Adam Copeland Talks Juggling All Elite Wrestling While Working on ‘Percy Jackson’

It was a whirlwind couple of days for Adam Copeland. On March 15, the legendary pro wrestler, fellow grappler wife Beth and their kids attended the 3rd Annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards. The 51-year-old was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Preschool, Children’s or Young Teen Program for playing Ares in the Disney+ epic series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. 

Then March 19 during Dynamite on TBS, Copeland went from the red carpet to the bloody red ring where he challenged AEW Champion Jon Moxley. A match that saw “Cope” bludgeoned the back of his rival with a spiked back. One can’t say this WWE Hall Famer once known to fans as Edge doesn’t have range. 

Copeland has enjoyed being able to jump back-and-forth into both worlds of entertainment. We caught up with the star to reflect on the evolution of his acting career after 25 years and everything going on in AEW. 

First off, congratulations on getting that first Emmy nomination.

Adam Copeland: I never assumed I would be nominated for an Emmy. It wasn’t on my bingo card at all. When I got the news, my manager said, “Do you consider yourself an actor now that you’re nominated for an Emmy?” I said, “I guess. Maybe I have to now?” Beth of course was on speaker and said, “I told you!” To her credit, in 2011 when I started full-time acting because I retired from wrestling she said I would be the first pro wrestler nominated for an Emmy.

There were less congratulations and more, “I told you.” Then fast forward to the night and to have all three of my ladies there. It was really fun. It was one of those things you don’t expect, so you enjoy every aspect of it. To be nominated against Lance [Reddick], Amanda Lawrence and Eric Stonestreet. You tell someone you’re up against Cam from Modern Family, and yeah, I don’t have hope [of winning]. It was a great experience to rub elbows with that talent. I guess if anything it lets you know you’re going in the right direction. Percy itself, my gosh, it was nominated for 16 awards and took home eight. It’s a beast. It’s a big hit. I’m just stoked to be a small part of that. 

Jon Moxley and Adam Copeland (AEW/Ricky Havlik)

You have an important part of Percy Jackson as the god of war. What was the vibe on the Season 2 set? 

I think by the time we filmed Season 2, everyone knew exactly what we were dealing with now. In the first season, you think this will be a big show, but you don’t know. When it did what it did right out of the gate, I think it was not necessarily surprising, but we saw it was a hit. I think everyone had that in mind going into the second season, which I think puts a little pressure on everyone. Pressure is a good thing. 

How is juggling the acting projects and wrestling? I just think about how you’re doing these brutal matches like the one you did last week and how you broke your leg in the cage match last year. How does that factor into movie or TV projects? 

For whatever reason Disney was on board with me continuing wrestling while I filmed. For instance, in my scenes for Season 2, I still had my broken leg. It was my first day walking without my boot. I took off the boot and was like, “Yeah, I can walk. I’m good.” We got that in the can. I think my wrestling limits what I can actually attach myself to, and that’s fine, because wrestling from a work perspective is my top priority. The acting kind of fell in my lap and the type of storytelling I love almost as much as wrestling. I still want to continue to do it, but it will have to wrap around my wrestling commitments. 

Yourself and others on the roster went through travel hell to make Dynamite last week amid a blizzard. A lot of dedication there. Is being a part of that effort and what the company did to help the community in your home area of Asheville, North Carolina post-hurricane Milton reaffirm you made the right decision signing with the company? 

Absolutely. I’ve not regretted it for a single second. I’ve had fun. I’ve been able to get in with a completely different mixed bag of talent. Running the gamut all over the place. That’s a really fun place to navigate from because it’s entirely different types of  matches. I had a street fight with Brody King in Edmonton and two days later had a technical match in Vancouver against Kyle O’Reilly, and I was in heaven. That juxtaposition. It’s like going from the Emmys to suplexing Moxley on a spike. That was five days apart. It’s strange on the surface, but so much fun. To wear a suit and be all dolled up for the Emmys and then be suplexing a man on to nails during a blizzard in Omaha. That’s a fun life. 

There are deathmatch and hardcore fans, but others who aren’t. How is it trying to cater to those audiences while not turning off others? What  do you make of the polarizing reaction you’ve gotten for your match against Mox? 

I look at wrestling as a variety show. That means you bring a lot of different things to the table with that. There can be some comedy, straight up wrestling, hardcore matches. That has always been the case. It’s also not really out of the ballpark of what Moxley and I do every once in a while. Think about me and [Mick] Foley. I’m sure there are a lot of people that were disturbed by that too. There are also a lot of people who enjoy horror movies. There are people who enjoy romcoms. I think wrestling can bring that all to the table. I think that is what AEW does. I also feel like AEW is not afraid to take some risks. For a lack of a better analogy, we’re kind of a bit punk rock. It’s not always going to be pretty. It’s an alternative. It’s something different. I think if you look throughout the history of the company, it’s not something new. Darby Allin was falling off ladders and glass and thumbtacks. It has always been there to an extent. Let’s also face it. If you have two wrestlers coming out to wrestle a technical match every match, that can get pretty boring. 

What do you think it will take for AEW to get to that next level and take steps forward as they continue on after five plus years? 

