Hugh Jackman delivers angry compliments to John Cena’s face

TALK shows make for strange bedfellows (or couch-fellows) and with their respective films premiering within weeks of each other, it was only a matter of time before Hugh Jackman and John Cena ended up sharing adjacent cushions.

It happened on The Late Late Show With James Corden and magic followed soon after.

Corden started enthusing about Cena’s WWE exploits, including his ability to “reverse trash-talk,” which is to get very aggressive in your opponents’ face but say nothing bad.

The sight of Cena intensely pointing at an audience member and complimenting him on his vest with the cadence of a man about to rip your head off would have been reward enough. But then Cena decided to train Hugh Jackman in his reverse-trash-talking ways.

Jackman’s brand of celebrity is weird, because he oscillates from song-and-dance man to Wolverine and back constantly, so at times it seems like he should be the one teaching Cena about intensity. But not on this day. On this day, Jackman took the lessons that Cena shouted into his face and returned them back hugely amplified. The student indeed became the master.

This article was originally published on The Decider and is reproduced here with permission.