Wrestler and actor John Cena opened up to Joe Rogan about facing near-cancellations in both the United States and China over his comments on Taiwan.
Cena joined Rogan for Friday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, where he admitted to some of the mistakes he sees now, when looking back on apologizing to China in 2021.
While promoting the movie F9 in 2021, Cena told Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS, “Taiwan is the first country that can watch F9.” Cena faced immediate backlash in China for referring to Taiwan as a country, a point that has led to longstanding frictions as Beijing recognizes Taiwan, which has its own government, as part of its territory.
Cena released an apology video where, in Mandarin, he said he “made a mistake.” He said what he read in the original video was written by someone else, and he was simply asked to read it.
“I love and respect China and Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry for my mistake,” the wrestler said, leading to even more backlash in the United States, where critics knocked him for the “pathetic” groveling to a communist nation.
Cena told Rogan he still believes he made a mistake, but he also has regrets about his immediate reaction.
“The thing that was the biggest kick in the nuts was when people stateside got pissed off,” he said.
“Because you apologized?” Rogan asked.
“Yes. In Chinese. And I understand completely, like, bowing down to the demand of this…gosh. What a shitty move by me. I should have taken a breath. Again, what did I learn? Don’t be reactive,” Cena said.
He joked he didn’t just not fix the “hole in the boat,” he “sunk the Titanic.”
Cena said the blowback was so bad at the time that he went to filmmaker James Gunn and told him he would understand if he needed to fire him from their then-new show Peacemaker. Cena has since filmed a second season and made a cameo appearance as his character in this year’s Superman movie.
“When they came out with all of this stuff I went directly to James Gunn and was like, hey, man, if you have to fire me, I understand,” he said.
Cena accepted responsibility for getting into the “murky waters” of geopolitics.
“It was my fault,” he said. “And I think that’s when I can start to work on, like, what did I learn from this? And I could easily blame a PR, an assistant, I could say someone had a target on my back, all that stuff. I f**ked up.”
Watch above via The Joe Rogan Experience.
The post John Cena Opens Up To Rogan About ‘Kick in the Nuts’ Blowback After ‘Bowing Down’ To China first appeared on Mediaite.
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