AJ Lee recently opened up about how she approaches character work in professional wrestling, explaining why separating her real-life identity from her on-screen persona has been essential throughout her career.
Speaking during a recent interview with The Match-Up (see video below), AJ discussed why she views her wrestling persona as a form of protection and why she intentionally leaves “AJ Mendez” behind when performing.
“I think that’s the healthiest thing, is to leave yourself behind the curtain like that,” she said. “The only way I could ever do it, like if I had to go out there as AJ Mendez, I would just explode into dust like there’s just no way I could do it. But like you almost have to like, healthily disassociate and become this different character, and that’s the person that is performing and has all the storylines and the wins and the losses. They’re not you. You can’t take that home with you or take it personally, and then also it’s like this art form you get to give to the world and then it’s not yours anymore. So they can dissect it and praise it or tear it apart or whatever they want to do. It’s because it’s It’s part of the show, and so that’s the way I stay the healthiest.”
It’s an interesting perspective from one of WWE’s most memorable stars of the modern era.
AJ went on to explain that while elements of the character are drawn from her own experiences and personality, the performer fans see on television is ultimately a separate entity that serves as a protective layer.
“Yeah, like the pieces of her come from me, but it’s very much an armor of a character that needs to exist in order to do all of that,” she continued. “It has to be a performance and me has to be protected and not shared with the world in that capacity and so that’s kind of the only way to survive I think as long as I have in like that… in the public world but yeah, it’s so funny because it is like the- almost the opposite. Like you have to, at least for me, I’m sure there’s wrestlers that it’s them 100 out there, but I don’t know. What do they do? Do they stare at the wall at the end of the night? I would be so drained. I would just have nothing left for myself.”
