How The Rock Became Hollywood’s Biggest (And Best) Action Star
‘JUNGLE CRUISE’ IS IN CINEMAS JULY 29 AND ON DISNEY+ WITH PREMIER ACCESS JULY 30
He has the world’s fourth most-followed Instagram account. He is among Hollywood’s highest-paid actors. He famously eats seven meals a day. He was born Dwayne Douglas Johnson, but you probably know him as The Rock.
Today, The Rock is the in-demand star of everything from the Jumanji reboot to the Fast and Furious franchise. He’s such a big deal that there’s even a TV show, Young Rock, based on his early life. This year, he’ll add another feather to his cap with the release of Disney’s big-budget fantasy adventure film Jungle Cruise, which hits Australian cinemas and Disney+ Premier Access later this month.
But The Rock never actually set out to be a movie star. Acting wasn’t his first – or second – choice of career. He started as a college football player, before pivoting to professional wrestling.
So how did a Wrestlemania champ switch lanes to become the silver screen’s biggest action hero? Let’s find out.
The Wrestling Days
Before movies and before wrestling, there was football. The Rock went to university on a football scholarship, studying criminology and dreaming of one day working for the FBI or CIA. Instead, after graduating he played professionally with the Canadian Football League before injuries forced him out of the game.
So for his next move, Dwayne Johnson went into the family business: wrestling. Both his father and grandfather had been pro wrestlers and at 6’5 and 124 kilograms, Johnson definitely had a natural advantage. In 1996, he made his WWE (then called WWF) debut, eventually adopting the ring name of The Rock.
He spent almost a decade in the ring and won 17 championships, making him one of the most successful pro wrestlers in history. He wasn’t just good at body slamming the shit out of people, he was also funny and a born performer. Which explains what came next.
Meet The Scorpion King
By the turn of the century, the Rock had snagged a few small acting roles: he’d been in a Wyclef Jean video clip, he’d appeared on Star Trek: Voyager and That ‘70s Show, and he’d hosted Saturday Night Live.
But his real big break into acting came with the 2001 film The Mummy Returns, where he played the character of The Scorpion King. That led to a starring part in the spin-off movie called, you guessed it, The Scorpion King. For that role, The Rock snagged a $5.5 million paycheque and the Guinness World Records title for highest-paid actor in their first leading role.
But, more importantly, The Scorpion King also established The Rock as someone who had the potential to become an action star.
The Rock: Rebirth
But it wasn’t an immediate ascent to the top. After The Scorpion King, The Rock felt like his movie career was on shaky ground. He’d still been getting acting jobs, but they weren’t exactly blockbusters.
So he called a meeting with his agents where he told them things needed to change – he wanted to be Will Smith, only bigger and better. The response he got from the room wasn’t positive (“they looked at me like I had three heads,” he said). So The Rock did something that would change his Hollywood fate: he fired everybody on the spot and built a new team.
The Rock had been told in the past that to be a box office powerhouse, he had to lose some of the muscle he’d built during those years in the ring. “I bought into it,” he admitted to fans in a video last year.
But after he fired his old team, he decided to return to being his best beefcake self.
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“There’s incredible power in being yourself,” he said in that video. “After I hired those people, I also said I’m gonna go back to the gym and train the way I want to train. I’m going to embrace my past as a pro wrestler. That is who I am, that’s how I cut my teeth.”
It worked.
Certified Action Star (And More)
Not long after, The Rock landed the role that would usher in a new era in his career: Hobbs in Fast & Furious 5. That movie made USD$676 million worldwide and getting his foot in that wildly successful franchise shot The Rock onto the A-list.
As well as sticking around for the Fast & Furious sequels to come, he’s proved his action star chops in movies like the Jumanji reboot and earthquake movie San Andreas.
But he’s also branched out to prove he can do more than just shoot machine guns: he’s taken the lead in HBO’s small screen hit Ballers and brought the laughs in the comedy Central Intelligence. He lent his voice to Disney’s Moana and appeared in Taylor Swift’s ‘The Man’ video clip.
His classic role is, as Rolling Stone describes it, characters with “big biceps and bigger hearts”.
This year, he’ll add a new type of action movie to his resume with the release of Disney’s Jungle Cruise, in which he stars opposite Emily Blunt. Set in the early 20th century, it follows The Rock, playing steamboat captain “Skipper” Frank Wolff on a mission into the jungle to find the Tree of Life – fighting off wild animals, a competing expedition, and a dangerous tropical environment as he goes.
In a way, Jungle Cruise is the movie The Rock’s career has been leading up to. Taking to Instagram Live earlier this year, The Rock told fans about going to the cinema to see his first feature film and being mesmerised by the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean. “At that moment, I was like, ‘There’s my inspiration’ … One day, if I’m lucky enough, if I work my butt off enough, maybe Disney will offer me a movie based on one of their iconic rides.”
Now, with the movie coming out this month, he’s telling us to “Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime.” We can’t think of anyone better suited to the role.
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Don’t miss Disney’s Jungle Cruise in cinemas July 29 and on Disney+ with Premier Access July 30. Find out more at junglecruise.com.au
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Images courtesy of Disney