John Cena, Jessica Biel hail 'Matchbox' director Sam Hargrave for 'pushing the envelope'

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October 10, 2026 | 1:45pm

SUBIC, Philippines — John Cena and Jessica Biel heaped praise on their "Matchbox: The Movie" director Sam Hargrave, commending his background in stunts for helming the project.

The film, inspired by the Mattel toy cr line of the same name, sees John and Jessica as part of a group who bonded over Matchbox cars as kids, and years later are reunited in alarming circumstances when John's character is presumed to have stolen a nuclear weapon.

The two actors spoke with select members of global media, including Philstar.com, to share their experience working with Hargrave, best known for directing the "Extraction" films and serving as a stunt coordinator in some "Hunger Games" and Marvel movies.

Jessica, appearing in her first film in nearly a decade, admitted enjoying working with Hargrave whom she considers the project's big draw giben his experience and expertise in stunts.

"He likes to do things practically, which just really spoke to me and to most of us, I think. Very demanding experience, for sure... he demanded everything physically and also from a character standpoint," she said. "I think that was a really interesting element to Sam that I think I didn't expect and wasn't sure what to expect."

The actress was surprised by how the director cared about character developments as much as he did for stunt work, adding that she appreciated being challenged as an artist.

John took up most of the action in the film, and he quoted what Hargave said about "pushing the envelope" which is quantified by the height of a stunt, size of a crash or explosion, and the number of times a car flips.

"The surprise for me with Sam is he pushes the envelope in every metric, stuff that's difficult to quantify," he continued. "He wants to bring the most out of all of our characters. He wants to tell the story of friendship and relationship. He wants to keep the through line of the stakes."

The former wrestler added that Hargrave was very fluent in action that gets people talking, adding that the director "pushes the envelope" too for other metrics.

Physical storytelling

Jessica admitted to not having done a lot of comedy in her career, only dabbling here and there, hence calling it a vulnerable genre to play around yet something she wants to master.

"To be prepared to keep the stakes high and serious and also do all the action, find the comedic moments, work within the friend group where everyone gets an opportunity to have a heartfelt moment, a badass moment, a funny moment, a serious moment... Yeah, it's a wonderful challenge," she said.

The actress noted that John has done more comedies whereas she was stepping out of her comfort zone, though John pointed out pure comedy depends a lot on dialogue and sometimes dialogue doesn't travel.

"Comedies are fun, but a lot of times it doesn't reach the global audience because there's different jokes in Colombia than there are in India or the Dominican Republic. We all have our inside sense of humor," he continued.

As such, John commended the physical storytelling told by legends like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Jackie Chan, noting how the latter would always insert physical comedy to give everyone a laugh.

"Laughter is the best medicine. He does a great job of making sure he fights from underneath," John also said of Jackie. "He's not ashamed of being embarrassed on screen, of looking imperfect or flawed."

It is that physical nature of storytelling that allows people anywhere in the world to laugh because everyone understands physical behavior.

Where "Matchbox: The Movie" succeeds for John is using facial expressions to let audiences know what is going on.

"I don't want to take away the value of my lines, but you can watch it on mute and you could understand what's going on," John continued. "And the more involved you get with the sensory experience, if you want to jack up the volume and experience the total surround sound, it's also going to be great."

The former wrestler believes that the film would manage as a silent movie because viewers would still laugh upon watching it, reiterating how much passionate he is about comedy and physical storyteling.

"I think 'Matchbox' hits that line of where you're at the edge of your seat as an 18-wheeler jackknifes over a 300-foot bridge. There's a scene where I'm hanging off the bridge and you think I'm dead, and then we laugh at the end. It has nothing to do with words, it's all in facial expression. I think Sam did a really good job of it," John ended.

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