John Cena Raves Over Zac Efron’s ‘Iron Claw’ Performance (Exclusive)

Zac Efron and John Cena are delivering the laughs in their new comedy “Ricky Stanicky”!

“Extra” spoke with the guys about the movie, which brought some much-needed levity after Zac’s very dramatic turn in the wrestling biopic “Iron Claw.”

As a WWE superstar himself, John also gave rave reviews to Zac’s “Iron Claw” performance.

Cena said, “He did fantastic... he’s been getting a lot of great reviews and that’s honest from one person who’s been on the canvas and has been through a hell of a lot of matches. It was a fantastic performance. You encapsulated a moment in time that completely defined the wrestling scene in Dallas, Texas. It was just extremely well done.”

Zac responded, “Your seal of approval is everything.”

Efron noted that Cena was the first person he spoke to about the movie after he wrapped filming.

Reflecting on the role, Zac commented, “It’s really fun to push yourself into those things like initially, you know, Sean Durkin came to me for that role… I was terrified and I just committed to it and it paid off so I think it’s just a reminder to trust the process and stay hungry. There’s art to be made out here and people are still hungry for it so I’m really proud of the film.”

In “Ricky Stanicky,” three childhood friends use an imaginary friend as their handy alibi for their childish behavior, but now their wives and girlfriends get suspicious and demand to finally meet him. The trio decided to hire a washed-out actor, played by John, to bring Ricky to life!

Cena shared, “It’s a story that everyone can relate to and that’s what makes those moments memorable and stick up here and that’s what makes movies quotable. Stories we can understand, stories we can relate to and a movie that has you laughing your ass off with a bunch of heart in it.”

The guys couldn’t stop laughing on set!

Zac explained, "We’ve got several comedians, they would stay in the character so well that off-camera was where most of the breaking went out.”

John added, “People just going for it in their character and not trying to be funny and that’s usually what breaks me is when something is just so genuine and so ridiculous at the same time.”