John Cena’s improv is so good that, as James Gunn said on Twitterthe actor actually improvised “maybe 2% [of what ended up on screen]which is FAR more than any actor has ever had in anything I’ve written.”
Much of that two percent likely went to episode 5 of “Peacemaker,” in which Cena’s character delivers a truly magnificent rant to John Economos (Steve Agee) who, in a moment of misguided inspiration, has framed Peacemaker’s father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), for his son’s crimes. Peacemaker provides an impressive array of people Economos could and should have framed in Aggie’s place – and, as Agee told Screen Rant in an interview, Cena improvised it all on the spot, with Gunn encouraging him ever since. the sideline.
“Everything was improvised,” Agee said. “I think in the original script he’s mad at me for trapping his dad – rightly so, it was stupid – but in the script it was like, ‘Why couldn’t you trap someone like Ariana Grande?’ And there was another name, like Tom Hanks or something, and I was like, ‘You want me to frame Ariana Grande for murder? You are crazy ?” ”
Cena also did what the director asked and ended up delivering far more hilarious material than they could ever hope to use. “I mean, we filmed for about 20 minutes where John was shouting random names – sports personalities, celebrities, singers, politicians – and I was starting to say something and he was just like, ‘Let me go. finish!” Agee revealed. . “He just kept going and it was phenomenal.”
