In an interview with Jim Varsallone of The Miami Herald, WWE Superstar Christian commented on his appearance on this Friday’s edition of Haven on SyFy, the difference between WWE and acting, his friendship with Edge and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On working with Edge on Haven: “It was fun [working together again]. We hadn’t seen each other for a while with him being up in Nova Scotia for the better part of four years filming there and me working for WWE. He just had a daughter. I just had a daughter. Between children and both of us having different schedules, I think we had probably seen each other once in about a year. We just happened to be in the same city at the same time and had dinner for two or three hours, and that was all we had seen each other in about a year. So it was cool to get to go up to [Nova Scotia to film ‘Haven’] and spend some time with him and hang out and catch up and also act with him. It was a great experience.”
On their characters on the show: “With Edge and Christian, we were like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the Bill & Ted of WWE. We were kind of goofy, kind of funny, humorous, but then when we had to be serious in the ring, we would get serious. With his character, Dwight, on ‘Haven,’ and my character, McHugh, it’s more of a serious tone, serious guys, trained professionals at what they do. So that dynamic was a little bit different, but we still have that chemistry like what we had in WWE. Knowing where each other was in the ring kind of carries over onto the ‘Haven’ screen as well.”
On the difference between working WWE and Haven: “With WWE, you’re live every single week. You’re in an arena, and there can be anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 people watching you perform. The performances might have to be a little bigger, when you portray your character may have to be a little bigger, because not only are you performing for the person in the front row, but you’re also performing for the person in the very back row. They have to kind of see everything, too. So it’s more like stage acting, like theater. When you’re on the ‘Haven’ set, you’re kind of bringing it down, making it a little bit smaller, not having to project as much, and figuring out that happy medium. WWE is live. There is no second take. Me, personally, I thrive under pressure. I feel like that I do better when the stakes are bigger like that; so I always put a lot of pressure on myself when I go out there to perform. Within three hours [of Raw] there are a lot of moving parts. There are times where things change because of the reaction of the live audience, and sometimes you have to ad-lib a little bit and do different things. It doesn’t leave any room for error. With ‘Haven,’ it’s a smaller set, and you’re kind of bringing everything down a little bit and you’re trying to tap a little more into your emotions, where you’re just kind of talking and trying to convey your character a little bit more using a little smaller scale — not as over the top like in WWE.”
On whether he has talked about working with WWE creative: “No. I’ve always liked being on the performance end of it. I’ve come up with different ideas, but as far as being a creative writer, I’m not sure about that. I’ve always liked the performance end of it and wrestling, getting in the ring in front of a live crowd.”
The full interview with Christian can be found at this link.
