"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

Back in 2001, Mike Mizanin was a cast member of MTV’s original reality show The Real World with dreams of becoming a WWE wrestler known as “The Miz”. Little did people know at the time just how serious he would be about that.

He further parlayed his talent on camera and his ambition by winning a WWE contract on the fourth season of the promotion’s reality competition show Tough Enough. Soon enough, he rose up the ranks and became equally loved and hated by millions of fans as an arrogant, in-your-face, suit-wearing, self-proclaimed “Awesome One” and “Must-See Superstar In The WWE”, winning five Tag Team titles, two Intercontinental titles, two United States titles, and the biggest of all, the WWE title.

The WWE’s growth from a mere wrestling promotion to a multimedia empire has given The Miz the opportunity to even further hone his considerable skills on the microphone and in the ring into film, with roles in WWE-produced projects like The Marine 3: Homefront and the made-for-cable co-production Christmas Bounty, which aired on ABC Family.

We recently sat down with the 33 year-old entertainer. In contrast to The Miz, our impression of the man behind him, Mike Mizanin, struck us as an incredibly down-to-earth, enthusiastic, eager-to-thrill man of pure unbridled ambition and creativity getting to live out a childhood dream. We asked him if he ever believed back in his days on The Real World if he could have got anywhere near to realizing what he has now accomplished today.

“I would say very, very little,” Mizanin replies, “The weird part is I can’t believe it’s happened, and not only did it happen, but it happened on TV. Because I didn’t think I could ever become a WWE superstar ever in my entire life. When I was a kid growing up, I would put streamers on my arm and paint my face like The Ultimate Warrior, running around and annoying my mother, but I never thought that’s what

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

I’m going to be. And then, once I got to college, and saw that you could try out for The Real World, I was like, ‘Oh, man, I’m going to try out.’ And it was like, ‘No, you’re not going to make it. What’s going to stand you out from 40,000 people trying out.’ ‘Dude, I don’t know, but I’m going to make the show.’ And that’s where being on that show created the character of The Miz on that show. Everyone saw it happen organically.”

“And then, being The Miz and cutting promos on my roommates and just running around, holding the real World Championship belt that I bought for $20 at the local Halloween store, it was surreal,” he continues, “And then, it started evolving where I was like, you know what, I’ve always wanted to do this as a kid, but when you come from Parma, OH, you go to college. And then, after college, you go back to Parma, OH, you get a job, you get a family, and that’s what you do, that’s your life. But The Real World made me realize I could do anything I wanted. I was like, what do I want to do? I remember looking at myself in the mirror, coming back off The Real World, and on my shelf, there was an action figure of The Rock, and I was like, ‘I want to become a WWE superstar.’ Went on the Internet, went on Google, and was like where’s the closest independent wrestling school, found a wrestling school in Los Angeles, which was associated with WWE, which was where I wanted to live. So I moved to Los Angeles and started doing it from there, and you’ve seen it happen on TV. I did a bunch of challenges, kept talking about it, talking about it, talking about it, until it actually happened.”

We commented to him about how he seemed almost destined to end up in

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

the WWE.

“Yeah, The Secret,” Mike replies, “I’ve read it, I’ve watched the movie, and I actually believe in it, because I actually do put things out there in hopes that it will come back. I’ll try as hard as I possibly can, and if it doesn’t, you know what, at least I tried, and at least, I can not have any regrets about doing it.”

We asked Mike if his childhood self could have ever believed he’d actually achieve his dream of being just like the WWE wrestlers he loved watching in action so much as a child.

“I don’t think he would believe it,” The Miz says, “If I was a kid, looking up and going, this is what you are going to do. If I was a kid, I think the thing that I thought that I would be doing right now would be working at my dad’s Mr. Hero, which is where I started working. I flipped burgers and dropped fries for three years, and I thought I would own my own Mr. Hero like my dad, and that’s what I would be doing for the rest of my life, living in Parma, OH, but telling that kid, ‘Guess what, those guys on the television that you’re watching? Those heroes that you have? That guy with a bird on his shoulder, the guy with a snake in his sack, the guy running around with streamers on his arms, the guy telling you to eat your vitamins, you’re going to be one of those guys, I would not believe you at all. But it’s insane, and I always try to remember as a kid what I loved about the WWE superstars and what I wanted, so I always go like, OK, what did I like? I’m going to try to be that.”

