WWE Raw star Seth Rollins recently spoke with IGN to promote the upcoming WWE Studios movie “Armed Response”, which debuts in theaters and OnDemand today, and below are some interview highlights. You can check out the movie trailer below.
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?'”
Of all the people to actually have fight scenes with in this film you get into it pretty harsh with Anne [Heche]. What was that like?
“Yeah, it was fun. It was cool. Doing fight scenes in movies is a lot different than in WWE, but it was still relatively easy. One of the things that’s very interesting to me is that the fight choreography, on these movies – someone like Anne who hasn’t done that many movie fights in her life, it might take her a bit more time to memorize the steps of a fight. But she was into it. She really got in there. But it’s something that I do all the time so it came second nature to me, so I didn’t have to rehearse all that much. The fight coordinators are very particular and they’re safety-oriented so they really want to make sure you got it all down, but if you tell me once, I’m there. I don’t need to go over it a million times. I got it. It comes very naturally to me to do that. And our industry is a little more physical than I think some people know, with regard to how much contact is made between WWE Superstars when we’re wrestling a match. Whereas on set, sometimes actors aren’t familiar with that sort of physicality. There’s a scene where Dave and I sort of quickly brawl and Dave’s heart rate definitely went up when I snatched him by his vest and dumped him on a table. But it’s just a different atmosphere so it was cool to just bring a little bit of my world into the mix and I think they appreciated it.”
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.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
