John Cena didn't base his Heads of State character on any specific presidents

John Cena didn't base his Heads of State character on any specific presidents.

The 48-year-old WWE legend stars as fictional action movie star turned US President Will Derringer in Ilya Naishuller's new blockbuster, and he insisted a lot of the characterisation came from a simple place.

He told Extra: "When you attach a name like the President of the United States, just when I say those words, everyone has a vision of what that means to them.

"And then you read the script and you take terms like aloof, super positive, really stubborn, overly aggressive, like, I can take those personality traits and put together an idea what I think we should look like, and then the last secret sauce is be coachable.

"When the director comes up and is like, ‘Hey, all those ideas, throw them out. Let's try one like this.’ As long as you're coachable, we'll end up getting what the director wants, which is hopefully the best movie.”

The movie stars Cena as Derringer alongside Idris Elba as former SAS-trained commando turned UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke.

Together, the two world leaders must put aside their own rivalry to tackle a global conspiracy after they're targeted by various foreign adversaries.