Vacation Friends, arriving on Hulu August 27, takes relationship comedy to the next level by throwing not one, but two couples into the mix. The hijinks are sure to be off the wall given the pedigree of its cast: Free Guy's Lil Rel Howery plays uptight Marcus and Insecure's Yvonne Orji plays his upstanding fiancée Emily, while The Suicide Squad's John Cena and Palm Springs' Meredith Hagner portray the wild child couple, Ron and Kyla.

The foursome meet while on vacation, as the title implies, and from there engage in all sorts of fun and crazy activities Marcus and Emily would never have expected. But when vacation ends, the soon-to-be-married duo is ready to move on with their so-called real lives and focus on more mundane problems like winning over Emily's family. Ron and Kyla, on the other hand, aren't quite so keen on letting their new friends go.

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Cena spoke with Screen Rant about his new role, sharing what he learned from the experience, and why he considers it a perfect blend of absurdist comedy and realism.

Screen Rant: I have been seeing you everywhere - F9, The Suicide Squad, and now Vacation Friends - and you've been killing it every time. I love how different all your characters are. As someone who is becoming a more prolific actor in these recent years, what did you take away or learn from Vacation Friends?

John Cena: Oh, what a masterclass in comedy. I was surrounded by successful stand-ups: Meredith is unreal, and she's so bright and witty and funny; Bach is amazing as a comedian; Clay [Tarver], the writer and director, has just got such a comedic background.

It's a chance for me to be around funny people at their best. And it's going back to the origins of the opportunity I got with Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer in Trainwreck, and then immediately after that with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Sisters. Just the ability to be around funny people, shut the eff up, and kind of let them do their thing. I learned a tremendous amount.

The chemistry between the whole cast is incredible, but I think the relationship that Ron and Kyla have is so sweet. Because you two are both just crazy, and I don't understand how you survive, yet they're so happy together. Can you talk about that dynamic and what you're bringing to the table there?

John Cena: Yeah, I think the dynamic between Ron and Kyla is wild and crazy, but there's a genuine sense of love. The two are unabashedly themselves. And a lot of times in relationships, we posture to show our best side and posture to win an argument or be right or want our way. I think what's beautiful about Ron and Kyla is they're just themselves, and they really do just kind of ride each other's vibe and just go where life takes them. But they're not afraid to show their love; they're not afraid to experience things, they trust each other.

There's an awesome bar hopping [scene] - and this isn't a spoiler - where Kyla is dancing and this dude comes up and dances with her. Rel's like, "Yo, you want to help?" And I'm like, "Her or him?" Then Kyla does what Kyla does, and hilarity ensues. I just think it's that trust. Where a lot of people would be worried in a situation like that Ron is like, "Nah, man. I know what I have, and I know what we share," and I think that that's really special.

John Cena in Vacation Friends

I love the bittersweet reveal of why you latch on to Marcus. But can you talk, without spoilers, about how and why Kyla and Ron immediately clock that couple and want to be friends with them?

John Cena: I think that's what's great about the movie. Or any movie that can define itself in the title, and you know what you're going to get. Vacation Friends: okay, I know kind of what I'm going to watch before I watch it. I think that's special. When you sit down, you want a certain environment and a certain atmosphere. And you get just that. The title unfolds in the action. Couples are on vacations, they cross paths - it's unlikely, but they do bond. Then it gets crazy, and the bond gets stronger. Then it gets weird, and no one knows what's supposed to happen after that awkward moment of, "Okay, we did some weird stuff. And we're gonna go our separate ways. Does that mean we go our separate ways? Does that we don't go our separate ways?" And then the movie continues after that.

I think those are moments that we've all experienced. Maybe not to the absurdity that the movie has, but I think we've always had those moments of like, "Whoa, I have a short-term close bond with this person, and now I'm leaving them. What happens now?" That's what I think audiences enjoy the most. It's the relatability of the subject matter.

Despite not having gone through many of those experiences, I did find it very relatable.

John Cena: You know what, I harken back to a movie like The Hangover. Most of us have been out there and had too much to drink. You know that feeling of waking up and going, "Ughhhh." But I'm not waking up in a penthouse in Vegas with a tiger in my room and Mike Tyson beating me up. That's what's great about comedy, to be able to take something relatable like Vacation Friends, and then take it to the extreme. And that's where we laugh.

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Vacation Friends drops August 27 on Hulu.

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