We remarked that instead of flipping burgers for a living, he gets to flip people instead.

“Yeah, instead of flipping burgers, I flipped people,” Mizanin

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agrees, “By any means, take them down at all costs, and yeah, I eat them up.”

We asked Mizanin what was the coolest, most memorable moment of his career so far in the WWE.

“My favorite moment I ever had in the WWE in that ring would have to be standing in the ring at Wrestlemania XXVII in the main event in front of 70,000 in a sold out Georgia Dome, watching John Cena’s entrance,” Mike says, “I’m completely black, everyone’s watching Cena’s entrance, I’m in the ring with the title, I looked to my left, and there are ten of my best friends that I used to watch WWE, Wrestlemania, watching the main events with The Rock and [Stone Cold Steve] Austin, just about every year, and literally looking at them, they were in my living room, watching me, eating pizza and drinking pop, and I look at them going, ‘We did it.’ And all of them just go nuts, like, ‘Yeah, this is amazing.’ They were in the front row watching me with my title, like the title that we all watched as kids. It’s just you cant replace those kind of memories, and I love sharing things with my friends, the people that knew me before all this happened, and they’ve always been supportive no matter what.”

“And the best part is, they’ve been supportive, they don’t ask for anything,” he adds, “And I try to give them and give them and there’s just like, ‘Dude, we don’t want anything from you. We just want to hang out with you.’ I’m getting married in February and my buddies are all like, ‘What do you want to do for your bachelor party?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know. You guys figure it out.’ And one of my buddies is from L.A. and he’s like, ‘We’re going to do this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this,’ and all my buddies from Parma

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are like, ‘We can’t afford all this, man.’ And he’s like, ‘All I want to do is just hang out with you. I don’t know if I have to go. You’re going to be in Pittsburgh on Sunday in January. I’ll drive down there. We can drive back together and just talk and chill out, and maybe we can have a poker night where all the guys come over and just hang out.’ All they want to do is hang out with me, like that’s cool to me. Like my friends, that’s what they want to do, it’s not, ‘Dude, let’s go see if we can get into this club or can we go to this event?’ No, they just want to hang out in a basement and play cards and just talk.”

We asked Mike if he’s ever had his friends ask him to wear his title belts.

“Oh, man,” The Miz replies, “Let me tell you something. When I bring the title home, they are ecstatic. They all put it on, they all do the poses and everything. I have this thing called Mizfest every year. It’s the day before Thanksgiving where all my friends from Parma, OH, where basically, I buy a bus and it’s a school bus that fits about 60 people in it. And I get 60 of my closest friends and we go all over town. I’ve brought the title with me on Mizfest, I’ve brought the Intercontinental, the United States.”

“I feel like every title I’ve ever had has been with me on those runs and everyone always ends up wearing it, posing with it, and cutting promos, that’s the thing that everyone wants to do,” he continues, “It’s not like wrestling, they don’t want to wrestle, they’re like, ‘Dude! Dude! Give me the title and film this! Film this! (Speaks in Hulk Hogan voice) Let me tell you something, brother!’ It’s like, ‘Oh, my God, do not go into Hogan,

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come on!’”

The WWE’s film division was the springboard for Dwayne Johnson’s growth from mere WWE superstar The Rock to a full-fledged Hollywood action star. We asked The Miz if he hopes to achieve the same kind of legitimacy as an actor.

“I take everything and I try to make it the best I possibly can make it,” he replies, “And whenever WWE Studios came in and said, ‘Listen, would you like to do The Marine 3: Homefront?’ ‘Really? You want me to be the star in a movie? Uh, sure, let me get an acting coach, let me get all my skills that I’ve honed in the craft of acting. I’ve taken improv classes for WWE to get myself into that, and I’ve also taken acting classes ever since I’ve been in WWE, because with WWE, it’s theater. It’s a live performance that we do each and every week, so we’re trained for this, but we’re trained to perform for everyone in that arena. But when you’re doing acting for this little camera, it’s definitely a jump, but in movies, you get a couple of takes. In WWE, you only get one take and you better knock it out the park, and sometimes, you don’t even know what you’re doing, what’s happening, so you got to improv it. So with all those skills that I’ve learned from WWE and then, with the acting coach going through the process and learning. With The Marine 3: Homefront, I try to watch movies that I loved and look at the characters and why I love them, and then, try to bring it to the movies.”