I think what we’ve started to do now is really start to get back into our lane again. The lane that I watched a couple of years ago. I feel that it is coming back around again. The locker room is a great place to be. I think you get that blizzard, and we have the ragtag group here. The Bad News Bears have to put on a show for these people because the people that showed up want to have fun, and we should give that to them. They showed up, so we want to give them an extra special show because they did. I feel like that’s the mentality. We are the little engine that could and keep plugging along. I think eventually you’ll start to see people understand that again and give it a shot because everyone is busting their ass. Everyone is busting their ass in wrestling, don’t get me wrong. I just know the locker room goal is to put on the best show we can. 

HAVEN — “Spotlight” Episode 503 — Pictured: Adam Copeland as Dwight Hendrickson — (Photo by: Mike Tompkins/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

The effort has always been there. That’s one thing that has never been questioned when it comes to talent. When I see Marina Shafir in the ring going after you, it makes me as a fan want to see your wife Beth come out to take care of some business. Any chance we’ll see her down the line? Is there an open door for that? 

You never know. I don’t think she has completely closed the door on it if the situation fits. I think where we were at, I think getting Willow [Nightingale] involved was good. Someone who was already on our roster, and I feel is just such a natural babyface and has such good energy. I thought she would be really cool to implement her into the story. Why not use someone who was already on the roster? Beth is also pretty busy. She has a pretty busy life, so it becomes more a family issue and how do we pull it off if we’re both outgoing. 

This story with FTR seems to be taking an interesting turn on Wednesday. How do you describe the creative process and how your story ends up? 

I don’t factor in where I end up. I always say, “Where do you need me? You want me to go in this direction? Cool, I’ll start putting together some ideas.” It’s a collaborative effort, but I really enjoy that. I enjoy piecing together stories. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t come up with the finishes. I always just ask where do you need me? Point me in whatever direction you need me, and I’ll get to work. On coming back, it felt like, “Okay, you want me here because I’m coming back from an injury, I’m nominated for an Emmy and we want to capitalize on that buzz. Cool, let’s do this.” Then we would try to do a cohesive story with the Death Riders and try to get them some momentum going forward. 

It has been 25 years since your first notable acting gig, Highlander: Endgame. What did you take from that experience? 

I was so clueless. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was a kid who flew first-class for the first time to get over there. I was stuck on that. By the time I got there and now I’m doing this fight scene in a forest in Yugoslavia. Very surreal, but I can’t say I took a lot away from it. 

Years later you got to really dig into a character on Haven as Dwight Hendrickson. It has been 10 years since the show ended. That was the first time you got the billing of Adam Copeland rather than WWE superstar Edge, right? 

Yeah, that was when I started to work on my own. I’m proud of that fact. From Haven onward, anything I got, I got on my own due to auditioning. Not because it was a tie-in to a show or a tie-in for anything. I auditioned like everyone else and got it. Haven was like my boot camp and college. That’s where I really learned and had the takeaways because now I was doing it on a consistent basis and getting reps and learning things and layers and different types of storytelling too. I like to think I’ve taken that kind of storytelling from shows back with me to wrestling. 

For Vikings, that show ended around COVID time. Do you think that it ended abruptly or do you think the story played out the way it should have? 

I think it played out the way Michael Hirst wanted it too. Like with Haven, my character was supposed to be in and out. Before you know it, I’m 41 episodes deep on Haven and 20-something in on Vikings. I take pride in that. I think I was brought in where you never know what you’re going to get. Then if you’re in there 20 or so episodes in, you’re doing something right. Vikings for me was a massive challenge in terms of it’s a drama, it’s a period piece, you’re playing a historical figure. There are accents and all these different things. Initially, okay, I was hired to do some cool battle scenes, but I only think I had one. That I took as a compliment because it meant they trusted me to have the acting chops to pull off the scenes that didn’t involve physicality. 

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Will 'Percy Jackson' Season 3 Start Filming Before Season 2 Premieres? Everything We Know

Who would you say is a wrestling fan in Hollywood that would surprise people? 

You have the Rick Rubin’s of the world, but anyone who knows wrestling, knows that. Pee Wee Herman, my God, Paul Reubens would send me Christmas cards and birthday cards and Halloween cards every year. Fans are kind of everywhere. You can go down the gamut and at some point someone has done something, seen something or heard something that has to do with pro wrestling. 

We’re seeing Jeff Jarrett and John Cena’s retirement journey’s unfold. Sting had a nice sendoff last year in AEW. Does all this get you thinking of how you want your last chapter to play out? 

Not really, That will be more of where do you need me? I’d then sit down with Tony Khan and think about what he wants and what the company needs and what the show ends. That always supersedes to me what you have in mind for this retirement. I know I want to work the Swerve Strickland’s, Hangman Page’s, Jay White’s and the Kyle Fletcher’s and the Will Ospreay’s, Kenny Omega’s and the Samoa Joe’s. I haven’t worked with any of those people and would really like to do that before I hang them up. 

AEW Dynamite, Wednesdays, 8/7c, TBS

AEW Collision, Saturdays, 8/7c, TNT 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 Premiere, December 2025, Disney+