The Miz Speaks Out – SummerSlam, Ziggler, The Marine, More

IGN recently interviewed WWE Superstar The Miz on The Marine 4, SummerSlam, and more. Below are some highlights.

The Miz on he and Dolph Ziggler having a similar-but-different energy to each other: “Yeah, well, we grew up really close to each other. We didn’t realize this, but he lived eight minutes away from me, like, legit, growing up. We never met each other. He probably heard a lot about me; I never heard anything about him. But it’s funny. There are a lot of similarities, and there are a lot of differences. But the thing is, when you step in the ring with someone like Dolph Ziggler, he’s fast, he’s quick, he’s a technical master in the ring. He was Kent State University’s most-winning wrestler. I know these days, because I’ve studied his moves inside and out. I know every weakness that he could possibly throw at me. But it’s just one of those situations where you really want to go into SummerSlam, and you really want to be remembered. You want to be the match that people are talking about, people are tweeting about, Facebooking, using Instagram — that social media stuff. You want to be the report that people are saying, ‘This is the match that makes SummerSlam.’ That’s what we wanted to accomplish, and I want to accomplish that and win.”

The Miz’s favorite Summerslam memory: “The wedding, with Macho Man and Elizabeth. I mean, SummerSlam as a whole is just — like, I don’t remember matches. I don’t remember anything. I just remember my experiences. SummerSlam was always before I went to school. The next week I’d always end up going back to school, so it was my last big bang with all my friends, where we’d all sit up and watch the show and just enjoy it and hang out with each other. So that’s what I remember about SummerSlam the most. I remember Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels, just people having this title that I’m going to be going to SummerSlam with, and I hope that kids can remember me with it… and no one else.”

The Miz on what he’s truly learned by being a part of the industry after growing up as a wrestling fan: “Oh, it’s ruined everything! [Laughs] Are you kidding me? Being a part of it ruins everything. Some of my friends were like, ‘Man, I really want to do it!’ I go, ‘If you really want to do it, then you have to realize that it will ruin you watching the show as a whole. You can’t just watch it as a fan, because you nitpick everything now. You watch it, and you could sit there and go, Oh, well, this and this and this. You can’t do it like you used to when I was in high school, where you just watch it and observe and go, Wow, that was incredible. Oh my God.’ Like, I’ll call my dad to hear a person’s un-skewed views of what’s happening in the WWE and what he likes. Because that’s just the average fan that watches as opposed to someone that’s in the business and knows everything — or thinks they know everything. So I go to my dad and go, ‘Well, what did you like?’ He likes the stupidest stuff. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? That?’ He’s like, ‘I love that! I thought it was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ You know what my dad’s greatest moment that I ever did was? Pee-wee Herman. I had an argument with Pee-wee Herman, and my dad thought it was the most amazing thing ever.”

The Miz on starring in The Marine sequels: “When you first get the first movie, you think, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I got this first movie. That’s amazing.’ Then when you’re done with it, you’re like, ‘Ah, I hope I can get another one.’ Then you get another one and it’s like, ‘Whoa, okay.”‘ Then you’re like, ‘Well, hopefully I did good enough in that one that they’ll ask me back.’ Then the third one, you’re like, ‘Well, maybe I’m actually good at this.’ Then once I got the Marine 4, it kind of gave me a new sense of confidence, just with my acting. When I first started in WWE, I always feel like it’s theater. There’s a lot of theater involved. But with a camera, the smallest little glint really will show up. For instance, when I did Marine 3, my director had me watch a lot of Clint Eastwood, a lot of Paul Newman, a lot of old-school stars. What he told me to watch was, ‘Watch how nothing they do. They do absolutely nothing.’ Clint Eastwood barely talks. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, he has maybe five words — but he walks into a room the way he walks, the way he stares, the way he looks at you; that is what captivates you, those moments that he takes in between. Watch Cool Hand Luke. Look how natural he just looks. He just ever flows. Then watching Die Hard, where the charm, personality and charisma comes out. So that’s what I tried to portray in the Marines, as well as The Marine 4. It’s like, you’re just trying to be as natural as possible and create something that’s memorable and people will really enjoy and be entertained by. Not only that, but you’re a Marine. You’re playing a Marine. People were like, ‘So, did you train like a Marine?’ Number one, no, because I didn’t go to Afghanistan or Iraq and fight for our country. But I tried to do as much as I could to learn how to hold a gun properly, how they would fight. I’m not doing roundhouse kicks, because guess what? When you’re a Marine, it’s live or die. That’s how you learn how to fight. So that’s what I wanted. I wanted it to be raw and gritty. So that’s where I came from to do it. Now, it’s funny after Marine 4, now I get a lot of meetings with studios, talking about different projects that maybe could arise, if WWE would allow me to do it. So it’s really interesting now, like, okay, it’s kind of taking off. I didn’t think this would happen three years ago, but now it is.”

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