STACK August 2016 Issue 142

44 / 106

S heamus, aka The Celtic Warrior, arrives
for our interview sporting fingernail
polish in a bright shade of green.
“We just visited the children’s hospital, so I
got my nails painted for free by one of the kids,”
he explains.
He also hasn’t slept for almost two days,
and apologises in advance for his rapid-fire
responses. “I left New Orleans at 1.30 pm on
Tuesday and I got here 8.00 am on Thursday!”
Travel, he explains, is one of the
toughest parts of the wrestling
business – that and the
downtime that sometimes
comes with the job, especially
for someone as active and
ambitious as this Dublin-born
four-time World Heavyweight
Champion.
“It can be tough when
you’re not involved in a
storyline,” he says, “especially
if you’re used to doing something
and are suddenly in limbo mode.
“For someone like me, it’s frustrating
if you’re not being challenged, because I
always want to keep moving forward. I want to
broaden my horizons, whether it’s doing promos
or backstage stuff. When you’re not involved in
a story that’s progressing your character and
progressing you, that’s the hard part for me.
“I just want to entertain myself and entertain
the people with everything I do, whether it’s in
the ring or backstage.”
He’s also been entertaining us on the
big screen, having recently appeared as
Rocksteady in Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles: Out of the Shadows (see right),
and would love to pursue further acting
opportunities.
“I always wanted to be an actor,”
he says. ‘When I was a kid I was a
huge fan of the Mad Max movies
that came out of here, as well as
Back to the Future, Conan the
Barbarian, Indiana Jones, Karate
Kid and The Goonies.
Sheamus describes as the biggest and greatest
Wrestlemania of all time.
“Over 100,000 people packed into AT&T
Stadium in Dallas to watch new, current and
veteran superstars like The Rock, John Cena,
the return of Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels and
Mick Foley, who unfortunately we were on the
receiving end of. Any excuse to buy one WWE
DVD, you gotta buy Wrestlemania!”
• WWE Live 2016 hits Melbourne on August
11, followed by Adelaide (Aug 12) and
Sydney (Aug 13)
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
44 AUGUST 2016
DVD
&
BD
STACK caught up withWWE superstar
and TMNT villain Sheamus ahead of
theWWE Live 2016 tour of Australia
this month. Words: Scott Hocking
THE
CELTIC WARRIOR
COMETH
I watched The Goonies again on the plane – it’s
fantastic!
“If I can find a great balance between films
and WWE, it would be amazing.”
Sheamus is Down Under ahead of the WWE
Live Australia Tour in August, which he promises
will be “the greatest show in entertainment
you’ll ever see.”
“It’s a mixture of action, high-flying stuff
and larger than life athletes,” he adds. “The
atmosphere that comes with an arena
show is very hard to match.”
In the meantime, fans can
get a taste of ringside action
on DVD and Blu-ray with
Wrestlemania XXXII, which
Alongtime Turtles
fan, Sheamus says
playing the rampaging
rhino in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of
the Shadows was an experience that still hasn’t
properly sunk in.
“They were looking for the Rocksteady
character and wanted a big wrestler or fighter. I
did the audition and didn’t hear anything back –
but if you’re not in, you can’t win.
“Then out of the blue I got a call for another
audition. I flew to New York to meet [producer]
Andrew Form and I told him how much I wanted
the role because I was a huge fan of the Turtles,
and he showed me the sketches of Bebop and
Rocksteady and all the storyboards. I thought,
‘this is very nice of him showing me all this’.
I thought I’d have to wait a couple of weeks
before I heard anything, and then he said,
‘Congratulations, you got the role. You don’t
think we would have shown you everything if
you hadn’t got the part,’ [laughs]. I was just
flabbergasted. And a couple of weeks later, I’m
Rocksteady, man!
“I’d done mo-cap before with 2K and THQ
and the video game stuff, so I was well used to
that,” he says of his mutant rhino incarnation.
“A lot of the action scenes were left to the
stunt guys, but I did all of the transformation
stuff and the voiceovers.”
Get
ready
to
Rocksteady
...it’s frustrating
if you’re not being
challenged, because
I always want to keep
moving forward. I
want to broaden my
horizons...
• Wrestlemania
XXXII
is out now on
DVD and Blu-ray