“So with The Marine 3: Homefront, I was like, ‘OK, I love Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke,” Mizanin continues, “He was just so cool, laid-back, and chill, I was like, I want to bring that, and then, Dirty Harry, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Clint Eastwood, just a glint of his eye

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

and you’ll see like, wow, he’s saying something without doing anything, then that thing I want to bring as well. Along with Bruce Willis, always talking smack in Die Hard and just funny comedy, and took all those three characters and combined them and I was like, OK, I want to bring a little element of that and bring it into Jake Carter in The Marine 3: Homefront. Now for Christmas Bounty, Gil Junger is the director and he did 10 Things That I Hate About You, which I think is a classic. And with that, I watched 10 Things That I Hate About You, and I went, I love Heath Ledger’s character in it. I thought he just did an amazing job. I was like, that guy, he’s bad, he’s good, but you’re not sure where he’s coming from, he’s interesting. And so, I just took that character and it was like, alright, I’m going to bring that to Christmas Bounty, so there’s a little process for my character. With The Miz, I just basically look at The Miz as, ‘I know a guy like him and God, is he annoying, but I love being around him, because, there’s always something about him, I always wonder what he’s going to say next,’ so I bring that in there.”

We mentioned to Mizanin that his level of eagerness to get into film is in stark contrast to many actors who are more selective about the quality of the script and who will behind the camera directing you.

“Yeah, like ‘What’s the script like? Who’s directing it?’” he replies, “I’m sorry. Your first movie, you’re going, ‘Yeah! I don’t care if friggin’ Peter Pan is directing this thing. I’m ready to go, OK? I’m good to go!’ Luckily, I got Scott Wiper for my first one who basically took me in and guided me. I’ve had some great directors, man. WWE Studios really brings a whole cast around

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

me that are absolutely trained and incredible. Like with The Marine 3: Homefront, I got Neal McDonough after me. Are you kidding me? This guy’s been the villain in everything, and now I get to kill him. You kidding me? This is so wonderful. And then, Scott Wiper really took me in and said, ‘Watch these movies and watch just certain things,’ and literally went into detail on what to watch and he was so hands-on and it was so perfect for me to do, and really let me do things as well.”

“And then, Gil just took me in and we had a meeting and as soon as we met, it was like this right off the bat,” Mike continues, “And then, Francia [Raisa], who is coming from The Secret Life Of The American Teenager. She’s coming off a series, she was incredible to learn from, along with April Telek, she was amazing. Everyone on that cast for Christmas Bounty, I think you can actually see the bond that everyone had. When I did The Marine 3, I was the only one there. I was always by myself, out with a gun somewhere, having to beat someone up, and then, go into the next scene. With Christmas Bounty, we got to be an ensemble where everyone was with each other 12 hours a day. It wasn’t like we’d go back to our trailer. We would just sit there and watch everyone’s scenes and just laugh, and just have fun. We created a nice little family, and I think you can really see that in the chemistry with everyone in Christmas Bounty.”

We asked Mike to talk about his latest WWE film, which is the first production to be a film made for cable.

“Well, I play Mikey Muscles…because I’m jacked,” he explains, “He’s a bounty hunter and is the ex-boyfriend of Tory Bell, who is also a bounty hunter, but her whole family is made up of

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

bounty hunters. She’s my ex-girlfriend, she leaves New Jersey and goes to New York, she wants a new life. She wants out of the bounty hunting business, she wants to live a normal, average everyday life, she becomes a teacher, finds a new guy in Will Greenberg, who is amazing and funny. Every time I look at him, I just laugh, and it’s not because of his face, it’s because he’s just a funny guy.”

“He plays her new fiancée, her new boyfriend, and one of the bounties actually calls up and says, ‘Listen, I broke out of jail and I’m coming after you and your family,’” The Miz continues, “She has to come back to Jersey, the guy comes with her, I’m there, the ex-boyfriend. I’m still in love with her because she left without really saying goodbye. So I’m a hopeless romantic, but with a hard exterior, so it creates that love triangle, but it also has the action, has drama, has suspense, has everything. There’s just so much going on in the movie, there’s no slowing down, it’s just watching, ooh, ooh, oh, that’s funny, oh, here, there’s drama, just so much going on that you’re just entertained the entire time.”

