John Cena on Being Dua Lipa’s ‘Emotional Support’ on Argylle: ‘She Was Vulnerable Enough to Admit She Was Nervous’

The spy comedy, which was filmed before ‘Barbie,’ marks Lipa’s first major big-screen role

John Cena and Dua Lipa.   PHOTO:

Dua Lipa has a forever friend in John Cena!

After the singer told Rolling Stone that she considers him her “emotional support actor,” Cena opened up to PEOPLE about how the two bonded while filming Argylle at the film’s world premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on Wednesday.

“My takeaway from that comment, which I’m very grateful for, is we shot this before Barbie, so this was her first chance to be on-screen. She was vulnerable enough to admit she was nervous,” he tells PEOPLE.

Lagrange (Dua Lipa) and Wyatt (John Cena) in “Argylle”.

“Meanwhile, I’m in front of Dua Lipa, Matthew Vaughn, and Henry Cavill, and I’m going, ‘You’re not alone! I’m nervous as well.’ So we began to share that,” Cena continues. “We’re both touring live performers, so we had some conversations about that and life on the road, and it just kind of spawned from there.”

The Peacemaker actor tells PEOPLE he enjoyed “those moments” with the British singer-songwriter and is “glad she did too.”

In Barbie, the singer played a mermaid-inspired Barbie doll, and Cena played a merman. Of his interest in appearing in the film, he shared that he was “blown away with the concept” during a behind-the-scenes featurette shared by Warner Bros. in July.

John Cena and Dua Lipa in “Barbie”.

“I think it’s gonna be a movie that all audiences enjoy. I think it’s gonna be a movie that evokes conversation. And I think it’s going to be beautifully visually appealing,” he said. “And the ideas behind it, I think the audience will walk away with, like, a mixed bag of opinions, which I think is the greatest form of entertainment.”

After director Greta Gerwig and lead actress Margot Robbie failed to get Oscar nominations in the Best Director and Best Actress categories, he called their work “one hell of an achievement.”

“I try to operate under the construct that, ‘What can I control?’ And I can’t switch anything that’s happened,” he told PEOPLE on the red carpet.

John Cena and wife Shay Shariatzadeh at “Argylle” premiere.

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“I can let my friend Margot and I can certainly let Greta know that awards aren’t the only metric to success, and they have made a movie that has done tremendous business and changed a lot of lives in the process. And I think that’s one hell of an achievement,” he continued.

Barbie earned eight Academy Award nominations this year, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, for Gerwig’s work with her husband, Noah Baumbach. Robbie was nominated for Best Picture as one of the film’s producers.