MJF sat down with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful for an in-depth, rare out-of-character interview covering all things pro wrestling and Hollywood.
During the discussion, the top star from All Elite Wrestling spoke about how he landed a role in Happy Gilmore 2, balancing his pro wrestling and acting careers, as well as how he feels he is the most famous wrestler to never sign with WWE.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On how he landed on Adam Sandler’s radar for Happy Gilmore 2: “I Face-Timed with him literally a week ago. He’s basically my dad. It’s pretty wild, and he’s the nicest guy I’ll ever meet in the world. So he’s definitely a wrestling fan, but that’s not how I landed on his radar. What had happened was I got an audition, and when I got the audition to play one of the evil golfers. I filmed for the part, and my audition fell on Sandler’s lap. This is what he told me after the fact. He watched it and went, ‘Holy shit, this kid’s f***ing hilarious,’ and then somebody on his team smartened him up that I’m me, and he was like, ‘Oh. Well, let’s try him out to be one of my sons.’ Then I did a secondary audition round, and I got the part. So that’s what happened. He thought I was entertaining and then later on found out that I’m one of the biggest names in the entire industry.”
On balancing wrestling with his movie roles: “I did. That was funny. So he was so cool with it, and all the producers were cool with it. Then I proceeded to do the exact same thing for Violent Night. When I come back to work and all my coworkers are like, ‘Why is Max’s back bleeding in the middle of this take? That’s a problem.’ Well, luckily, the take was filming in front. But yeah, I’m filming a scene, and my back’s just bleeding. But everybody’s chill with it because they know I’m a consummate professional. I’ve been saying this because it’s the truth. I love wrestling as much as I love acting. I feel like they, in some ways they go hand in hand; in other ways, they don’t at all. But if you’re passionate about what you do and you believe in yourself, no matter how grueling a schedule is, you’ll make it work.”
On how he believes he’s the most famous pro wrestler never to sign with WWE: “A lot of people don’t know I come from a theater background. I was a classically trained actor from the time I was six all the way till the time I was 18, and then when it was time for me to have a football ride, like a full-ride football scholarship, I opted out. It would have been a nuts schedule because I would have been playing football and majoring in theater, and instead I was just like, ‘Let’s just get to the pro wrestling. Let’s just get to what I want to do right now.’ Now I find myself, I’m 29, I’m on the precipice of greatness. I want to be a multiple-time World champion. I like to think of the fact that at this moment, I think there’s an argument to be made that I’m the most famous professional wrestler in the history of the business to have never been signed to WWE. I take a great amount of pride in that because that’s DIY, that takes effort. It also takes, as much as I hate to admit it, it takes these disgusting troglodyte marks fully marching along with me on my beaten path, which they have so far.”
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