Seth Rollins was recently interviewed by IGN to promote his new WWE Studios film ‘Armed Response’. The film is out in theaters and available On Demand today. Below are some highlights from the interview:
How does it work with the WWE Studios films? Were they like “You’re up. Time to be in a movie?”
It’s definitely an option. They called me and said that they had this script and this movie and obviously I had this time off due to injury so it made things easier to schedule, but yeah they said they had this role they thought I’d be perfect for and asked if I wanted to read the script. It was an open invitation and I’d never done anything like this before so it was very intriguing. I wanted to check it out. The script was cool and the cast was awesome so I figured “Why not?”
Obviously, you’re able to perform in thousands of people, but how nervous were you headed into this?
It was a little nerve-racking, sure, since it was my first time. And I was dealing with some pretty great and seasoned actors — like Wesley Snipes, Anne Heche, and Dave Annable who were the other players in the movie — and they all had a ton of experience. Working scenes with Anne, who’s amazing and has a great emotional range, I’d have to try and match her level of talent. Or to work with Wesley who’s just always calm and cool and always very subtle in his scenes, I’d try to pick up on what he’s doing in specific moments so that I could play off them and how he delivers his lines. So I was always focused, just so they could see me as a peer and maybe not some idiot who’s coming in from the pro-wrestling world. I’m sure they had their preconceived notions about me so I just hope that once we were finished with a scene, or finished with the movie overall, that I managed to change their perspective based on what they were expecting.
Switching gears slightly, how does it feel to be on the cover of WWE 2K18? And were you expecting any fan backlash after smashing all those ironic wrestling items in the reveal video?
No, I didn’t really expect too much backlash. I thought it was cool and exciting. I got to smash things with a bat. Take off Andre’s head. Burn a bunch of stuff and break glass with my fist. It was a cool experience. We shot it in LA in this abandoned mall, which felt super weird. I know they filmed some scenes from Westworld in there too, which is a great show so I was just excited to be on the same set of that show. It was a really spooky experience to be in an abandoned mall, but I think the spot turned out great. It was a big win for 2K, WWE, and myself. There’s certainly an element of responsibility that goes with being on the cover, but I’m just stoked for it. I think it’s awesome for our generation to have a guy on the cover who comes from the group of guys and girls on the road right now who are grinding it out every single day and night. I feel honored to have gotten the opportunity and that I was chosen to be that guy when it could have been anyone from Charlotte Flair to Sasha Banks to Roman Reigns.
You can check out the entire interview by clicking here.