Steve Austin Talks About Acting vs. Pro Wrestling

Steve Austin recently spoke with Forbes.com to promote The Package being released. Here are some highlights:

How do you feel your pro wrestling career prepared you for Hollywood?

I don’t know if a pro wrestling career prepares you for Hollywood. When you get out there and you’re in an arena for 20,000 people or 90,000 people it’s a lot different than being on a quiet set with 100 people, so I think you get used to dealing with cameras. But there’s many things that are the same. There’s ten times the things that are different. So there’s a little bit of crossover, but not much to bottom line it.

How grueling is it working on an action movie like The Package compared to your WWE days?

Man, it’s a whole different animal because when you’re out there on the road, you’re a truck driver, you’re driving yourself to and from events, and then you’ve got to perform and then you got to put on your rock star hat and go do all the stuff that you do afterwards. So you’re kind of living three lives in one body. I got a lot of respect for people in the movie industry. There’s a lot of work that goes into preparing for the role, preparing for what you’ve got to do and being a pro and pulling it off to the upmost of your ability, so both are hand-in-hand as far as a bust-ass endeavor to do your best.

How do you go about picking which movies you want to be in nowadays?

I’m happy now that I can be pickier than I ever had been and the next two movies that we’re going to do with Anchor Bay, we’re going to produce these through Broken Skull Ranch Productions and I can have a lot more hands-on as far as the stuff that we’re looking at and we’re picking. I just look for stuff that I’d like to make. I don’t look to save the world with any of the movies that I make. I’m not trying to make any political statement with the movies I make. I’m trying to have a good time. I’m trying to entertain people.

The WWE 13 game actually celebrates the Attitude Era. What’s a favorite memory form back then that stands out to you?

I had so many of them it seems like every time I went to work on the Monday Night RAW, I was looking forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans I was going to be playing in the storyline. But just going to work every night and just being on the road and getting in the ring every night was probably the biggest fun of all. And hanging out with the guys and just living that life was my dream. And I had a good time doing it.

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