We asked him to compare his character with Greenberg’s, if he’s a “Nicky No Muscles”.

“Well, Will’s character, I would say is kind of rich and is that Upper East Side Chuck-type character from Gossip Girl, I guess you could compare it to, a funnier Chuck from Gossip Girl,” Mizanin reveals, “By the way, why do I know that? Because Gossip Girl is one of my favorite series of all time, OK? I always have to say, ‘Listen, I watch it. Yeah, I’m a WWE superstar that watches Gossip Girl. I enjoyed it, too.’”

“So, yeah, he’s kind of like that Upper East Side family, a lot of money, and Tory doesn’t come from money,” he continues, “Tory is bounty hunting, has a crossbow next

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

to her, a Christmas tree kind of family, so it’s definitely an eye-opener for him, because she didn’t tell him or warn him about it, so it’s a screamer for him.”

We asked Mizanin if he gets to save both she and the fiancée.

“Do I?” Mike replies, “Uh, you have to watch Christmas Bounty and see. You get it exclusively at Walmart on DVD and Blu-Ray or you can get it on ITunes and those ITunes-esque type places.”

We commented that Mike has the perfect job plugging away his wares so seamlessly.

“Yeah, I know,” The Miz says, “Everything’s seamless. You plug everything WWE, sometimes when you’re like on commentary, because now I do commentary, because I’m a man of all worlds. I’m just the utility player, whatever they need, put Miz on it, he’ll do it and do a good job. Now you find places to plug in stuff, like where it’s seamless, and then you realize, I just did that plug and you have to call that out because that was a little too much.”

Knowing the WWE’s reputation for its larger-than-life characters and situations, we asked The Miz if there ever could be too much.

“No. I don’t think so,” he replies, “Vince [McMahon] will tell you, ‘Yes.’ Let me tell you something, I feel like almost every time I come back, (imitates McMahon’s voice) ‘Too much! You’re just so expressive!’ And I’m like, ‘I’m sorry.’”

“Even his wife or Scott will text me and just go, ‘You have such big eyes,’” Mizanin adds, “And I’m like, ‘Thanks.’ And he goes, ‘That’s not a bad thing, it’s just you’re very expressive, and sometimes, you’re just too much.’ And Vince is like (imitating his voice), ‘Too much! Just get it toned down and you’re perfect.’ ‘OK, perfect.’ He sounds like Babe, ‘Oh, what are you talking about?!’”

We asked Mizanin if he’s ever pulled anything back for the up to 60,000 or 70,000 who have ever watched him in actor

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

or you just wait until the eye actually came out of the socket.

“You’re playing for the guy all the way in the back in the cheap seats,” Mike says, “And so, yeah, you’re playing for that guy, but I think people love subtleties sometimes in WWE, you got to balance it. You just can’t be, ‘Hello!’ the entire time, otherwise people are going to just go, ‘Oh, my God.’ There’s no reaction, so you got to give yourself levels. That’s my acting jobs. That was probably Steve Anderson’s class back in 2005. He’ll like that plug.”

We asked Mike if it’s true that the WWE is basically a male soap opera.

“I’ll take it, but now it’s for women, children, young adults,” he says, “You look at WWE and it has something for everyone. You got to think about how much we actually put out there each week. You got three hours of Raw every Monday night on USA, you got two hours of Smackdown on Syfy every Friday, on Wednesday on Ion, you have an hour of Main Event. On Hulu Plus, you have NXT, on WWE.com, you got Superstars, there’s so many programs. We have a YouTube channel, we have so many portals, we have WWE Studios now, where you can watch that as well. There’s so many things going on in the WWE, there is something for everyone, the child, the young adult, the girl, the boy.”

