‘Jackpot!’ star John Cena shares fave rappers, coffee order

In a weekly series USA TODAY’s The Essentials, celebrities share what fuels their lives whether it’s at home, on the set or on the road.
For a guy known for his electric WWE entrances, falling through a ceiling is a new one for John Cena.
The pro wrestler/actor flexes his comedic muscles – and his real ones – in an action-packed role in the new movie “Jackpot!” (streaming on Prime Video Thursday), which imagines a dystopian LA where lottery winners have to keep from getting murdered by fellow residents so they can get their cash. Aspiring actress Katie Kim (Awkwafina) accidentally enters and has a lucky ticket, and Noel (Cena) is the amateur protection agent she hires to make sure she stays alive to take home $5 billion.
They meet when he comes crashing into a karate dojo, a “crazy” entrance that “sets the tone for his behavior,” says Cena, who enjoyed “leaning into an extra virtuous character, especially when every single thing around him in his environment is a little bit more egocentric and untrustworthy.”
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He’s built an interesting resume of humorous turns in movies like “Ricky Stanicky” and “Blockers” as well as the DC superhero show “Peacemaker,” a second season of which he recently finished filming. The 47-year-old thespian grappler is also preparing for his farewell tour in a WWE ring next year. He shares what he needs both wrestling and acting, favorite rappers and his love of uniforms.
Cena says “the ability to make the gig” is an essential part of both set and ring life, but also, “I need coffee.” His order of choice: “I love a good flat white, or like a 6- to 8-ounce latte. Gosh, I love the strong taste of coffee with just that right amount of milk.”
So expect java to be a part of Cena’s 2025 WWE retirement tour – he’s on tap for 36 dates around the world, and one of them he hopes will be the first episode of “Monday Night Raw” live on Netflix in January. He’s “absolutely processed” that the journey he’s been on since 1999 is finally coming to an end. “I’m going to be 48. It’s going be tough to keep going at this clip,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about this and I think that’s why it’s such a positive thing and that’s why I’m looking forward to it so much.”
At premiere and red carpet events, which he often attends with wife Shay Shariatzadeh, Cena can usually be seen rocking (and enjoying) a fine tailored suit. “Oddly enough, I was so happy when I had a chance to make WWE my vocation because I told myself, ‘Now I’m never gonna have to own a suit,'” he recalls. But once he started doing public appearances, he was able to get a suit made “where it felt like a sweatsuit” and was hooked: “You get to pick the fabrics, you get to pick the lining and stitches, you get to assemble what you want it to look like. It’s kind of a way to prepare for the day,” says Cena, who still refuses to get a stylist. “I don’t want to wear something that someone else thinks is cool.”
For Cena, “uniformity is where I feel comfortable,” and that also carries over into the ring where he continues to always wear his “Superman suit”: T-shirt, jorts and ballcap. “It never gets old. It’s always exciting,” he says.
Cena’s “Jackpot!” character is seen rapping “Turtle Power” while cleaning his firearm – fitting since Cena himself actually released his own rap album, 2005’s “You Can’t See Me,” when in his “Doctor of Thuganomics” WWE era. Growing up in Massachusetts, he was exposed to hip hop at a young age and over the years, as he went from rapping as a teen to spitting bars in a ring, artists like Nas, Rakim, Jay-Z, Eminem, Public Enemy, Slick Rick and more proved influential.
Just don’t ask him for a quick freestyle these days. “It’s a tool that kind of fell by the wayside,” Cena says. “I occasionally bring back the character in WWE, but I can’t tell you how long it takes to write eight rhymes, or like five rhymes that are worth anything. It’s just so much more difficult than it used to be.”
Noel cracks in “Jackpot!” that he has eaten 8,000 chickens in his lifetime. How does it compare with Cena’s actual poultry consumption in maintaining his buffness over the years? “It’s close,” he says with a laugh. “The fact that he has it down to an exact number, and the fact that it was a round number, might be not funny enough. I think we should have workshopped that one a little bit.”
So, yeah, Cena’s also eaten a lot of chicken in his day but his favorite is, hands down, his wife’s mom’s chicken tagine: “It’s a Persian rice and chicken dish and I look forward to it every holiday.”