The latest guest on Insight with Chris Van Vilet was pro-wrestler Bianca Carelli, who is the daughter of former WWE superstar Santino Marella. During the interview Carellis speaks about her original goal of wanting to be a brain surgeon, but also reveals that she never realized just how popular her dad was in WWE. Highlights from the interview are below.
Her original goal was to become a brain surgeon:
“I wanted to be a brain surgeon. I was doing a medical science degree with a major in neuroscience, and I was very interested in it. But then I started thinking more about real life, I was 19 at the time. I was thinking about the hours you put in and the stress. How would that balance with family life and would I be OK with the stress of that? Yes I can put in the work, but am I going to enjoy my life? Time flies by and you only have one life. I want to spend that enjoying the moments. I don’t want to be 24 hours on call and seeing some very sad things. It didn’t fit with me.”
On shifting from brain surgery to wrestling:
“I mean they do seem different in theory but they are very similar. Anything you want to do, you need to put full effort in and you need to be disciplined. Reading your textbooks, meeting the deadlines and having that discipline carries over into the gym. You wake up, get the workouts done and have the meals planned. If cardio is weaker, I need to do more drills. There is repetition involved and lots of practise. It just comes down to how much energy you want to invest into it.”
When she realized how famous her dad, Santino Marella, was:
“I actually have a specific memory. I lived in Milton, Ontario for a few years of my childhood, like 12 to 16. My dad got a place nearby in Milton too. One day he picks me up and we go to the Milton mall, which is the smallest mall ever. So we were walking through the mall and someone yells ‘Santino! Santino!’ I was like [confused expression] him? My dad? Someone recognized you? It was the first time that someone had recognized him and it was in a small place too, which was weird. It was cool but after a while I was like I want my dad back. That started happening more often, I get that it comes with the business. You have to make time for the fans. It took some getting used to but it was cool.”
On Santino not being Italian:
“Yeah, that’s a very weird thing because you expect him to speak and for this accent to come out. But it’s just regular Anthony from Mississauga, Canada. [Chris asks if Santino would speak in his real voice] yeah he would always take pride in saying he was from Mississauga. For him it was always about being from Canada. We love Canada, and to be Canadian that is proud to be Canadian where no one knows your Canadian is kind of strange. My dad has always done accents around the house. Just being very strange and very funny. He definitely had that accent in his back pocket, but it wasn’t polished. When I hear it I think it’s hilarious. He was definitely put on the spot with that one.”
Full interview is below.