“One of our favorite events that we do is Tribute To The Troops,” The Miz continues, “And sometimes, we’ll go overseas to see our troops and perform for them over there. When I was in Iraq, I remember going up doing an autograph signing for our troops, and one of the generals came up and said, ‘This is a picture of my son with you. You’ve met him before I did.’ ‘Wow, are you kidding me? That’s incredible,’ and he goes, ‘My older son, we were looking for

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

something we had in common, that we didn’t really have anything in common, but we found wrestling and now, we watch WWE together and we found something in common. And now it created a conversation, and now we talk every week about what’s going on in the WWE, and it creates a conversation. So the fact that I couldn’t talk to my son, had nothing in common with him, and now WWE has brought us together, so thank you.’ It’s wonderful to hear those kind of stories, and it’s even with mothers, you’ll see mothers with their sons and all they want is an autograph for their baby boy, because that’s all that little kid wants.’ And to see a smile on a mother and their child gives me such glee, because I remember when I was with my dad at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium watching the Cleveland Indians play. We would buy the cheap seats and run down the to the front row, because nobody was there, because it held 100,000 people. So we would go out to get autographs from the Indians. I remember as a little kid, some of the Indians just walking by. There’s always one guy, his name was Mark Lewis, he would always stop and sign autographs for me, and nobody probably knows who Mark Lewis is besides me. But I remember when he would stop and sign autographs. Cory Snyder would walk away, all these top guys would walk away, but he would sign autographs for me, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to be that guy. If I ever got to a level of doing something like that, I’m going to be that guy that signs the autographs for their kids,’ because I remember.”

We asked The Miz if he’s had a more difficult time sticking to his vow to being the celebrity that will always be accessible to fans.

“Yeah, it is,” Mizanin admits, “You find that

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

you get it, you understand why some people just walk away. Sometimes you have a bad day. You just lost a match. You just imagine baseball players, you lost a game, had a bad game, struck out four times. I had a bad match, got my butt whooped, I’m tired, I’m exhausted. And I just drove 300 miles to get this, and I have to drive 300 miles to the next town, and then, you’re getting on, people are just like, ‘Can I have an autograph?’ And then, you know, if you sign one autograph, a hundred people are going to be there, and you’re going to be there for two hours, by the way, you still have a three-hour drive. And you have to get up the next morning to do media at 6:00AM, so it’s one of those balances when you have to try to get as much as possible, you try to touch as many lives as you can.”

“But I get and I understand now as an adult why some players would walk away and not sign, but I try to make that effort at all costs,” he continues, “I really do. I still remember when a Browns player came to John Lin Elementary School and I wore shoes that I thought looked cool and thought that the Browns player would be like, ‘Man, your shoes are really cool. You’re going to be an NFL player someday, huh?’ That’s the mind of a kid. I remember this going there. I shook the guy’s hand. I didn’t wash my hand for an entire week. I would play football, going, since he shook my hand, I should be able to catch the ball better in the shoes that I thought were so cool, that would make me an NFL star. I mean, these are the things that would go on in my mind and I remember those, and it’s like how do I remember?

"Merry Miz-mas Everyone!"

I was like ten! I think my outfit was the coolest outfit I had, so you’re like, ‘Man, this kid’s going to be something.’ It’s like, ‘What are you doing? You’re 3’11″, good job.’”

We asked Mizanin when we expect people to catch Christmas Bounty.

“It’s out right now,” Mike reveals, “It was on ABC Family, huge hit for ABC Family, and it kicked off the 25 Days Of Christmas, which I absolutely adore. I was just watching it last night, I saw Christmas Vacation, my all-time favorite. You would think A Christmas Story would be my favorite, since I’m from Cleveland, but no, Christmas Vacation is my favorite, cousin Eddie is the best. And so, I was watching 25 Days Of Christmas and it’s such a cool element that ABC Family did. And it’s such an honor to be the lead-in to all that 25 Days Of Christmas.”

“It did a great job on that channel, and now it’s out exclusively at Walmart on DVD and Blu-Ray and get it on ITunes,” he adds, “Definitely get it, I think it’s going to be a fun family tradition for everyone, it has something for everyone. It’s not just for kids, adults, moms, dads, it’s for everyone. Sit down with your family, get the popcorn out, have a little egg nog if you will, have the tree glistening, have the fire going, and just sit down with the family and just watch this movie and enjoy it. And I guarantee you, you will walk away with a smile on your face, and everyone in your family will have a better holiday.”