Big and bad as he is, The Rock isn’t nearly as intimidating as one might think.
For six years The Rock roared his way successfully through the wide, wide world of wrestling, until a bit part in the mummified actioner The Mummy Returns (2001) ushered him into the wide, wide world of Hollywood. With top billing in its 2002 sequel, The Scorpion King, he was firmly established as moviedom’s brawniest new action hero who can throw the bad guys around like dishrags, but with a glint in his eye, an arched brow and sly smile, still let you know he gets the joke.
Meeting The Rock, whose real name is Dwayne Johnson, up close and personal is an experience fraught with trepidation. But the wrestler-turned-actor is more friendly honeybee than stinging Scorpion King, as he gives us the lowdown on his second major film, the action comedy The Rundown, which also stars Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson and Christopher Walken.
The Rundown on “Rundown”
The Rundown tells the story of The Rock‘s character Beck, a “retrieval expert” who will go in and get whatever his loan-sharking employer wants–money, property, a person. Beck is good at what he does but is tired of the life and wants out of the business. He agrees to do one last job in order to wipe the slate clean (always a big mistake) by traveling into the heart of the Amazon jungle to bring back his employer’s wayward, wisecracking son Travis (Scott). Of course, things don’t go as planned.
“The first thing that hit me about the The Rundown was the simple story,” he says. “I used to say, it should only take a certain amount of brainpower in order to follow the story. When I read Beck, I knew it would be an interesting character for me to play, that I could draw on some personal experiences of my own,” he adds. “Like having somewhat of a checkered past, from all the trouble I used to get into.”
As Beck gets in deeper than he wanted, he finds himself caught in a quest for a golden treasure lead by his quarry Travis as well as a rebel uprising lead by a beautiful local bartender (Dawson).
“The fight sequences were difficult, especially the rebel fight sequence. Those guys were amazing–and they were only this big,” he says, holding his hand up to his torso. “They look even smaller next to me, but man, they were quick.”
Fighting was the easy part. To play Rundown‘s contemporary hero, The Rock also had to step up the acting from his appropriately monosyllabic turn in The Scorpion King. “Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t get an Oscar nomination,” he quips. “With lines like ‘You go get woman or I take head!’ What could be more powerful than that?
“Having [Rundown‘s director] Peter Berg around was like having my own personal acting coach on set every day,” he continues. “Since he’s an actor himself, he had my best interests at heart. He’s a real guy’s guy and we became really great friends. I’m also especially proud of the work I did with [co-star] Christopher Walken.”
Walken plays Hatcher, a sadistic overlord who uses the Brazilian people as slaves to dig his goldmines and forces them to live in a slum called El Dorado. Hatcher doesn’t take too kindly to Beck messing up the good thing he’s got going.
Is Walken as eccentric off screen as he typically plays on it? “Chris is pretty much the same way he is on screen. He talks in that same rhythm and pitch. But a real sweetheart of a guy.”
The Rock does feel a responsibility to keep things lighthearted and gun-free (his character’s only weapons are his fists) for his legions of young fans who worshiped him as a wrestling god. “It’s something I’m conscious of,” he says. “But it’s difficult because I want to do R-rated movies as well. It’s a craft…with the exception of porn!”
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Wrestlemania
The Rock the actor knows he has a lot to learn about this craft, but benefited greatly from his time spent as The Rock the wrestler.
“Certainly physically, with a background in wrestling, I learned how to throw a punch, take a punch in the theatrics of wrestling. Really exaggerating falling or throwing somebody,” he says. “Having that platform for the last six years, of having to entertain every night, was great experience.
“I also always loved speaking on the microphones and delivering monologues live,” he adds. “Not knowing what I was really going to say and waiting to respond to fans, and of course, working in front of a camera. That helped me. I’ve always compared theater to wrestling. Wrestling was my theater. The arena was my theater, the ring was my stage.”
Then he explains, “For film acting everyone is always saying ‘Keep it real, man.’ and a lot of the times, it just becomes B.S. But what I learned is that even though you can interpret your lines in different ways, as long as you say them from here,” pointing to his heart, “from an instinctively, honest-to-god feeling, then it is real and cannot be wrong.”
Changing Spaces
So, is The Rock the next great American hero?
Getting the approval from one of the masters of action-heroism certainly helps cement The Rock‘s place in the pantheon of action-adventure stars. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator- turned-gubernatorial candidate, makes a cameo appearance in The Rundown to wish Beck good luck. It is almost a symbolic changing of the guard.
“Ironically, that’s what it’s turned out to be, but it never was intended to be set up that way,” The Rock admits. “It was as innocent as [Schwarzenegger] having lunch with me on the set and Peter asking if he wanted to make a cameo. Arnold was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. I’ll shoot it right now.’ We were on the set in five minutes.
“Peter asked Arnold what he wanted to say to me in the scene and he told him he wanted to tell me to just have fun. ‘Rock‘s going where I’ve been and I want to tell him to have a good time.’ I’ve seen the movie a few times and that moment still gets me. Means a lot.”
Would he want to follow Arnold’s footsteps into the political arena too?
“No way. I do wish him luck, though, ’cause he is a friend of mine. That’s a major commitment and sacrifice and once you make a decision like that, you prepare yourself to sacrifice much.”
One suspects, though, if the Rock ever did get into politics, he wouldn’t take all that mumbo jumbo too seriously.
