Source: USA Today
By William Keck, USA TODAY
Can a WWE wrestler and a Nip/Tuck tart offer moviegoers a Total Recall to the glory years of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone?
The Marine’s John Cena, 29, and Kelly Carlson, 30, are ready to fill the void left by those former big-screen titans, co-starring as John and Kate Triton in the WWE-produced action adventure film opening Friday.
Like Schwarzenegger, who started out as a bodybuilding champ, Cena has a body that supersedes his acting résumé. He has wrestled with the WWE since 2002. Though he has yet to meet the Governator, he has received sage advice from wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who warned him about “the whole rocky road ahead.”
And following in the stilettos of Stone, who began her career with guest spots in TV series such as T.J. Hooker, Carlson is taking on her first starring role in a feature film after shocking audiences since ’03 as Nip/Tuck’s smut peddler turned Scientologist, Kimber. Carlson modeled Kimber’s new look after Stone’s “severe, sophisticated and sexy” Basic Instinct style. When she met Stone several years ago at a Rodeo Drive boutique, Carlson recalls Stone telling her, “Man, I love your hair,” to which Carlson replied, “I copied yours.”
But it takes more than well-coiffed hair and pumped-up pecs to become major movie stars. Schwarzenegger and Stone proved a winning team in 1990’s Total Recall. In the years following, he muscled, while she muffled, their box-office competitors. But today, Ah-nuld, 59, is governor of California, while Stone, 48, has appeared in a string of box-office bombs (Catwoman, Basic Instinct 2).
Entertainment Tonight’s Leonard Maltin believes the time is right for the next big action star and femme fatale to make a splash. “Every generation seems to have its iconic action star and sex symbol, and neither one of these needs necessarily be filled by an outstanding actor,” notes Maltin. “It’s the right role in the right movie at the right time that makes all the difference.”
Time — and ticket sales — will tell if Cena and Carlson have staying power.
