In a recent interview with Ryan Satin as part of the Out Of Character podcast, Sami Zayn discussed several topics, including the possibility of taking on acting roles.

“It’s something that I’m very interested in, and the more I got to flex those chops a little bit with that Bloodline storyline, because of the level of depth and the range of emotions, I got really bit by the bug, I was like oh man, this feels great, I live it. I love wrestling stuff where I can really act more, I’d love to act, it kind of opened my door a little bit, it’s definitely something that I’m interested in, how interested I am and how far I pursue it I don’t know, but it’s definitely something I’m interested in.

I’ve explored that a little bit, I can tell you a funny anecdote real quick though, I talked to an agent recently, but the agent didn’t really know my body of work, it’s not someone that saw me and was like hey, you’re really good, are you interested in this, it was somebody I knew put me in touch with somebody and I don’t know, maybe they were talking to me as a favor, I really don’t know, but I had this conversation with an agent, but it was really interesting because you know, I’ve kind of somehow reached the top of this industry, and you kind of take that as a given in a weird way, you kind of forget all the hurdles along the way when you’re here, because you’ve kind of made it and you’re accepted, but as I’m having this meeting with this agent, I didn’t treat it like a job interview, which maybe I should’ve, I was really just talking to him like I’m talking to you, and he’s like, so you have acting experience or anything like that, and instead of saying well I’ve been wrestling for 20 years, every component of it has something to do with acting and body language and physical mannerisms and storytelling, so the manner I’m speaking in, I’ve been acting for 20 years.

Now, that would’ve been a great answer, instead I said nope, so then he was just like, okay I kind of see what I’m dealing with, let’s reconvene another time, or whatever and I was like, oh yeah sure and I hang up the phone and I go, God what is this, that didn’t go very well, what is this feeling I’m feeling, I go oh my God, rejection, I haven’t felt rejected in so long because I’m married, so I’m not getting rejected by women you know, and I’m successful in my industry, so I’m not getting rejected in terms of like, no you’re not good enough in wrestling, but now it’s like, when you venture outside of your comfort zone and try to tackle this whole new medium, there’s new gatekeepers that you’ve got to prove yourself to and all this thing, it’s like it was just a real interesting experience, I don’t know, it was really funny.

It hasn’t discouraged me, what I mean is I just don’t know my level of investment or genuine interest, or what my motives actually are if I’m being totally honest, if I’m genuinely just interested in pursuing the craft then it doesn’t need to be for a Hollywood movie, I could do local theater, I could do, that’s almost more intriguing to me in some way, genuinely learning the craft, but is that really what I’m interested in or is it an egotistical component that like, well I’d like to leverage this popularity with WWE, I’d like to do shows that I’m a fan of, or work with people that I’m a fan of and it’s all in a bigger sphere, so I need to kind of sort out what’s really at the bottom of some of this interest.”

The full interview is available at this link.