-You've had such a fascinating career --
A wrestler, and then you transitioned into films,
and not just one kind of film. You do action films.
You do comedies that are family-friendly.
You do comedies that are not kid-friendly.
[ Laughter ]
And -- But how involved --
What's your involvement with the WWE these days?
-Have you been stalking me?
-I've been stalking you. I'm a big fan.
I'm a big fan of your work. -That's fair.
That's fair. I'll allow it.
No, I will never leave the WWE.
Everybody's like, "Well, hey, we don't see you
in the ring regularly on 'Monday Night Raw'
or 'Friday Night Smackdown.'"
The thing when you do these movies,
and these are wonderful opportunities
that I truly enjoy doing.
And don't tell anybody.
I'm sure, you know, this will stay between us.
I'm 42.
I'm a little bit long in the tooth.
I'm not as young as I used to be nor as quick.
And even when I was in my prime, I was labeled unorthodox.
So unorthodox with age, I'm just going to be like this.
[ Grunting ] -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-So, I never want to do that. [ Laughter ]
So, basically, I had to kind of to look within and realize
that, like, I've had a great contribution over there
and I can no longer do it full-time because I just --
I'm not built to last like that.
-Right. -It's a rigorous schedule.
And then, add on top of that, these wonderful opportunities
where when you get them, they're like,
"Yeah, we're going to film for six months,"
and I was like, "Hey, can I have weekends off
to get my face bashed in?"
Like, "No, you can't." -Yeah.
-Yeah, you can't. So they just don't --
The movie business doesn't allow you to do both.
-But the WWE must be happy when you do find time to come back.
As somebody who's been away, they just must be thrilled
when they get to see you. -No, it's great.
And every single interview I do, like, I'm taking so much
of my WWE experience with me to this new chapter of my life.
And it is my family.
I realize, like, their fans are so dedicated and passionate,
and I'm one of them.
Like, my position has just changed.
-Yeah. -I just watch as a fan,
and I contribute as a mentor, and I coach more.
And I still love it.
It's still the most exciting thing in the world
that I wish I could do it forever.
But it's just a different set of circumstances.
-Position changed. Your haircut changed, as well.
How are the WWE fans of that?
-The WWE fans hated it.
-They did, yeah? -Yeah, yeah. So --
So, for 25 years -- For almost 20 years,
I wore, like, a nice $6 high-and-tight
where I just go in and be like, "Usual?" "Yeah, usual."
And now I just stand in front of a turbine engine
and put a lot of goop in my hair.
-Yeah, there you go.
You actually found a way to do it for less than $6.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-So, in this film, you play a smoke jumper.
-Yes. -Which is a very highly --
the most elite, I guess, version --
-336 in the world.
-That's only -- Only 336? -Only 336 in the world.
-And these are firemen who basically just drop
into the center of the blaze.
-Yes, keep in mind, they're choosing this as a profession.
They drop at low altitudes, so it's a very dangerous jump,
oftentimes dislocating joints and breaking bones.
They then set the bone or the joint on the spot
and go to work with the injury.
So they drop into these wildfires,
and they stay until the fire is contained.
So they drop in with their gear to fight the fire
and supplies to live.
So, like, they'll drop in as a team.
And somebody sets up camp,
and the rest of them go fight the fire,
and then they take shifts sleeping,
and they just never stop.
So that's definitely something I could never do.
-Yeah. -Yeah, I very much admire it.
-And yet, this is also a kids' film.
And it's about firefighters.
-Don't get this one twisted. This is a fun gag --
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I feel like we focused too much on the fire-jumping part.
Kids are like, "I don't want to see this movie, Mommy."
No, but this is --
Because this is about, you basically have to take care
of three kids in an unexpected way.
-The reason we wanted to use smoke jumpers
is because first responders are heroes.
Their job description
is to put themselves in harm's way to save others.
And we wanted to get an elite sense of those first responders.
So with only 336 smoke jumpers, seemed like an obvious choice.
So we wanted to establish, like, these guys are super fearless
and heroic and can handle everything, except normal life.
-Yeah. -Life gets turned upside down.
Poop, soap, gags.
-Yeah, there you go. -You guys know. It's fun!
-How do you like -- You've worked with kids before.
Is it hard being on set with kids,
just because, obviously, there's a --
You have to keep it PG?
-No, no. So, and, I guess it's all about environment.
Like, kids are special.
I filmed a show recently
called "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
and these kids were so wonderful and brilliantly talented.
The original concept of the show was a comedy bit
with essentially the host and the competitor.
When I saw these kids, I know the kids are the stars.
We have to showcase what they do.
And it was on Nickelodeon, which is a partner of the movie.
So we wanted to embrace these wonderful, beautiful minds,
and they're awesome.
And it was the same on "Playing with Fire."
We just had to have things like a bouncy house on set.
-Right. -And toys everywhere.
And our director, Andy Fickman, was awesome.
Like, day one, he sat us adults down
and was like, "You guys all signed up for a kid movie.
We're going to treat the kids super special.
We're going to take care of them first,
and you as responsible adults are going to wait your turn,
and we'll get to you afterwards."
So the kids were great
because they had such a fun time making the movie.
And we tried to make it never like work for them.
-That's fantastic. -And us as adults
were cognitive enough to know,
like, I didn't know what was going to do at 8 years old,
let alone be asked to do something on cue.
-You were youngest of four boys, is that right?
-No, no, I'm the second oldest of five.
-Five. -Yes.
-Did you guys all treat each other with the same respect
that those kids were treated with on the film set?
-We did not. -Yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, yeah, it was --
Worst household ever.
-Really? -Yes.
Yes. Think --
Think "Animal House." -Okay, yeah.
-Yeah. -Were you by far
the biggest of them all?
-No, see, we're all really built,
like, all have big hands.
We all wear, like, size 13, 14 shoes.
All of us are in that like 200- to 250-pound range.
-Oh, my gosh. -We're all really close in age.
It's like, 45, 42, 41, 39, 37.
So on any given day, you could get your ass kicked.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-It was -- You literally just --
-At what point did just the house clear out
of anything fragile or breakable?
Like, at which point did they just give up
trying to have nice stuff around?
-Probably by me, child two.
-Yeah.
-And then by child five, the entire house was Tempur-Pedic.
Run into a wall and sink into the wall, yeah.