Paul Heyman Explains The Lengths He Went To In Emotional WWE Segment
Paul Heyman claims he’s “not that good of an actor” and took special measures to deliver an emotional 2018 performance.
Back in July of 2018, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman were firmly in an alliance leading up to Lesnar’s SummerSlam bout with Roman Reigns. Their partnership seemed to be in danger, however, when Lesnar choked Heyman on the July 30th episode. The next week, a distraught Heyman appeared in a backstage interview segment, appearing to be at the end of his rope if Lesnar decided to end their arrangement.
The dissension was eventually revealed to be a ruse, but Heyman’s emotion in the interview makes this segment rank among his best promo work in the company.
Speaking to Paul Rubin on the latest episode of Tetragrammation, Paul Heyman recalled his emotional interview segment with Renee Paquette, then known as Renee Young in WWE.
“I’m not that good of an actor. I’m method. I’m method because that’s the crutch I lean on. I am not that in touch with my own emotions to summon them at will. I need something to take me there.
“We did a thing a few years ago where Brock Lesnar turned on me and I’m begging Roman Reigns to take me in. I show up on TV to review this circumstance heading into WrestleMania with Renee Young, who’s tremendous to play off. Oh my God, the fact that she’s not broadcasting the seventh game of the Stanley Cup or any other sport, or Major League Soccer is a crime to their viewers. She’s great. Love working with her.”
“I’m tasked with taking the story forward that Heyman’s life has completely crumbled, that Brock Lesnar’s children who are as Howard Hughes reclusive as Brock Lesnar is, are actually friends with my kids, that our families are intertwined, that our lives are together, that we envisioned riding off into the sunset from this industry together, you know, the conqueror, this massive, freakish, once in a lifetime athlete and his Jew, and of course, my heart’s been ripped out.
“So I didn’t shave for a week. I did the classic 1970s Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, you know, story of I stayed up for like, I deprived myself of sleep several days walking in and stayed up the night before. I walked into TV and it looked like I was on a real bender. Renee could see me, but I didn’t want to go into the real shocker of it, so I had somebody sit in my chair for blocking purposes. I didn’t want to sit in the chair yet.”
Paul Heyman Called On The Emotion Of His Father’s Funeral
Continuing, Paul Heyman detailed the lengths he went to in order to convey the devastation of losing his relationship with Brock Lesnar, even wearing the suit he wore to his own father’s funeral.
“I brought with me a suit and it was the suit that I wore to my father’s funeral, and I had not worn the suit since. I asked them two minutes before we do this and I only want to do one take. Tell me and leave me alone. The production guy came in and he goes, ‘Two minutes’, and I went, ‘Okay, cool. Keep Renee distracted until we’re rolling and she says my name.’
“I put on the suit and it crushed me because all I could think about was my father’s funeral and how desperately I miss him and I loved him, and still love him. God, what I would give to spend five minutes just talking with him. I’m bawling, I’m weeping. I’m openly crying. I get into the chair and I keep my head down because if she happens to glance at my direction, I want this to be shocking to her. I want to capture that shock.
“Three, two, one. She says, ‘I’m here with’, and when she says my name, I look up at her and I make direct eye contact with her and she gasps and she catches herself gasping and you see her try to get through the lines, but you see she’s looking at me like, oh my God. He’s a wreck. All I had to do was just be upset and my story would be told. You’d get it from my demeanor and my tone and my tenor and my emotions. But her look sold it. Her look made it. Her reaction to my method is what did it. I’m not that good of an actor.”
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h/t WrestlingNews.co