The new biopic, ‘Fighting With My Family,’ releases nationwide on Friday. Promotion for the movie has featured on WWE programming for the past few weeks.

Sitting down with Kayla Braxton for WWE, Zelina Vega spoke about her role in the movie. She also recalled the audition process that she encountered.

Vega discussed the connection she had with AJ Lee’s character. She credited their mutual love of video games and nerd culture.

“Well, I play AJ Lee, the Divas Champion, and it was something that I really found a connection with her because we both were into video games, we’re both a little bit of, y’know, some nerds,” she said.

“So, it was really easy to just really submerge myself into her, and become her for that moment.”

Insofar as auditioning for the role, it turns out Vega was able to bypass this step. She explained that she has known Dwayne Johnson for 5 years and, whilst struggling, she reached out to him. His response was an offer of the role of AJ Lee.

“Well actually, I’ve known Dwayne Johnson for around 5 years now, and I was going through a period of time where I was trying to get to WWE and it was…it wasn’t easy. It took me around 8 years to get here,” she explained.

“But at a time where I was struggling to become a WWE Superstar and struggling to become an actress, I texted him one day and I was like, ‘I’m at the end of my rope here, what do you suggest I do? Please give me some guidance,'” she confessed.

“He’s like, ‘Actually I’ve been working on something for the past few days now, give me a little bit and I’ll call you.’ And I was like, ‘OK’ and I didn’t think anything of it. And he called me and he said, ‘So I have this project that we’re working and it’s based on this documentary on Paige, and her family, and her life in wrestling and I would love for you to be involved.

So I was like, ‘OK, sweet.’ I’ll probably just get a little scene in the background and that’d be great.’ And he said, ‘No, I want you to be champion. I want you to be my Divas Champion, and you don’t even have to audition for the role, it’s yours. I know you can do it.’ Of course, the waterworks and all that came afterwards, but it was pretty incredible because he’s somebody that’s believed in me from the start.”