‘I’m a Golden Globe winning actor but my second job upsets film studios’

Paul Walter Hauser is a Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Award winning actor, but he lives a fascinating double life. Away from the bright lights of Hollywood and upcoming roles in the likes of Fantastic Four and The Naked Gun reboot, the Inside Out 2 and Black Bird actor is chasing his dream job as a professional wrestler. He’s embraced a brutal and hard hitting style for his WWE-esque matches, and Hauser, 38, exclusively told Metro that some studios aren’t quite so keen on his other job.

‘Some of them are a little weary of it and not very happy about it, and others haven’t really said anything they either don’t know or don’t care,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m always of the ilk of I’d rather ask forgiveness than permission.’. That doesn’t mean he’s reckless though, and Hauser – who will challenge for the MLW National Openweight Championship at Major League Wrestling’s TV tapings this weekend – books wrestling matches in between his filming schedule.

‘When I did this movie Balls Up with Mark Wahlberg for Amazon and Skydance, I couldn’t wrestle for three and a half months. So it was very, very tough to see all my buddies wrestling and know that I couldn’t do it,’ he said, reflecting on the lengthy Australia shoot. He’s still grateful, making ‘four movies back to back’ in 2024, but by the end of this weekend he’ll have already wrestled three matches this year, almost a third of his previous annual total of 10.

Hauser admitted taking breaks in between his matches can ‘suck’ because you feel the pain of falling in the ring more when you’re not getting regular reps, even when he’s performing ‘90% of his own stunts’. ‘It’s funny, Hollywood actors are very protected, and most people don’t do stunts. So anytime I do any form of stunt, everybody’s always impressed and shocked and like, “Whoa, you could have died,”‘ he chucked.

‘It’s like, “No, I’m fine. It’s not that big a deal”. It’s just they don’t know that last weekend I was being powerbombed through a table!’. Surprisingly, Hauser thinks the most painful moments he’s felt in the ring come in the form of ‘snug elbows or punches’ from other wrestlers. ‘I won’t say their names, but there are three different guys who have rung my bell pretty good to where I kind of saw stars, or I kind of checked my nose to see if it was bleeding,’ he said.

In a separate match, he faced ‘Death Machine’ Sami Callihan last April at the iconic 2300 Arena in Philadelphia in a wild brawl befitting of the home of ECW. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. He knew he wanted to have ‘an intense match’, and ended the bout covered in blood after ECW icon The Sandman came down to help him.

‘I had no idea he was going to show up until I got to the arena. So it was all very intense and very surprising,’ he laughed. ‘The match with Sami was pretty taxing. He gave me a pretty wicked chair shot. I bled all over the place. I went through a table,’ he recalled, noting that this shows wrestlers are treating him as a peer. They’re generally been more ‘welcoming’ than ‘standoffish’, as he added: ‘They’re also saying, “I’m not going to go easy on you because you’re a Hollywood actor”, and I appreciate that.’.

Still, Hauser wants to keep working with people ‘who are safe’, and who he can find ‘a mutual respect and communication’, while he also wants to work in a particular way. ‘I don’t like winging my matches. I like talking them out,’ he explained. ‘I’m new at this. I need a little hand holding, but it’s no different than if a wrestler was on a movie set.’. The Inside Out 2 and Cobra Kai actor has made waves in awards season in the past with a Golden Globe and Emmy for his work on Black Bird, but he’s admitted winning his first wrestling championship would mean more.

‘I’ve put so much effort into acting my entire life, hours and hours of work no one will ever see, reading books, going to workshops, watching interviews, making short films or videos, writing screenplays no one will ever read,’ he said. ‘That amount of what some people refer to as the 10,000 hours, which for me is probably closer to 30,000 – that makes it so that I expect to someday win or be nominated for an Emmy or a SAG Award.

‘Wrestling, I always wanted to win a title, but I never really thought I would be able to. So I think it would mean more if I got a title in a company like MLW. ‘It doesn’t mean I don’t care about the acting awards. It just means that wrestling – wrestling was my first love.’. Got a story?. If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.