From director Peter Farrelly, when three childhood best friends pull a prank gone wrong, they invent the imaginary Ricky Stanicky to get them out of trouble. Twenty years after creating this ‘friend,’ Dean, JT, and Wes (Zac Efron, Andrew Santino, and Jermaine Fowler) still use the nonexistent Ricky as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet the fabled Mr. Stanicky, the guilty trio decide to hire washed-up actor and raunchy celebrity impersonator “Rock Hard” Rod (John Cena) to bring him to life. But when Rod takes his role of a lifetime too far, they begin to wish they’d never invented Ricky in the first place.
During the Ricky Stanicky press conference, Farrelly admitted he first noticed John Cena while watching Peacemaker. He recalls, he “was about two minutes into Peacemaker and I said, “That guy.” I could not believe how hilarious he was. I thought the way he committed to that character was a no-brainer. At that moment, I knew that he had to be him.
Showing his dedication to the character, Cena and his team even created an OnlyFans account under the username Ricky Stanicky to get more people talking about the film. The account bio hilarious states: “Welcome to the verified OnlyFans profile of Ricky Stanicky; celebrated impersonator, philanthropist, investment banker, socialite, cancer survivor, and method actor. Subscribe for exclusive spicy photos and videos.”
Creating the OnlyFans account was not only a unique promotional stunt for the film, but it also succeeded in capturing the internet’s attention, with fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) and elsewhere.
During the Ricky Stanicky press conference, the part-time wrestler thought the idea of Ricky Stanicky was clever. “I play someone who’s imaginary. Imagine that. I play somebody who’s invisible,” Cena said with a chuckle, referring to his WWE catchphrase, ‘You Can’t See Me.’ “I play the real version of an imaginary friend. We had just such a great group. [We spent every day] hanging out with [each other] and just making each other laugh and hopefully making you guys laugh. That was something that was really special.”
“For me, it was the concept of the whole thing. How do you make an imaginary friend real? And then you read it again and again. And man, I never want to tell the audience what to take away from the movie, but there’s so much there that you can take away from the script and just the journey of everybody. I think you discover something new every time.”
“Originally, I just wanted to know how they’d pull it off. And man, it’s so beautifully written and then as you see it develop, even every time I see it, I still take more stuff away. But that was the original thing that caught my eye.”
At the film’s premiere, Cena couldn’t contain his excitement about working with the cast and crew, praising everyone involved for creating an atmosphere brimming with laughter and light-heartedness. Featuring a cast that includes a plethora of comedians, the film is set will explore the unpredictable outcomes and consequences of the friends far-fetched fabrications.
“I’m very excited. The film’s funny and I hope everybody feels the same way, it was fantastic. Peter’s philosophy about comedy is that it should be fun and that carried over to the work. During filming, being surrounded by so many comedic talents, Cena took the opportunity to learn from them. He enjoyed, “getting to see William H. Macy lean into his performance. [I enjoyed] doing impressions, [and] just kicking around comedy bits with like Andrew Santino [and] Jermaine’s a comic. Jeff Ross was [also] there. We just had some really funny people. Peter’s fantastic [and we just wanted to] make people laugh. I just hope [people] have as much fun watching it as we did making it.”
Ricky Stanicky will release on Prime Video on March 7th. The R-rated film has a 108-minute runtime. Check out the John Cena interview in the video above and the Ricky Stanicky Press Conference in the video below.
