s going to do anyway, which is shoot a young girl.
As Gunn explains, that’s when he realized Cena had the goods and wanted to keep working with him. “I knew John was not just a performer who was funny, which is why I hired him, but a guy who had this other layer,” Gunn said. “At that moment, I knew John had that thing. It’s a thing a lot of big actors don’t have, and that most wrestlers turned actors don’t have.”
Considering the two have worked together on Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn is quick to mention that Dave Bautista also has the same thing as Cena. As far other wrestlers turned actors, Gunn notably doesn’t mention anyone else having serious acting chops — like, say, someone recently joining the DCEU — and we’ll just leave it at that. No further comment.
Peacemaker Season 1 is available for streaming on HBO Max.
(Via Vulture)
