When it comes to WWE wrestlers transitioning into Hollywood superstars, there is one man and one man only—Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. (See: The running joke on the Internet that some people don't know Johnson and The Rock are the same person.) But even though The Rock appeared in one of 2015's biggest action movies, Furious 7, this year we favored the work of another WWE star—John Cena. He's featured in Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's new film, Sisters, which opens in theaters today, and over the summer Cena was hysterically funny in the hit comedy Trainwreck as an emotional body-builder bro who dates Amy Schumer's less commitment-prone Amy. What makes Cena's performance in Trainwreck so amazing is his willingness to poke fun at his own meathead persona—especially when you consider that his regular job requires him to be so humorlessly dedicated to macho-ness.

But it wasn't just on the big screen that Cena made people laugh this year. Over the summer, he was the star of a meme that exploded across the Internet, and it depicted him interrupting various bits of pop culture with his signature theme song. (Which, by the way, is his own song from a rap album recorded in 2005.)

To honor this banner year for the WWE veteran, we spoke to Cena about his acting career, The Rock, and how he feels about so rudely interrupting SpongeBob, Eminem, and even President Obama.

__What made you, as a pro wrestler and action-movie star, want to start acting in comedic movies? Especially two this year that are female-driven? __

It's always kind of been on the wish list. Being a pro wrestler can be kind of difficult sometimes. We have a perception about what we do—and I totally understand the perception, because we're a weekly episodic program and we're having fun all the time, so people think that's kind of the most talented thing I could do. But being in front of a live audience, and being creative every week, I just wanted to try something new. I've done some action movies but secretly always wanted to try comedy, and in general do some stuff that involved a different kind of creativity.

"I was just saying the most Rosetta Stone things, like 'China is an important country.' "

Did you audition for your roles in Sisters and Trainwreck?

The Sisters phenomenon was a byproduct of the Trainwreck deal. I had to do the normal auditioning process for Trainwreck. I was extremely nervous for it, because you plan for this one event, and you get the opportunity. And it finally comes and you can't even believe it's real, and I just really didn't want to F it up. Luckily, I didn't F it up, and got to be in Trainwreck, and because of that I got to be in Sisters.

There's a great sex scene in Trainwreck where you bust out some Mandarin Chinese. Was that improvised? I know you learned some Mandarin and have used it in WWE matches before, but...

Yeah, I was just trying to think of the most unsexy stuff possible, 'cause that was kind of the whole scene. And I was just saying the most Rosetta Stone things, like "China is an important country." I was just trying to go off the theme of "dirty talk going horribly wrong."

As someone whose weekly job requires him to be so macho, was it hard to get in the headspace of someone who has this not-so-macho side?

Nah, it was easy. I'm a 38-year-old grown-ass man. I've done some things in my life that are very emotional. At my age, I'm not trying to score cool points. I'm just excited when I can speak to younger members of our audience in the WWE. I just get to be a superhero to kids, but I'm not trying to be on the cutting edge of style or anything like that. Once you reach that point of deprivation, you don't mind it. But week to week, we don't really get to do that [at the WWE]; it's just good guys vs. bad guys.